You are probably nowhere near your e-mail box as we send this newsletter out to you on the last day of 2003. But publish we must. We write for those few year end soldiers who labor away on this final day of the year or for those coming aboard in 2004! Happy New Year.

Online shoppers spent $2.95 billion during the second week of December, a 48% increase from last year's level. The week's spending brought total online expenditures, excluding travel, to $13 billion for the period starting Nov.1 and ending Dec. 12, according to the eSpending report.

In fact, consumers reported spending 21% of their holiday budgets online, compared with 16 in 2002. Catalog spending held steady, clocking in at just under 7% during both years.

During the six-week period ending Dec. 12, consumers spent $2.5 billion on apparel, up 35% from last year. They also purchased $1.6 billion in toys and video games, up 27%; $1.4 billion in consumer electronics, up 12%; $1.2 billion in videos and DVDs, 89% higher than last year; and just over $1 billion in books, 33% more than in 2002.

The eSpending report was compiled by Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen/Net Ratings.

New quarterly data from market research firm Ipsos-Insight says 16 percent of American music downloaders, aged 12 and older, have paid to download music or MP3 files off of the Internet, compared to 8 percent in December 2002 and 13 percent in April 2003. The author of the study: "A twofold increase in the number of American downloaders exposed to for-pay music downloads in just a six month timeframe signals a remarkable shift in downloader behavior." (Corante.com Dec 16, 2003)

In Steven Spielberg's ''Minority Report,'' advertising targeted at Tom Cruise follows him wherever he goes. That scenario isn't that far from our present reality, says this article: already the technology exists to locate people by their cellphones and send them marketing messages from nearby businesses. Now Mitsubishi is working on an in-store projection system that senses customers and identifies them with facial-recognition software. ''The closer the customer approaches, the more specific the information gets,'' notes the article. ''Eventually, the message would focus on the actual product the person is handling.'' (Corante.com Dec 17, 2003)

Forbes's editors and writers look ahead to 2004. Among their predictions: Small companies will flourish. The wireless camera phone fad will end by the third quarter. Hackers and spammers will maintain the upper hand. Digital camera makers will focus less on megapixels and more on superior optics and processors. DVD recorders will make standalone DVD players extinct. People are drowning in data and will unplug from the Net in large numbers. (Corante.com Dec 23, 2003)