In This Week's Report:
***Everybody Jango!
***Tamagotchi Fever
***Finally, a good ISP!

URLs in this issue:
Jango: http://www.jango.com
Tamagotchi Fever: http://www.concentric.net/~maido/tamagotchi/
Mindspring: http://www.mindspring.com

***Everybody Jango! ***
You've probably heard the promise of shopping over the Internet as an end to traffic-y malls with swarms of people, giving you purchasing power from the comfort of your own home with just a few clicks. The only problem is that you inevitably spend the same amount of time surfing the Net on a quest to find something as you would running down to the mall. This week, I discovered Jango, a new intelligent shopping agent that will help you find what you're looking for easily. Download the Jango program (PC only), tell it what you're looking for, and Jango does all the work. Jango really flexes its muscle when it gives you its results - with a quick click you can compare prices, get reviews, or even see related web sites.

Jango: http://www.jango.com

***Tamagotchi Fever****
When I was in high school, I took a psychology class where we were given an "egg baby" to look after for an entire week. Everywhere I went, I had to take my egg baby with me. At the end of the week, the class assembled and evaluated the results: some people had dropped the eggs, some had lost them, while others toted their happy, healthy egg baby. My, how times have changed! This week the hottest craze from Japan brings the egg baby into the Digital Age. Tamagotchi (Tam-a-go-tchi) are small electronic pets that you must feed, take care of, and play with, or, like the ill-fated egg baby, it dies. This hot craze has found a following on the web, so pay a visit to Tamagotchi Fever and see what all the buzz is about.

Tamagotchi Fever: http://www.concentric.net/~maido/tamagotchi/

***Finally, A good ISP***
It truly amazes me how many bad Internet providers there are out there. Over the course of the past year, I have tried no less than six of them! Each time I'd give a new provider a shot, there would always be something that prevented me from recommending them: Sprint's service was too slow, IBM lost my user record, Netcom would frequently drop my connection, GTE was always busy, AOL was verrrrry sloooow, and the two local (Portland, OR) providers I used were a toll call anytime I traveled. Well, I'm happy to report that I have finally found a good National Internet Provider. Mindspring is one of the only Internet Service Providers to make my recommended list, with no busy signals, a good fast connection, local dial up when I travel, and toll free support (very important!). If you're getting poor service from your ISP (busy signals, slow connections and poor customer service), don't be afraid to give them the boot and find one that works best for you.

Mindspring: http://www.mindspring.com