Wine on the Web: Lower Prices, More Choices
E-commerce offers consumers lower prices and more choices in the wine market according to a Federal Trade Commission study released Wednesday. The report concludes that states could expand e-commerce by permitting direct shipping of wine to consumers.

Can HP's Printer Biz Keep Printing Money?
A growing market and HP's relentless innovation should fend off rivals old and new

Rented software services survive the shakeout
A few years ago, the demand for "ASPs" seemed to be dying even before most people learned what the initials stood for. Application service providers--companies that develop, run and maintain business software for monthly or annual fees--were touted at first as the perfect solution for businesses rushing to join the digital revolution. But as the success of early ASPs was hitched to the Internet stock market bubble, many fizzled, alongside countless other start-ups, when it burst.

The software that hunts low fares
Web-based system is changing how we buy airline tickets. America West’s online site, like most of its rivals, used to ask prospective passengers when they wanted to travel and returned a price quote accordingly. Unlike most of its rivals, however, America West relies heavily on leisure travelers. So when customers said they wanted an easier way to search by price, the airline listened.

• Small Business Computing
• http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/news/article.php/2229861

Sun Partners With BrightMail To Seal Sun ONE Messaging Server From Spam
Sun Microsystems has joined the list of major e-mail vendors attempting to snuff out spam. At the Catalyst show in San Francisco Wednesday, Sun announced the integration of BrightMail's antispam solution with its Sun ONE Messaging Server, a key component of the company's Sun ONE collaboration suite that was unveiled in April.

The French Minitel Goes Online
It might be hard to believe today but France was once riding the technology wave, with millions of users surfing a prehistoric black-and-white version of the Web with a device called the Minitel. The machine had a small keyboard and hooked up to a phone line. The French used to do everything from looking up phone numbers to searching for apartments and enjoying soft-porn conversations.

Online, off and running: Web a new campaign front
It's just before 7 p.m., and the organizers of a neighborhood meeting for Howard Dean's presidential campaign are arranging barstools in the small loft of a brew pub, wondering whether anyone will show up. Within minutes, more than 100 people have filled every bit of standing room and are cascading down the stairs to a bar below. A half-hour later, they are writing personal appeals to undecided Democrats in Iowa, site of the nation's first caucuses.

"Unrealized, unrealized, unrealized, unrealized," Ballmer said, offering a low-key self-parody of his famous "developers, developers" speech. "We just look out there like kids in a candy store saying what a great world (this is) to live in. The world is there to be transformed."

Blogging By The Numbers
While every Internet user has the opportunity to become an online journalist, only a very small percentage actually create their own blog.

Has Sarbanes-Oxley Made a Dent in Corporate America’s Armor?
In the 12 months since it was signed by President Bush, the landmark Sarbanes-Oxley Act has caused U.S. companies to spend heavily on compliance and altered the culture of many boardrooms. But has improved behavior on the part of some companies been inspired by Sarbanes-Oxley, or is it the result of disclosures of wrongdoing at firms like Enron and WorldCom? Wharton faculty members look at the impact – both real and symbolic – of this still controversial legislation.

Report: Spam costs $874 per employee per year
Yearly productivity loss equals 1.4 percent
Unsolicited commercial ("spam") e-mail costs U.S. companies $874 per employee per year in lost productivity, according to a new report out from independent research company Nucleus Research. The report, entitled "Spam: The Silent ROI Killer" (referring to return on investment) was released Tuesday and contains the results of interviews with employees and IT administrators at 76 different U.S. companies.

Making Friendsters in High Places
Friendster, the popular social-networking service that cleverly assimilates real-life social groups into a large virtual network, just keeps getting bigger. The service, which opened to the public in March and is still in beta, will hit 1 million users this week, and is expanding at a rate of 20 percent a week, according to the company.