Internet Computer Network

California regulators on Thursday ordered five unlicensed online escrow companies to stop selling their services in the state. The state Department of Corporations has been actively pursuing unlicensed personal property escrow sites, some of which steal the identities of licensed escrow companies and defraud customers. Since May, the agency has issued 38 cease-and-desist orders, including Thursday's.

Financial losses attributed to computer crime in the United States probably doubled to $10 billion in the last year, in part because of the surging popularity of the Internet, according to the Computer Security Institute.

In her flowing crimson cape, thigh-high leather boots and metal-studded red leather bustier, Cardinal is a bow-and-arrow-toting femme fatale. But not only is Cardinal not real--she's a character in the popular computer game "Ultima Online"--she's not really female. Cardinal is the alter-ego of Kenn Gold, a 33-year-old former Army sergeant with thorny green-and-black tattoos covering both of his muscular arms.

Peering down from an airplane last spring, Ze Frank decided to turn the Earth into a sandwich. After he landed, the comedian, who was making Internet videos years before YouTube existed, challenged his audience to place two pieces of bread at exactly opposite ends of the globe. They did, and he posted videos and photos of their exploits on his website, www.zefrank.com. "The Show With Ze Frank" was a yearlong online experiment in interactive entertainment that was to end Saturday.

No wonder YouTube is so popular. All the effort to boost children's self-esteem may have backfired and produced a generation of college students who are more narcissistic than their Gen X predecessors, according to a new study led by a San Diego State University psychologist. And the Internet, with all its MySpace and YouTube braggadocio, is letting that self-regard blossom even more, said the analysis, titled "Egos Inflating Over Time."

A former Microsoft executive and the founder of Lotus Development Corp. have teamed up to launch a company devoted to delivering audio over the Internet computer network. Progressive Networks, based in Seattle, will introduce its first product line, RealAudio, at the Internet World conference today in San Jose, Calif. It will enable personal computer users with no more than a standard sound card and telephone line to access audio on the network and play it in real time.

A booming stock market and newly created Internet wealth has expanded the world's billionaires club and pushed the collective net worth of the richest 200 working people beyond $1 trillion, Forbes magazine says in its latest ranking of billionaires around the globe. Just as the Internet has sped the pace of life today, hastening everything from stock trading to travel planning, it also has accelerated the creation of wealth--particularly among the richest individuals.

The founder and TV pitchman for mortgage lending leader Ditech.com in Costa Mesa abruptly resigned Monday after three of his top managers were indicted for allegedly trying to extort kickbacks from a Pittsburgh real estate services firm. J. Paul Reddam, 44, a former philosophy teacher who stars in Ditech.com's ubiquitous television commercials, has not been charged with any wrongdoing. A spokesman for the company, a unit of General Motors Corp.