The Left Lane
'Hello HiTech'

That's the story with "Hello HiTech," a radio show premiering at 8 tonight on KCCN (1420 AM). Alan Lam, president of the consulting firm Q-Communications, and David Kobashigawa, who produces the Pacific/Hawaii Computer Expo shows, will be hosts. (These are the same guys who are presenting "Plain Talk" technology seminars at the Blaisdell Center.)

The live broadcast will air at 8 p.m. every Wednesday, with a rebroadcast at 7 p.m. Sundays. Lam said "Hello HiTech" was born after a guest spot on another KCCN show drew call-in questions about technology. Coming shows will cover protecting against online viruses and buying a business computer. The topic for tonight's opening show is how to manage e-mail.

Mel Gibson is sought for two leading roles.

Only weeks after Congress exonerated Capt. Charles Butler McVay III of all guilt in the 1945 sinking of the USS Indianapolis, Variety has reported that Mel Gibson has been in early talks to play the skipper in Warner Bros.' "The Captain and the Shark," for "Rainman" director Barry Levinson. In addition, Variety reported that Universal Pictures has been planning a competing project called "The Good Sailor," also courting Gibson for the lead role of Charles McVay.

"Captain" will document the top-secret and ultimately ill-fated Indianapolis mission to transport components of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. After completing delivery of its cargo, the ship was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in the South Pacific.

The Navy — unable to explain to the angry families of more than 800 dead sailors why it ignored the Indianapolis' distress signals and lost track of the ship — charged McVay with failing to steer a zigzag pattern to evade torpedo fire. McVay chose not to defend himself despite evidence from survivors that he was not at fault. He committed suicide in 1968 at age 70.

McVay's son Kimo McVay, the late Island entertainment impresario and manager, worked for 55 years to clear his father's name. Kimo McVay died on June 29, before the elder McVay was officially cleared.