text: Technology Firms Find Tougher Terrain Entrepreneurs and start-ups emerging today find themselves in an environment different from that during the dot-com boom. &lt;br&gt;&lt;FONT face="verdana,MS Sans Serif,arial,helvetica" size="-2"\ color="#666666"&gt;&lt;B&gt;-Ellen McCarthy&lt;/B&gt;&lt;/FONT&gt;