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News from the Computer World

Web Sales Tax To Be Hot Topic In 2004 Congress

Federal lawmakers in the new year are expected to again take up controversial legislation that could lead to the collection of sales taxes on goods sold over the Internet.

"The American people will view it (Web sales tax) as a new tax," said Jon Abolins, vice president of tax and government affairs at Velosant LP. "The budget crisis of the states is an impetus to pass the legislation. Whether its proponents are strong enough to counter election year politics is something else."

Many states have been working to facilitate Congressional approval by agreeing to make their taxes more uniform. 17 states have already done this.

The legislation, as currently written, would not include firms with annual revenues below $5 million (but what does the future hold once the foot is in the door?).

Read CRN's entire story

D-Link Introduces Industry's First Wireless Broadband Videophone

New Wireless i2eye Easily Turns Any TV into a Broadband VideoPhone. D-Link announced the wireless version of its popular D-Link i2eye Videophone The wireless i2eye easily turns any TV into a broadband videophone and keeps friends, family, and business partners connected face-to-face by delivering high-quality IP videoconferencing without the need to run a network cable from the Internet connection to the television. The new D-Link wireless videophone (DVC-1100) works with “any television* and broadband connection” to capture and display real-time streaming video images at up to 30 frames per second.

The i2eye is 802.11b compatible and has 64/128/256-bit encryption. Other features include: telephone interface, dialing, caller ID, a speed dial list of up to 50 phone numbers, and a speakerphone.

SEO Demand up Sharply

The folks involved in Search Engine Optimization are very busy. More businesses are realizing that just creating a website will not guarantee customers will be able to find that site. With thousands of new sites popping up every day, the competition to be on page one when a customer uses a search engine, such as Google or Teoma, is fierce.

As a result, it has become more expensive to hire SEO consultants to optimize a website, as the good ones will have more work than they can handle."

"Everyone I know is very busy, and rates are definitely not cheap. My friends at iProspect are charging as much as $250k a year these days!" said Jill Whalen, the guru of the SEO community.

"We here at Viking Waters agree. Our SEO staff, although not as expensive as iProspect, is quite busy. We do have room for one or two more customers, but that's about it," said Viking Waters' Al Kalar.