Monitor Picks

An automatic sports score alert, The New York Times crossword puzzle comes to Nintendo, and a book that will stick with you for life.

Nobody's Vault but mine

For music lovers, the contents of Wolfgang's Vault are more valuable than that of Fort Knox. Over 400 concert recordings from the archives of concert promoter Bill Graham are available for free listening. Heavy on classic rock – Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, U2, and Jimi Hendrix – there's also punk (The Clash) and new wave (Duran Duran). Visit www.WolfgangsVault.com.

Run for the remote

No sports fan wants to hear from friends that the snoozer he turned off turned into an instant classic – a pitching duel or a double-OT with a buzzer-beater. Register at www.areyouwatchingthis.com and the site's "RUWTbot" will send you free texts or e-mails (number-coded for excitement level) when a game on your TV set heats up.

A worthy enterprise

Now that Starfleet's five most famous captains are no longer exploring the final frontier – or fretting over the seemingly daily failure of their ships' warp drives – they've got plenty of reminiscing to do on Captain's Log, a three-disc set that will appeal to both the casual and hard-core Star Trek fans. Each actor also introduces hand-picked favorite episodes, 16 in all.

Nintendo gets wordy

Farewell to those smudgy, ripped newspapers! The pros may do The New York Times crossword puzzle in ink, but now the rest of us can finally come clean. Nintendo has put 1,000 of the paper's best puzzles on the DS portable handheld device. Now only you know how many times you had to erase your best guesses.

Stick with these guys

Heard the one about razor blades hidden in Halloween candy apples? Never happened. It's one of many urban myths long accepted as fact. In the entertaining Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath explain why some ideas persist and others flounder. Then they set out six key qualities to sell your idea, whether it's a marketing plan or values you'd like to impart to children.