Internet Access

Since being diagnosed as a manic depressive, Mike Zachary has had to forfeit his job as a computer technician and now lives on disability income of $1,125 per month. A car has become a luxury he can no longer afford, so it is difficult for him to get around. But with his low-cost connection to the Los Angeles Free-Net, Zachary has tapped into computers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to learn more about the genes that cause him to swing between manic and depressive behavior.

About half of California's low-income households have no Internet access, the California Emerging Technology Fund says, creating a gap that the nonprofit is hoping to close with its $1.5-million Get Connected campaign debuting in Boyle Heights today. Financial constraints and a misunderstanding of technology are the major factors causing this "digital divide," said Sunne Wright McPeak, the fund's chief executive.

A Los Angeles man is suing Microsoft Corp. and Best Buy Co., saying the companies fraudulently charged Best Buy customers for MSN Internet access accounts they never signed up for. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks to be certified as a class-action complaint. The plaintiff, Samuel Kim, says that he made a purchase at a Best Buy electronics store in February.

After months of customer complaints about poor service, undelivered e-mail and incessant billing problems, Microsoft Corp. executives have begun discussing whether the company should get out of the Internet service provider business, company sources say. Microsoft denies it has plans to drop its Microsoft Network business "at this time." However, Jeff Sanders, marketing manager for MSN, admits he "can't guarantee" whether Microsoft will be in the Internet access business for the long term.

Fear about future tax revenue shortfalls at the state and local levels helped derail a congressional push Tuesday for a permanent federal ban on Internet access taxes. Instead, a nearly unanimous House voted for a more modest four-year moratorium. With the current moratorium set to expire at the end of the month, the House voted 405 to 2 to extend the politically popular exemption until 2011.

A chicken in every pot. A car in every garage. A computer in every room. Could it be the new American dream? Marin County, home of hot tubs, peacock feathers and New Age lifestyles, is ahead of the curve once again, introducing a 150-house subdivision that can be wired for the latest technology. The Jetsons have landed in Corte Madera at the Madera del Presidio residential development. The subdivision offers three model homes that could propel buyers well into the 21st Century.

Canadian phone giant Nortel Networks has agreed to use Broadcom Corp.'s chips to send high-speed Internet, phone and video services over traditional copper phone lines, the companies are expected to announce today. The deal will help Irvine-based Broadcom straddle the fence between telephone carriers and its traditional customer base: cable companies and set-top box makers.

All I wanted was to go fast. Others have more worthy aspirations. Telecommuting. Home education. Videoconferencing. Entrepreneurialism in the evenings. Me, I yearned to speed-surf. I knew it would be a bit pricey, and a pain to set up, but that was OK. If I got ISDN, I'd be on the cutting edge. I'd be digitally connected. The Net would sense my needs and respond as fast as I could will it. I'd be wired. True bliss.

The Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded Atari Corp. and created the Chuck E. Cheese restaurants wants to put high-tech jukeboxes and video games linked to the Internet in bars, hotels and other public places--and eventually make billions of dollars. "Do you think 'Bubba' can surf the Net? I do," Nolan Bushnell said at a recent news briefing at his home here, about 30 miles south of San Francisco.

If you have small children, a full-time job and an interest in keeping up fashionable appearances - prepare for some bad news: The era of sneaking in some online shopping at work may be coming to an end. A recent survey by Robert Half Technology, a company that helps businesses find information technology professionals, found that 60% of more than 1,400 chief information officers interviewed said their companies block access to online shopping...