For free, advertising-supported access to the Internet, check out Netzero, FreeI.net , and AltaVista Free Access . [Grantseeker Tips, 17Jan00.] (Also Freewwweb, dotNow, webCOMBO, Tritium, Worldspy, and others. .)

Yahoo Inc. has purchased eGroups (which brings you this edition of the Computists' Weekly). No change in eGroups operation is expected. The service hosts 800K active email groups with 17M members. Yahoo -- with 145M users per month -- will combine eGroups with its Mail, Clubs, and Messenger services, and with its new corporate service for creating custom in-house portals. [Kristi Heim, SJM, 29Jun00, 1C.]

There are now about as many mothers as fathers on the net, and as many girls as boys. 70% of US teenagers regularly surf the Internet, and 44M children ages 2-17 are expected to be online by 2005. . [NewsScan, 08Jun00.]

Ferris Research estimates that employees waste an average of 115 hours per year dealing with nonproductive email, costing about $4K per worker. However, email saves workers 326 hours (or $13K) in time spent printing letters, addressing envelopes, affixing postage, using fax machines, etc. [IBD, 25May00. NewsScan.]

Workers surveyed by Rutgers and UConnecticut spent 23% of working hours on the Internet, and 35% on all computer activities. [Washington Post, 17Feb00. Edupage.]

Although most students spend only 1.2 hours per day on nonacademic Internet use, 10% of the students in a recent RPI study averaged 3.8 hours. These "addicts" -- mostly male CS majors -- sometimes experience faltering grades, decreased class attendance, sleep deprivation, and social isolation. (The in-class survey may even have missed heavy users who were skipping class.) [Chronicle of Higher Ed. Online, 05Jun00. Edupage.]

----- "The Internet is the greatest time waster of all time... I don't believe the Internet is going to change human nature in the slightest." -- Tom Wolfe, Business 2.0. -----