Online

Five seconds more and I would have bought that camera. But as I prepared to click my mouse to approve the purchase online - an act that always gives me an anxious Dr. Strangelove sensation of commencing war on my wallet with the push of a button - I scrolled down the screen and was stopped in my tracks. What caught my eye was an excerpt from a user review trashing that particular camera. The person commenting might have been a crackpot and the criticism offbase, but the fervor of it caused me to hesitate and hunt around the Web a little more.

I'VE BEEN ONLINE for so long that I can't imagine life without a modem. My household has two Internet accounts and subscriptions to three online services. My business cards advertise my e-mail address and home page. I take the online world so much for granted that I got a dose of a culture shock when we visited friends in London and I realized that there are normal people who don't know anything about it. As it turned out, William and Julia were buying their first computer. Now these are educated, successful, middle-aged professionals -- but neither had ever really used a PC, let alone a modem.

A veteran newspaper reporter, a public-radio talk-show host and a Web consultant are joining forces to launch a pioneering online news site in Baltimore. Fern Shen, formerly of The Washington Post, Marc Steiner of WYPR and Sean Carton, an executive with id5, a Baltimore interactive marketing consultancy, hope to launch the site in the spring. Shen and Steiner have secured a grant of $5,000 from the Abell Foundation to help design a prototype for the site, with Carton's aid. "People know how much our society is moving to the Internet," Shen wrote Friday in an e-mail.

Maybe this dates me, but I can remember when one of the neatest tricks I would demonstrate on my computer was using Quicken financial management software to download my 401(k) and stock portfolio. It took a day to set up, because I had to look up all the weird abbreviations the various funds used. But once it was in place, I could dial into the Quicken database via modem for, if memory serves, a buck and a half, and get an updated list of securities values. Note that I say modem, because they hadn't implemented a Web version of the service.

The Maryland Higher Education Commission has voted not to reconsider its decision to deny University of Maryland University College's request to offer an online doctoral program for community college administrators to in-state students, the commission chairman said. In October, UMUC officials had appealed a decision by the state secretary of higher education that restricted the program because it would duplicate a face-to-face program at Morgan State University. But the commissioners upheld the chairman's decision and directed Morgan to develop an online version within two years instead.

On typical weekdays, college student Kerry Brandt rises before dawn to drive 42 miles from Baltimore to his technology support job in Prince George's County. Monday through Wednesday, he stays in the office an extra four hours to do homework. He usually doesn't get home until almost 11 p.m. and doesn't get to bed until 1 a.m. On Sunday, he spends the morning in church and the afternoon in the library, writing college papers. And he has two daughters, one 10 years old and the other in college, and is blending that family with his fiancee and her three children.

ONLINE -- FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES OF WALTER SONDHEIM JR. SHARE PERSONAL ANECODOTES ABOUT THE MAN ... A PHOTO GALLERY OF SONDHEIM'S LIFE ... A VIDEO OF SONDHEIM TALKING ABOUT THE INTEGRATION A VIDEO OF SONDHEIM TALKING ABOUT THE INTEGRATION OF CITY SCHOOLS AFTER THE BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION RULING ... ALL AT WWW.BALTIMORESUN.COM/SONDHEIM

Imagine going to the bank to retrieve important documents from your safe-deposit box and finding nothing there. By that, I mean nothing - the bank itself has disappeared, leaving an empty building and no forwarding address. Would you be just a trifle concerned? That's what happened in March to thousands of customers who stored their digital images on a Web site called ClubPhoto.com. It was the latest among the scores of photo sharing Web sites that popped up during the dot-com boom but then went belly-up.

In this presidential election year, people on the move can register to vote or change their voter information online through HomeAdvisor, Microsoft's real estate Internet site. HomeAdvisor (www.homeadvisor.com) is working with election.com, a global online election services provider, to offer voter registration and absentee ballots. Users are asked to fill out an online form. A state is selected, voting requirements are displayed, and the user provides requested information. Users can report a change of address on the same form.

Baltimore residents can now pay several city bills online using their personal checking accounts or credit cards, according to city officials. To make a payment, go to www.baltimorecity.gov and click on "online payments." Paying by electronic check is free; there is a service fee for using credit cards. Residents can pay online for property taxes, water bills, parking fines, red-light citations and several other payments. Residents will need their bank account and routing numbers. E-mail questions to BaltimoreCi tyCollections@baltimorecity.