A proposal is on the table to make the devices compulsory in all cars in the U.K., phasing them in over the next few years. Critics have pointed out that such a regulation will be extremely unpopular with driving enthusiasts. On the other hand, the "intelligent speed adapter" will cost only around 200 pounds to install, and research indicates that it could prevent up to two thirds of traffic-related deaths.

America Online Says Holiday Sales Doubled to $2.5 Billion
It's that time of year again. "What'd you get for Christmas" is the big question as online retailers tally up their holiday haul. America Online said in a statement Monday that figures from the Internet Research Group showed online shopping through the service rose to $2.5 billion from $1.2 billion for the same period the year before.

As AOL pointed out, that would account for more than 60 percent of the $4 billion projected by Forrester Research to have been spent by all consumers shopping online during the month-long holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Other predictions have pegged holiday online sales at more than $10 billion. According to AOL, more than 2.5 million members made their first purchase online during the period, with the average AOL buyer spending $300 online in goods and services this holiday season, up 50 percent from 1998.

Missed $35 Payment Cripples Hotmail
Microsoft confirmed Wednesday that its free e-mail service had been partially crippled because it forgot to pay a $35 bill. The glitch was caused after Microsoft failed to pay a $35 fee to registration company Network Solutions for rights to the Internet domain name passport.com, which verifies user names and passwords for Hotmail and other services, a Microsoft spokesperson said. Hotmail has more than 52 million users around the world, but Microsoft said it was unclear how many had experienced problems.

The missed billing was discovered and paid by Michael Chaney, an Antioch, Tenn.-based programmer who works with the Linux operating system, an upstart competitor to Microsoft's Windows platform. On his Web site, Chaney said he paid the fee with his personal Mastercard on Christmas morning and had received a call on Tuesday from a Microsoft executive thanking him for fixing the problem. Microsoft said it would refund Chaney the $35, although Chaney hinted his bailout of the world's biggest software company was worth more: "Microsoft is under no legal obligation to repay the $35 to me, and it doesn't really matter to me if they do or not. If they do... I would ask that when they make out a check they consider how much revenue would have otherwise been lost had this been down for another day or two, in addition to the inconvenience to people who rely on Hotmail as their only source of e-mail contact," Chaney wrote.

The snafu comes after a Hotmail hack last August made it possible to access e-mail accounts without a password, creating one of the largest security breaches in the history of the Internet.

Business Blow-Up at Value America
Here's one high-flying dot-com that has already come back to Earth. Presaging a bigger shake-up in the coming month as many store sites report disappointing holiday sales, Value America announced Tuesday that it's laying off nearly half its staff and shifting its focus from consumers to businesses. The company's founders Craig Winn and Rex Scatena have also resigned. Value America went public last spring when consumer e-commerce was the rage and the stock soared to $74; on Tuesday morning it hit $6. Although lacking an explicit dot-com in its name, Value America is well-known thanks to extensive newspaper ad campaigns trumpeting rock-bottom prices on IBM computers and other name-brand electronics. The site has been regularly featured in TIME Digital's own Deal of the Day.

Etoy vs. Etoys: E-commerce Gets Ugly
The holiday spirit is all well and good, but when it comes to domain names and trademarks, that's where the goodwill stops. When toy retailing giant Etoys.com got wind of the fact that somebody was using the domain name "etoy.com", they lawyered up fast and got a Los Angeles Superior Court to ban its use as a trademark infringement. Never mind that the owners of etoy aren't a rival toy store, they're a Zurich-based artists' consortium, and never mind either that they've been using the domain name since 1995, years before Etoys was a twinkle in a venture capitalist's eye.

Needless to say, the members of etoy, whose work is characterized by an arch subversiveness, aren't pleased. Yesterday they held a press conference at the Museum of Modern Art in New York to protest the situation. "This case merely demonstrates who has the right to conduct business, operate, express themselves, and exist in cyberspace," said etoy's Suzanne Meszoly.