OCALA, Florida: The actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to a maximum of three years in federal prison on Thursday for three misdemeanor convictions of failure to file his income taxes.

Snipes was also sentenced to one year of supervised release. He remained free Thursday, and will be notified later when he should report to prison.

His lawyer requested a facility not too far from his familys home in New Jersey, and the judge said he would recommend that.

Snipes was convicted by a federal jury on Feb. 1 on three of the lesser charges that he faced and was acquitted on the most serious charges.

The case was the most prominent tax prosecution since the billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley was convicted of tax fraud in 1989. Snipes, who has built a worldwide following acting in films like the “Blade” vampire trilogy, had become an unlikely public face for the tax denier movement, whose members maintain that Americans are not obligated to pay income taxes and that the government extracts taxes from its citizens illegally.

Tax deniers assert variously that the tax laws are valid but do not apply to them, that no law makes anyone liable for taxes and that the government tricks people into paying. Promoters of tax denial claim that people can legally stop paying income taxes by executing certain documents, or by not signing others, like tax returns. Courts have rejected all these arguments.

Thursday, after a day-long hearing, Federal District Judge William Terrell Hodges talked of the importance of deterrence in tax cases and noted that, despite Snipes apology in court, he had a years-long record of defying the tax laws.

No fine was imposed. The judge left that to the civil process.

Snipes was seated as he heard the judges sentence. He had a stoic expression and pursed his lips repeatedly. Later, his wife, Nikki Park, collapsed in tears outside the courtroom.

A member of Snipes legal team said they would appeal.

“We were hoping for a complete acquittal,” a lawyer for Snipes, Linda Moreno, said. “I have faith in the process, and I have faith in the jury system. We will appeal.”

Snipes co-defendants Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas Rosile Д who were convicted on two felony counts Д received longer sentences.

Kahn Д who has refused throughout to acknowledge Hodges authority Д was given the maximum sentence of 10 years, plus three years of supervised release.

Rosile was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Snipes was indicted in October 2006 for filing a false claim for a $7 million refund (of taxes paid in 1997, before he stopped paying taxes), and conspiracy with his two co-defendants to defraud the government through that claim, which was not paid.

Since 1986, Snipes has appeared in more than 50 films, earning at least $103 million, court papers showed, including more than $58 million in the years covered by the indictment, 1999 through 2004.

Snipes arrived at the federal courthouse on Thursday in a black sports utility vehicle. Wearing a black suit, white shirt and black tie, he walked up the sidewalk with a bit of a slow-but-confident swagger.

As Snipes approached the courthouse door, he was greeted by about 15 photographers and 20 reporters, standing behind yellow crime scene tape with about half a dozen police officers keeping order.

He waved and flashed a peace sign; a reporter yelled a question. Snipes looked at the reporter but did not response. He clasped his hands in front of his face in a prayer-like gesture and bowed his head.

Then he walked into the courthouse.

As far as entrepreneur Dries Buytaert is concerned, a startup with smart ideas and driven people has a good chance of surviving, whatever the economic climate. “Make sure you have a solid business plan and you’ve done your homework and are passionate about what you are doing, and people will recognize your potential,” says Buytaert, who in 2001 came up with a new way for people to collaborate online and publish Web content. His idea turned into Drupal, a project that draws together software developers from around the world who collectively tinker with and add features to the content management system made available for free.

Seven years on, as he tries to turn his idea into a successful business, Buytaert isn’t taking any chances. He and fellow entrepreneur Jay Batson co-founded «investing.businessweek.com» and have raised $7 million to help them in their quest to widen the use of Drupal. More than 700 contributors now work on some 2,000 features for the so-called open-source software, which is used by «investing.businessweek.com», Warner Music Group («www.businessweek.com»), «investing.businessweek.com», The Onion, «investing.businessweek.com», Time Warner’s («www.businessweek.com») AOL, «investing.businessweek.com», and more than 250,000 other companies to manage their Web sites.

Buytaert is among a handful of innovators who are building businesses and products aimed at other companies and who were identified in a survey of venture capitalists and BusinessWeek editors and readers as some of this year’s most promising young technology entrepreneurs. Many of these 30-and-under innovators buck the trend that has lured scores of entrepreneurs to green technology and consumer-focused online services, such as social networks and so-called widgets that let Web users append games, videos, and the like to personal profiles. “Natural Evolution”

To be sure, venture capitalists are still eagerly funding startups specializing in green tech and the class of consumer-facing online businesses grouped under the Web 2.0 heading. Clean-tech companies garnered $2.52 billion in funding last year, a 79% increase from 2006, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Web 2.0 businesses raised $1.34 billion, an 87% increase from 2006. By contrast, startups focused on information technology for enterprises raised $1.98 billion, an 18% decline from 2006.

Still, some of the most promising startups are eschewing products that have a faddish, me-too look and feel, attempting to form companies they hope will have a more lasting business model, say venture capitalists. “You are starting to see the Internet and small business become an interesting area,” says Jeff Fagnan, partner at «investing.businessweek.com», which this year plans to “fund multiple investments” in companies that cater to businesses. “As certain areas of consumer Internet are becoming saturated, it’s the natural evolution.”

In the second half of 2008, Acquia will release a new, souped-up version of Drupal software and make it available to companies for free. Buytaert will try to make money through sales of related support services. In December, Acquia raised its funding from «investing.businessweek.com», «investing.businessweek.com», and

July 8, 2007 — Dear John: I have a stock certificate for Southwestern Bell. The original transfer agent was the Bank of New York, but they don’t know anything about the stock now. Please tell me what happened to this company. A.F.

Dear A.F.: The journey of all these former AT&T companies is truly dizzying. But you’ll be happy to know that Southwestern Bell not only still exists but it has come full circle. And, most important, your shares are alive and well.

Southwestern Bell Corporation was renamed SBC Inc. in 1995. But in 2005, SBC acquired AT&T. But then SBC abandoned its name and is now known as AT&T.

“Your reader’s stock certificates are still valid and do not need to be exchanged. However, if she would like new certificates, your reader should follow the following procedure,” says a spokesman for the new AT&T (and the old SBC).

Mail the unsigned certificates with a letter of instruction requesting that AT&T issue new certificates to: AT&T Inc. Stockholder Services, c/o Computershare Trust Company, N.A., P.O. Box 43070, Providence, RI 02940-3070.

AT&T says you should send the certificates with a return receipt requested, or by some other form of traceable mail. And insure the certificates against loss. The certificates should be insured for 3 percent of their current value, or a minimum of $20.

To calculate the current value of the stock, go to www.att.com/investor.relations.

Isn’t life great when solutions to problems are this easy?

Dear John: I have always wondered something. Since the government collects hard data on jobs with every paycheck, through Social Security and income tax, why can’t it just report hard numbers instead of estimates? B.D.

Dear B.D.: Why do we still go into a curtained off voting booth and pull a lever to elect officials? Why don’t we just do it electronically?

The answer: because the government moves about as fast as Midtown New York traffic on a theater matinee day.

John Williams, an economist who follows the labor numbers closely, says the government does use Social Security and tax receipts to track jobs. But even in today’s technologically advanced society, the tax and Social Security numbers don’t come in fast enough to satisfy the traders on Wall Street.

Williams, a critic of government statistics who writes ShadowStats.com, says the government does use physical numbers to count jobs but only months later.

In fact, the government also uses some corporate numbers for the so-called “payroll survey” from which it gets the monthly unemployment rate.

Send your questions to Dear John, The N.Y. Post, 1211 Ave. of the Americas, N.Y., N.Y., 10036, or john.crudele@nypost.com.