This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Michael Cote. Original Post: Holiday Leftovers: IT News Links Feed Title: Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc. Feed URL: https://cote.io/feed/ Feed Description: Using Java to get to the ideal state. Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Michael Cote Latest Posts From Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc.

I've been on vacation for the past two weeks: my RSS inboxes are chock full, and this page itself has been a-suferin'. Here are some of the IT news related links from my virtual inbox:

• Online Sales +46%: "From November 1 to December 12, online shoppers forked over more than $13 billion, excluding travel sales. This is a 46 percent jump over last year's total...On average, holiday shoppers dropped 21 percent of their spending budget on the Web. This is yet another increase over the 16 percent of the budget from last year. "
• USB Dongles
• Information and Value on the 'net: "So this leaves us with a question, which is how has the failure of "the Internet" to live up to its promise not been investigated in more depth? We've seen an economic bubble come and go, based on "the Internet", but no one has really asked where the value went. So how come our "Internet" went AWOL, while we weren't looking? Where did it go, exactly?"
• Vice City Lawsuit - over the line "kill the Haitians."
• Forrester Predicts 9% rise in "enterprise" software spending and other IT-world predictions. General economic predictions are upbeat as well, if that's anything, and a recent Department of Commerce report is upbeat about IT spending (though, not necessarily jobs) as well.
• men.com bought for $1.3 million
• Mainview Perceive and PATROL Article
• 126 million Americans use net for "serious business" and pleasure. The CNET version of the story has this about on-line banking:

  The number of Americans who access their bank accounts online more than doubled between 2000 and 2002, to 34 million people.

• More on the Chinese WiFi "Standard":

  [T]he objectives of Chinese officials are outlined in Directive 237, which states that only government-approved encryption technology may be used by companies and individuals in China and prohibits the use of encryption technology developed overseas. In addition, individuals are required to register any product that uses encryption and must notify the government when the product is discarded. The directive prohibits the transfer of ownership for any product that uses encryption.

• The $100 iPod?
• FedEx Bought Kinko's: the ZapMail 2004 angle, enterprise customers and The UPS Store.
• City of Austin Testing out Linux, OpenOffice
• WiFi Increasing at Truck Stops
• The Coffee Shop Office