Internet Newbie

Warren Buffett has confessed to avoiding dot-com stocks because he doesn't understand the Internet. Evidently the siren call of the New Economy is too strong for even the Oracle of Omaha to resist: He's selling sweats and t-shirts sporting his company's logo on the Berkshire Hathaway Web site.

Buffett isn't talking about the site. But it doesn't take an interview to realize that when he says he doesn't get the Net, he isn't kidding. The design of the Web site is, well, uninspiring. It's a plain white page with a row of text links. And forget e-commerce niceties like online shopping carts and one-click ordering. When buying duds from www.berkshirehathaway.com, you print out an order form, stuff it in an envelope, and mail it. Not exactly the cutting edge of Web technology. Perhaps you have to crawl before you can walk. Buffett's site is definitely still on its knees.

By Darnell Little

Picking Up the Pieces

If your life seems disastrous, perspective is a click away. Disaster News Network (www.disasternews.com) lives up to its name, covering Asian killer quakes or tornadoes whipping Wisconsin. The name may hint at a site parodying tabloid media, but DNN is a nonprofit ministry that lets journalist-turned-clergyman James E. Skillington blend his two passions.

Sponsored by a dozen religious groups, DNN ties news to links to donate or volunteer. Stan Hankins, a disaster response associate for the Presbyterian Church, says DNN sticks around after big media loses interest--keeping donations and volunteers coming. ''People want to be part of a solution rather than simply rubbernecking,'' Skillington says. Here's their chance.

By Gary Gately

Take a Byte out of Crime

Your house is burglarized or your car is stolen. What do you do?

In Stockholm, the police expect you to do the right thing: Get online and report crime with a mouse click.

Think of it as 911.gov--up to a point. ''We wouldn't let you file a murder charge online,'' says Police Commander Ulf Jordan, who is director of the Internet project. Of course not. But by yearend, crime victims will log on to the Stockholm police home page and fill out a report concerning minor incidents. The police will decide whether the complaint merits dispatching a patrol car. In Sweden, lost goods such as mobile phones and credit cards must be reported to the police. All these reports, some 50,000 a year, will be able to be handled electronically by December. And an additional 100,000 crimes, all relatively minor, could be reported electronically, says Jordan. That is, if your computer hasn't been stolen.

By William Echikson

Sin, Click, Confess

You might think the chat room you visited last night was a virtual confessional, especially after seeing that guy spill his guts about sleeping with his cousin's boyfriend's wife. More and more, though, the faithful are looking to the Web to fess up and seek absolution. At the First Electronic Church of America (www.fecha.org) and a dozen others, you can slip virtually into a wood-paneled booth, kneel beside your monitor, and type ''Forgive me, father, for I have sinned.'' Some even save you the trouble of typing, offering buttons to click for sins of avarice, lust, sloth, and more. Submit your confession and you're given a copy of the Lord's Prayer or a penance of, say, a couple of Hail Marys.

But don't expect to click your way through the Pearly Gates. The idea of virtual confessions isn't likely to get much of a hearing at the Vatican. Confessing ''on the Internet is like talking to a bartender, except that with the bartender at least you get a drink,'' says Father George Maslar, who hears scores of confessions daily at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

By David Rocks

Mining the Mind

The Web has spawned many companies divining consumer preferences from ''cookie'' trails surfers leave online. Now a Blue Bell (Pa.) market researcher claims it can cut out the middleman--and read Web consumers' minds.

Well, sort of. Capita Research Group Inc. has developed headgear that measures brainwaves to tell what's attention-getting and what's not. Based on technology NASA invented to gauge pilot alertness, Capita's gizmo looks like a set of headphones and is used in focus groups. Most early clients, such as MTV, use it to judge whether viewers are paying attention to TV shows (and commercials), something A.C. Neilsen can't measure. But Capita Chief Executive David Hunter says the fastest growth will come from Web companies desperate to figure out what surfers think works online. The early results: Even sites without sound or great visuals harness more brainwaves than the boob tube. It doesn't take a mind reader to know the next challenge: turning that into sales.

By Jeanette Brown

Dumb & Dumber

The stupid.com site sells sophomoric junk and dumb.com hosts Web pages that serve up idiotic ideas. That's just the start of a long list of dopey names on the Net. Here are some standouts:

-- MarchFIRST.com
Net consultants. How would you know that from the name? The company was formed on Mar. 1. Huh?

-- TheMan.com
Specializes in all things masculine. Not to be confused with Cops.com.

-- OhGolly.com
Web consultancy for small business. Jeepers. That's a name that inspires confidence.

-- CruelWorld.com
Job-search site. The name will really get job-seekers jazzed about joining the world of work. Right.

-- Flipdog.com
Another job site. What is it about help wanted ads on the Web? Here's a hint, guys: The name HireMe.com isn't in use.