CHICAGO — Encyclopaedia Britannica, the 32-volume, US$1,250 repository of knowledge is going online — for free.

Unfortunately, Britannica's Web team committed the cardinal mistake of Internet launches. The company massively underestimated the public's desire for its product, and was swamped by users, forcing its servers to shut down.

"In many ways, we have truly been victims of our own success," reads an apology now posted on the site. "We knew that the site would attract a significant number of users in its first day of operation, but we had no idea that this volume of traffic would be achieved so quickly."

The site is located at www.britannica.com.

Security flaw found in Web browser

REDMOND, Wash. — A new security flaw has been discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, just as the software company released a patch to correct one discovered several weeks ago.

Like the older flaw, this new one is rooted in how IE handles JavaScript. The flaw can be exploited by Web operators who redirect local files to a Web address beginning in "javascript." When they do this, JavaScript code runs with the security limitations of that local file, which permits transferring the file to another computer, allowing a Web site operator to steal files from users' hard drives.

For more information, check out www.microsoft.com/windows/ ie/security/.

MasterCard offers special discounts

TORONTO — Canada.com and Bank of Montreal have introduced the canada.com MasterCard.

The card functions as a standard MasterCard credit card, but also offers subscribers special discounts at various online stores. Online shoppers can find more information at canada.com or www. bmo.com/mastercard.