1. and : The European Commission fined Intel €1.06 billion (US$1.44 billion) for antitrust violations. E.U. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes minced no words: "Intel has harmed millions of EU consumers," so the big fine should "therefore come as no surprise." Intel CEO Paul Otellini was more "baffled," as he put it, than surprised, and vowed to appeal the decision.

2. : We know you'll appreciate a glimmer of economic optimism, so we offer up one of the most-read stories at Network World this week for our number-two spot. The slide show featured 10 U.S. cities with thousands of IT job openings.

3. : A system error directed some Google Web traffic through Asia, which led to hang-ups and interruptions with the Google Apps service. Service was slow or interrupted for about 14 percent of Google users and affected all of the company's products -- search, news, Gmail, maps and Google Reader.

4. : Online storage services are shutting down operations left and right, and they aren't always handling those shutdowns well, as customers who have lost data discovered. Larger services run by AOL, Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo gave users months to remove data before shuttering sites, but some smaller companies have had to pull the plug quickly.

5. : A flood of Microsoft software is soon to be upon us, with updates of four of its major product lines expected to ship late this year or early next.