When anyone asks for a recommendation for always-on, super-fast broadband service my answer is always: "Why a cable modem, of course." And I'm not alone. According to market research, cable modem subscribers are on the rise for both the residential and business markets, and as our society becomes more and more dependant on the Internet, Wi-Fi access is becoming extremely popular for travelers on the go.

A few questions were raised in regards to streaming online video at this morning's Jupiter Advertising Forum. According to JupiterResearch data on video and rich media, two-thirds of advertisers ran streaming video ads in the last year, most of those in a test mode.

More big numbers were forecasted for online advertising by JupiterResearch. The market researcher projected that online advertising will more than double over the next five years, growing from $6.6 billion in 2003 to $16.1 billion in 2009. Paid search is poised to grow 30 percent compounded annually over the next two years, while display advertising and classifieds will each grow more than 25 percent annually.

Are online ad dollars really set to eclipse the dollars spent on magazine ads? They are, according to the Journal's exclusive today on a Jupiter Research report, and by 2008. The report also indicates that magazine ad spending will match online ad spending by 2007. Rewind a couple of years and this projection is astounding and encouraging. Online publishers, get ready to rumble!

Slate.com appears to be on Microsoft's chopping block, following the trend of other spin-offs like Expedia. Though the online magazine continues to break even, its core, culture-vulture following and respected journalists, among other reasons, raise questions as to why Slate.com isn't making the cut.

Some 30 members of The One Hundred Club gathered at the legendary Italian joint to chow down on pasta and prosciutto, chug red wine, and catch up on interactive industry developments. They renewed existing friendships and met some new folks.

Ugh. The African spam has returned. Even with MediaPost's robust spam filters in place, the foreign missives are slowly finding their way back to my in-box. I received one yesterday, but deemed it a fluke. Today I received another, and now wonder if it's the beginning of a tidal wave.

Some news on the spam front. New York's anti-spam attorney general Eliot Spitzer announced a settlement with Scott Richter and his company, OptInRealBig.com. Richter, known as the "spam king," will pay $50,000 in fines and abstain from using fraudulent headers and deceptive routing and domain practices. The settlement calls for Richter to provide the attorney general's office with customer data and purchase records and copies of his company's e-mail ads.

Google's IPO

Some good news for job seekers? Nielsen//NetRatings today reports that the U.S. job recovery helped fuel 30 percent year-over-year growth for career sites with nearly 27.2 million surfers, or more than 18 percent of the total online population visiting job search sites in June. Naturally, the big guys, Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Yahoo! HotJobs, grabbed the top slots.