In meantime, internet stocks, which had ridden a wave of investor enthusiasm got slammed. Many of dot.com industry giants have fallen from proverbial "Beanstalk", and today are among missing.

Predictions of a declining economy have some in a panic. Because holiday season retail sales virtually "flat lined" many are calling it start of a recession. Is this case, or is it that we are just getting smarter? I wonder how many gave that great old gift called "Cash", instead of an overpriced present that could be gotten at half price after holiday "feeding frenzy" ended.

Are we facing an era of "doom and gloom"? I don't think so. Have stock markets taken a hit - Yes, but is this a portent of bad times? I doubt it. The stock market goes up and stock market goes down. The guy who does two eTrades a week will probably lose his shirt. Those who buy now, and hang in for long pull might just make a killing.

We are warned by old proverb that, "A fool and his money are soon parted", and "There is no such thing as a free lunch", seems to be current buzz. But did you heed this sage advice? It sure seems that some didn't.

But what does all this mean to us? Is it time to pull in our horns and lay low on Internet? Not me - I view this as a great opportunity. More and more, opportunities abound. Now is time to get involved with a straight-forward, no hype type of a business.

Maybe I'm just ready for a vacation, but I'm weary of bad behavior that is so commonplace on Net.

I'm tired of deleting 150-200 spam emails daily.

I'm tired of students contacting me to ask how much I would charge to write their term paper. Here's a tip, kids. If you want a helping hand, you'll find one at end of your wrist.

I'm tired of people sending me scathing emails because they're confused by somebody else's pop-under ads that they think originated at my site. Come to think of it, I'm even more tired of all those pop-under windows in first place.

I'm tired of web sites that hold me captive and won't allow me to use Back Button on my browser to return to where I started. Why do designers do this? Do they believe that taking hostages will improve their chances of making sales?

Those are my minor complaints. These are my major ones.

I'm irritated that I had to spend most of a morning adding coding on my web pages to protect myself against Microsoft's Smart Tags. For those who don't know, Smart Tag technology causes little icons to appear beside certain key words on your web site. When visitors click on icons, they will be taken to another site -- possibly your competitors. Microsoft has already included technology in Office XP, but has bowed to pressure and promised (?) not to add technology to Internet Explorer 6. To protect your pages from MS Smart Tags, add this line to your Meta Tags: