But Wait! Theres More  Whats behind PC giveaways?  Art by Bob
AulWhat would you do for a free computer? Would you be willing
to let ads pop up on your computer screen? Would you let
marketers spy on you while you surfed the Web, including your
surreptitious visits to the HOT SEX PARTY SLUTS site? Would you
agree to spend thousands of dollars at an online mall? Would you
commit to a year and a half of Internet service? Would you sell
your children for medical experimentation?  All of those (except
the last one) have been advanced recently by companies willing
to push the PC marketplace as far as it can go—and in some cases
farther. Faced with a couple of years that saw PC prices sliding
giddily downward, a number of companies have seen opportunity in
the low end of the market. Several companies have begun selling
PCs for as little as $299, while others have tried offering them
free as incentives to buy other stuff.  One of those companies
is My Free PC (www.myfreepc.com), a home-based ISP run out of
Laguna Bea