Several electronics manufacturers said Tuesday they are working to create a worldwide standard for how their devices will talk with each other in people's homes. The effort, launched by Infineon Technologies AG, Intel Corp., Panasonic and Texas Instruments Inc., is aimed at making sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to home wiring for digital entertainment such as movies, music and pictures. The HomeGrid Forum would create standards for coaxial cable, power lines and phone line

A Colorado man accused of sending hundreds of thousands of spam e-mails has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion and falsifying e-mail headers. Thirty-five-year-old Edward "Eddie" Davidson of Louisville was also ordered to pay nearly $715,000 to the Internal Revenue Service. He was sentenced Monday and ordered to report to prison authorities in May. Federal prosecutors say Davidson's operation used false e-mail headers to disguise the sender. Prosecuto

The largest contract laptop PC maker Quanta Computer raised its shipment target for this year to over 40 million laptop PCs, citing a clearer view of demand. The Taiwanese company shipped 32 million notebooks last year, and in October forecast that shipments for 2008 would rise to around 36 million. The revision is a sign of strong demand worldwide. Quanta manufactures notebook PCs on behalf of nearly all major vendors, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell. The shipment target does not inclu