The guys at Suck seem to think that Internet and computer-industry leaders are taking themselves a little too seriously; hence NET MOGULS, a series of well-illustrated, faux trading cards featuring CEOs and other computer glitterati instead of sports figures. While I don't find any of the cards screamingly funny, there are some clever one-liners that industry insiders will chuckle at and non-industry insiders will wish they understood. I'm not sure if including themselves along with Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Kim Polese, and Steve Jobs is conceited or ironic-perhaps a bit of both. - Rachel Saidman
For serious television watchers, The Gist is a super virtual TV Guide, with daily listings of television shows and reviews, cheesy celebrity profiles, industry gossip, and RealAudio clips of your favorite TV personalities. It even lets you "design" a personalized TV-watching and -recording schedule by the day or week so you can really organize your life around your favorite shows. I tend to be a bit more haphazard about my television watching-if I'm home, and it looks good, maybe I'll watch it. If, however, you can't bear the thought of missing even one of your favorite shows, The Gist is the answer to your misguided prayers. - Rachel Saidman
Twenty-first century cyberprodigy Emit No wakes up in what looks like "a bad '90s movie" with a note in his pocket telling him he's been sent back to 1997 Berkeley to find out what happened to his employer's daughter, Kemuri, who disappeared more than 30 years ago. Updated biweekly, this Web serial aimed at hip, young Asian Americans follows the "highly intelligent and clever" No and his street-smart girl sidekick, Gen, as they attempt to unravel the mystery. The creators make good use of still photos and animation to illustrate the story, but the strong visuals are undermined by cliched characterizations and painfully cheesy dialogue: "Thought you could take the main man, huh? Think you bad, huh?" Uh huh. - Sandra Stewart
The online home of the comic strip The Norm offers past strips, character sketches, and interviews with creator Michael Jantze for fans, as well as a sales pitch to newspaper editors: Counter to stereotype, it seems that many GenXers do read the paper, but 43 percent of them could do without it. The solution? The Norm, of course, whose collection of nonsexist, multiethnic characters will keep those twentysomethings hooked. Well, maybe. The strip's gentle observations on such things as drinking too much coffee, the irritations of voice mail, and annoying your friends by continuing to chat about your ex certainly won't offend, but they'll seem tired to anyone with the slightest edge. - Sandra Stewart
Yes, it's Cathy, the penultimate comic-strip woman of the '90s (and '80s and '70s). As the site says, this female icon who wears her heart on her chest-not her sleeve-"has endeared herself to millions through her continual struggle with the four basic guilt groups: Food, Love, Mother, and Career." On this site, you can meet Cathy Guisewite, the mind behind the comic. You can even look at her picture! (There's a resemblance, but it's surprisingly vague.) Most interesting is Guisewite's first "Cathy" submission from 1976: Boy, times sure have changed. Or have they? - David Pescovitz
This site features two free online multiplayer games, Strike a Match and Out of Order, with others under development. Strike a Match is similar to the classic game Concentration, but it requires the ability to recognize and categorize words with similar or related meanings (such as Swaggart and Bakker-both names of discredited televangelists). Out of Order requires the ability to decipher scrambled words in a particular category (such as "catjek" and "teaswer"in the clothing category). Game play is currently restricted to Windows-based computers, with a Macintosh version expected soon. To up the ante, the producers of Gameshows.com hand out prizes and cash for the winners of each official round. This can't compete with Nintendo or Sega, but it's fun in its own way. - Gary Barker
The characters in the "FoxTrot" comic strip are unbearably hideous, and I used to wince anytime I caught an inadvertent glimpse of them in my Sunday funnies. My reaction to them was similar to my "fight-or-flight" reaction to gigantic Jerusalem crickets (see one yourself at http://www.zoo.utoronto.ca/tree/orthoptera/s7.jpeg). The sheer ookiness of the "FoxTrot" drawings used to make me shiver. But you know what? "FoxTrot" is actually funny. I'm not sure when or how I realized the strip had redeeming qualities, but it does and I regret my previous avoidance of it. It would be sort of like finding a Jerusalem cricket to be a witty conversationalist-how could you be expected to know? - Gary Barker
Daily interactive Shockwave skits provide much of the humor at the Comedy KO. Rudimentary but cute animations and surreal visual gags, covering subjects from online romance to curious cults, are worth the brief download time (one to two minutes on a 28.8 kbps modem). However, if you've resisted the Shockwave trend, or don't have enough RAM to devote to your browser in order to run Shockwave, you won't be able to access any of this humor. Consider this a high-tech joke-of-the-day site, but not a replacement for Comedy Central. - David Pescovitz
Site of the month!!
Never underestimate the power of latitude. Although we all float on the same continent, Y'all reminds us that there are two sides to every fence: those who eat grits and those who don't. But whether or not you dwell in the land of swooning couches, this Atlanta-based Web site of the South is well worth a visit. For starters, Y'all looks prettier than an Alabaman debutante-bold layout and colorful graphics enhance each section. With material ranging from the regional (recipes for liver pudding, pig's ear salad, and other delights) to the universal (the comic Too Much Coffee Man will reach hypertensive Americans of all stripes), Y'all proffers a multimedia look at the lighter side of southern culture and entertainment-for y'all of us. It's a multimedia production, and the creators suggest downloading Shockwave and Vivo to streamline the audio and video. The site is updated frequently, so you'll always find something new to amuse you. Drop in for the latest annoy-the-Yankee joke or interact with the enemy in one of the chat rooms. "Can't we all just get along?" reads a plea on the message board. Apparently, the rivalry can get a bit nasty-chatters are admonished to "keep it clean." Yes, ma'am. While it indulges in plenty of doughboy and redneck banter, Y'all also has substance. In the Arts section, a list of recommended southern literature (with online ordering) is pretty meaty, and a gallery of artists showcases interesting talent. The site doesn't explicitly prohibit Northerners from sending in artwork, but I didn't see any Connecticut landscapes or portraits from Michigan when I visited. The site also boasts a comparable music section, with voting on weekly song samples and concert listings. Planning to head south for the winter? Y'all features a travel guide to southern cities, including articles on local culture, vittles, and the like by Y'all's reporter on the loose. And to prevent ticketings along the way, the speedtrap service helps pinpoint those pesky cops-in-waiting. (This may well be the most valuable thing the site offers.) If you still have time to waste, try the game archive-southern style, of course. Toss cow chips or meet a cast of famous Southerners in Wrestlemania, where muscle-bound cutouts of Maya "Caged Bird" Angelou and other big-wigs hit the mat. And if you can't be a died-in-the-wool famous Southerner, learn to imitate one. Get the low down on the Faux Faulkner contest and the fortunes of Scarlett O'Hara impersonators. Yee-hah. Y'all sticks to the lighter stuff, side-stepping messy politics. This is a happy place for Southerners to stock up on local culture and braggadocio-and for the rest of us to get to know our grit-eating neighbors. - Jessica Nord