IntelliMouse Leave the balls to the kids and let an optical sensor do the surfing.

Too often, standard PC mice seem more like dazed turtles: slow,inefficient and prone to missteps. Microsoft's Intellimouse($34.95 street) is the smarter cousin of the lineage, using anoptical sensor to detect motion rather than a rubber ball. Thatmeans no moving parts to clean, no sticking and no skipping. Plus,a special zoom wheel enables you to bypass menus and toolbars whileyou're on the Internet or working in many of your favoriteprograms. Bottom line: You probably paid a lot for a fast computer.For a few more shekels, you can be sure you're maximizing thatspeed. System requirements include 16MB RAM, 30MB hard-drive space,and a round mouse port (PS/2-compatible) or USB port.

J.W. Dysart, asoftware analyst and Internet business consultant, has written formore than 40 publications, including The New York Timesand The Financial Times of London. He is also a columnistfor our sister publication, Business Start-Ups.