A number of Web sites have pirated previews of post-Thanksgiving advertisements.

Circle your calendars: Black Friday is just around the corner.

While it's not actually the busiest shopping day of the year, you'd never convince the legions of consumers who get up extra early on the morning after Thanksgiving to hunt down deep discounts at the mall.

You'll see all the ads in the extra-thick Thanksgiving Day newspaper, of course. But you can start to plot your holiday shopping strategy right now—online.

You'll find a range of "official" sources that are posting sale prices now, including:

• Black Friday 2007
•  BlackFriday.info
•  Black Friday @ GottaDeal.com
•  The Black Friday 2007

All have similar formats and content: lists and lists of rock-bottom, get-you-in-the-door, too-good-to-be-true prices.

In some cases, you can view reproductions of the actual ads that will be showing up in your driveway on Thanksgiving Day.

A lot of the information apparently comes from employees who have advance notice of the price specials. Who knows? Managers may even be the source in an attempt to boost the "buzz" surrounding this day widely known for bargains.

But not all retailers are keen to share their proprietary pricing. Wal-Mart, Macy's and OfficeMax have had lawyers contact at least one of the price-sharing sites to block publication of the information.

Consumers should also be alert that the "official" Black Friday sites are all populated with un-official prices that could be different after you wait in line on Thanksgiving Friday.

Back when I was seeking to continue my higher education, the key resource was a big book, about the size of a telephone directory, listing all the colleges and universities.

It's now all a hazy memory, but I don't remember any glossy photos—just a lot of raw information about courses, facilities, prices—and the mailing address to get a recruiting packet sent to you.

This week, there's something new for the prospective student (and the parents who will help foot the bill): College Week Live, a virtual, interactive, online fair sponsored by more than 130 major U.S. colleges, including the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at El Paso and TCU in Fort Worth.

College Week Live takes place in a virtual convention center, where the prospective student can visit "booths" set up by participating school.

After registering, you can collect information about the colleges, download videos and podcasts, and even chat live with admissions representatives.

Nov. 14 is the final day of the two-day event; it runs from 2 o'clock until midnight.

Students, of course, need to have fun when they have some downtime. So what better way to while away the hours when waiting for the next class than to peruse a digital comic book or two?

That's what Marvel has in mind with its new Digital Comics Unlimited Collection, an online archive of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and other pulp superheroes.

You can command the comics to appear on screen in a variety of ways. If you choose a technique called "Smart Panels," each click of your mouse will glide the page to a close-up of the next panel, just as though you you were reading the original.

Marvel is offering a free preview of 250 different comics to get you interested. You can have unlimited access to the entire library for $9.95 a month. The price is sliced in half if you sign up and pay for a year in advance.

Watch Computer Corner every week on News 8 Midday at noon, or here online any time.

E-mail askwalt@wfaa.com