CD-Rom -- ''The Way Things Work,'' Version 2.0

"The Way Things Work," Version 2.0 DK Multimedia (800) 356-6575 Windows, Macintosh $39

My inventions come in the middle of the night, as most should. There was this gadget that would sit on bathroom counters everywhere, cleaning bacteria from toothbrushes because few people change them as often as they should. My dentist nixed the idea, saying that no one wants the taste of chemical-cleaning agents in their mouth, and heat would melt the brush. Then, there was the self-cleaning refrigerator - a mother's dream, a scientist's nightmare. OK. I actually thought of using credit cards at gas pumps way before it happened.

But if I'm not clever or fast enough to make inventions happen, it's nice to know that millions have come before me who have turned their ideas into machines, or parts of machines. So it is with this introduction that I share my latest piece of CD-ROM ware: "The Way Things Work 2.0."

Based on the best-selling book by David Macaulay, this clever program shows how more than 200 machines work, the scientific principles behind them and the inventors who made them happen.

The hundreds of animations make science come alive - from watching how a spray can works to the workings of a light bulb, supermarket scanner and bathroom scale - children and adults will love learning how and why gadgets work. It's a fabulous $39 science class, and much more fun.

This package also comes with an Internet connection to DK

Multimedia's Mammoth.net, a science club in cyberspace that features an Inventor's Club page where kids can download project ideas and inventor contests that are judged by Macaulay himself. The Mammoth mailbox allows inventor wannabes like me (well, probably my kids) to ask questions and exchange e-mail with other young inventors from around the world. There are also jokes, graphics, stationery and desktop wallpaper for downloading. This is a private club, only for those who own the software, the company says.

This mix of CD-ROM and Internet is the future: People can share what they've only dreamed about in their heads.

What better way to learn the principles of science - from friction to electromagnetism - than with wonderful graphics and real people explaining how things work? Macaulay plays himself on the program, although in my version his voice was often choppy, and even the detailed troubleshooting did not address this problem.

It was the only fault I had with the program, and it's probably easily corrected. All the other sounds worked perfectly, including a nifty series of sound clips, from toilets to submarines.

If you want to get your child hooked on science, and also introduce him or her to the Internet, this is the program.