Bet my house can gallop faster than yours

Eddie Chow tells me he just joined an Internet service provided by a company called HKStar. After paying the various fees, he was handed a slip by the shop assistant.

'OFFICIAL RECEIPT,' it said in capital letters on the top right.

However, when he got home and looked again, there were some smaller words at the bottom of the slip which read: 'This is not an official receipt.' I wonder if a lawyer can explain exactly what a person's rights are in such a case? Hong Kong has gone Internet mad, with thousands expected to turn up at the Internet world trade fair at the Convention Centre tomorrow.

But it seems to me that Internet companies are not keeping pace.

Asia Online, the Internet company with big financial backers, appears to have become a victim of its own success. Subscribers who try to log on in the evenings now often get a sad message: 'Line busy: Try again later.' One frustrated subscriber said: 'They should change their name from Asia Online to Asia Waiting In Line.' Still, if anyone doesn't believe the Internet is the future of communications, consider this.

The latest newsletter of the Hongkong Telecommunications Group features a test by a group called Telephony in which various methods were used to send a 42-page document from Los Angeles to Tokyo. It cost US$7.40 and several days to send the thing airmail, US$26 and one day to FedEx it, and US$28 and half an hour to fax it.