Alex Andon, 24, a graduate of Duke University in biology, was laid off from a biotech company last May. For months he sought new work. Then, frustrated with the hunt, he turned to jellyfish.

In an apartment he shares here with six roommates, Mr. Andon started a business in September building jellyfish aquariums, capitalizing on new technology that helps the fragile creatures survive in captivity. He has sold three tanks, one for $25,000 to a restaurant, and is starting a Web site to sell desktop versions for $350.

“I keep getting stung,” he said. And his crowded home office is filled with beakers and test tubes of jellyfish food. “But it beats looking for work. I hate looking for work.”

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The question is not whether the nation is overwhelmed with checking email and RSS feeds, answering calls, exchanging instant messages, surfing the Web, watching YouTube and playing that one game where you try to organize the falling blocks.

The question is how much money all of this costs.

Basex, a research firm, estimates in data published on Monday that information overload costs the economy $900 billion a year in lost productivity. And a new online calculator created by Basex professes to provide a rough estimate of the cost to individual companies.

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In a mixed holiday sales forecast, an electronics industry trade group is projecting that consumer spending on such gadgets will grow 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter, half the growth rate in the same quarter a year earlier.

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Everything is lost… unless you buy a Seagate hard drive. Picture a young mother fretting over losing photos of her adorable brood, or a 30-something man afraid he might lose the countless hours of music he’s stored on his PC. These images will hit the airwaves in December courtesy of Seagate, the disk drive maker. They are part of the company’s first television campaign aimed at consumers.

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You might remember the novel in its earlier form; it had a cover, and many pages, forethought of plot, editors and agents weighing in, and, oh yes, it generally had sentences and punctuation. And, finally, some poor suckers had to take the time out of their busy days to actually read it.

Who has time for all those niceties? They’re so first half of 2008.

Introducing the Twiller.

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The potential union of two of the biggest companies in the video game industry remains stuck in neutral. Electronic Arts said Monday morning that it has extended its tender offer to purchase Take Two Interactive, maker of Grand Theft Auto IV. This is the second time Electronic Arts has extended its $2 billion offer, which it first made public in February.

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Housing prices in Silicon Valley remain defiantly high. New BMWs and Saabs cruise Highway 101. But for the first time there are signs that the current economic downturn is taking its toll on the country’s cradle of technology and innovation. Job growth has slowed, start-up companies are hiring and spending more cautiously, and early-stage investors who nurture the start-ups with money and expertise are growing more frugal.

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They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece–not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.

A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.

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Electronic Arts made its offer for rival Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two declined.

Now the market will have its say–and both companies are anxious for the investor reaction to financial terms that can be viewed from vastly different perspectives.

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If you want to know the theme of the Consumer Electronics Show, play taps. Fly the flag at half-mast, and say a few words for the proud monolithic corporation of years past. This year is not about products. It’s about partnerships. It’s about a marriage of the once-proud hardware makers, the defiant and boring Internet infrastructure providers, and the flashy, sometimes arrogant makers of content. It’s about even mixing in the input of consumers.

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Matters turned philosophical here at the Consumer Electronics Show in a discussion with Toshihiro Sakamoto, president and senior managing director of Panasonic AVC Networks. Sakamoto is charming, twinkle-eyed and at least a grade classier than the sell-at-all-costs, run-of-the mill American CEO. (And, as my friend Alex Pham of the Los Angeles Times put it, he sure is handsome.)

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