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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 383 declined, 44 accepted (427 total, 10.30% accepted)

The Courts

Submission + - EU won't seek new antitrust complaint against MSFT (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Christopher Blanc
Christopher Blanc writes: "The European Commission confirmed it has received a complaint about Microsoft's business practices from a British government agency Tuesday, but isn't following it up as it normally would with an antitrust complaint, according to a press officer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080513/tc_pcworld/145806"
Security

Submission + - FBI says military had counterfeit Cisco routers (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Christopher Blanc
Christopher Blanc writes: "The new law enforcement and national security concerns were prompted by Operation Cisco Raider, which has led to 15 criminal cases involving counterfeit products bought in part by military agencies, military contractors and electric power companies in the United States. Over the two-year operation, 36 search warrants have been executed, resulting in the discovery of 3,500 counterfeit Cisco network components with an estimated retail value of more than $3.5 million, the F.B.I. said in a statement.

The F.B.I. is still not certain whether the ring's actions were for profit or part of a state-sponsored intelligence effort. The potential threat, according to the F.B.I. agents who gave a briefing at the Office of Management and Budget on Jan. 11, includes the remote jamming of supposedly secure computer networks and gaining access to supposedly highly secure systems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/technology/09cisco.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin"
The Matrix

Submission + - Data centers to pollute more than airlines (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf,
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes: "The world's data centers are projected to surpass the airline industry as a greenhouse gas polluter by 2020, according to a new study by McKinsey & Co.

For example, computer servers are used at only 6 percent of their capacity on average, while data center facilities as a whole are used at 56 percent of peak performance.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/data-centers-are-becoming-big-polluters-study-finds/"
Microsoft

Submission + - Falling Microsoft income endangers Yahoo bid (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf,
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes: "The software giant had net income of $4.39 billion, or 47 cents a share, down from $4.93 billion, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue was $14.45 billion compared with $14.39 billion a year ago. Those results met the low end of Wall Street analysts' estimates.

Microsoft's cash-and-stock bid for Yahoo originally totaled $44 billion. But as the software giant's shares subsequently dipped, its offer slipped closer to $40 billion. Yahoo has said it is not opposed to a merger, but feels it is worth more. "Whatever leverage they built up in the last few days could be slipping away," says Anant Sundaram, finance professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080425/tc_usatoday/microsoftquarterlyincomefallsitmayaffectyahoobid;_ylt=AnkFE5Qo10hThOTChbwupBis0NUE"
Privacy

Submission + - FBI to filter internet backbone to catch crooks (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf,
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes: "There are places where criminal activity is centralized: the backbone hubs located in hosting facilities across the country. All of the Internet's activity, legal and illegal, flows through these "choke points," and the feds, of course, are already tapping those points and siphoning off data.

What Mueller wants is the legal authority to comb through the backbone data that is already being siphoned off by the NSA in order to look for illegal activity.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080424-fbi-wants-to-move-hunt-for-criminals-into-internet-backbone.html"
Microsoft

Submission + - Dell will offer XP past cutoff date (cnet.com)

Submitted by
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf,
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes: "Up till now, consumers that exercised their right to get XP Professional, when they purchased Vista, got a computer with Vista pre-installed and an XP image CD in the box (an image CD is very different from a retail Windows CD).

Dell's innovation? They'll do the XP image installation for you. It may not sound like much, but the net result is that the computer leaves the factory with Windows XP Professional on it, rather than Vista.

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13554_1-9928619-33.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5"
Privacy

Submission + - New "Iron Curtain" for Russian internet (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf,
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes: "The Russian government already has strict laws against "extremism" in print media, but the Internet is still an open free-for-all. That may not last for long, though, as a proposed law could drape a new Iron Curtain over the Russian Internet.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080424-new-iron-curtain-may-be-draped-over-russian-internet.html"
Privacy

Submission + - Companies Liable for deals with terrorists (darkreading.com)

Submitted by
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf,
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes: "The Red Flag program, which takes effect Nov. 1, requires enterprises to check their customers and suppliers against databases of known online criminals — much like what OFAC does with terrorists — and also carries potential fines and penalties for businesses that don't do their due diligence before making a major transaction.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=151872&WT.svl=news1_1

(Soon all transactions will be processed through terrorist databases, just like they use Telecheck to verify checks and credit cards?)"
Privacy

Submission + - Google hands over data on suspected pedophiles (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf,
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, writes: "Google on Wednesday handed over data stored by suspected pedophiles on its Orkut social networking site to Brazilian authorities, ceding to pressure to lift its confidentiality duty to its users, officials said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080423/tc_afp/brazilusgoogleinternetpedophilia_080423210841"
Microsoft

Submission + - Bill Gates: "the GPL, which we disagree with&# (arstechnica.com) 2

Submitted by
Dionysius, God of Wine,
Dionysius, God of Wine, writes: ""There's free software and then there's open source," he suggested, noting that Microsoft gives away its software in developing countries. With open source software, on the other hand, "there is this thing called the GPL, which we disagree with." Open source, he said, creates a license "so that nobody can ever improve the software," he claimed, bemoaning the squandered opportunity for jobs and business. (Yes, Linux fans, we're aware of how distorted this definition is.) He went back to the analogy of pharmaceuticals: "I think if you invent drugs, you should be able to charge for them," he said, adding with a shrug: "That may seem radical."

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/04/23/bill-gates-the-gpl-which-we-disagree-with"
The Courts

Submission + - Woman sues Facebook for privacy violations (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Chris Blanc
Chris Blanc writes: "A Texas woman has sued Blockbuster over its activities relating to Facebook's Beacon tool. The movie rental service has been reporting user activity to Facebook since Beacon launched last November, which the plaintiff says is a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080418-suit-accuses-blockbuster-facebook-of-privacy-law-violations.html"
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista SP1 encourages upgrade trick, spreads Vista (windowssecrets.com)

Submitted by
Chris Blanc
Chris Blanc writes: "The new Service Pack 1 version of Windows Vista allows end users to purchase the "upgrade edition" and install it on any PC — with no need to purchase the more expensive "full edition."

The same behavior was present when Vista was originally released, but the fact that the trick wasn't removed from SP1 suggests that Microsoft executives approved the back door as a way to make the price of Vista more appealing to sophisticated buyers.

http://windowssecrets.com/2007/02/01/01-Get-Vista-upgrade-never-pay-full-price

(The article came out today. Unfortunately, the Windows Secrets people botched the link on their site, so it's only in the newsletter for now. Updates will be made to Firehose if this changes.)"
Privacy

Submission + - Users aware that advertisers watching, don't like (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Chris Blanc
Chris Blanc writes: "TNS randomly selected 1,015 nationally representative adults in the US "whose households belong to TNS's online consumer panel" for its survey. Although only 40 percent of the group was familiar with the term "behavioral targeting," most users were well aware of the practice. 57 percent reported that they weren't comfortable their activities tracked for advertising purposes, even if the information couldn't be tied to their names or real-life identities.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080331-web-surfers-know-advertisers-are-watchingand-dont-like-it.html"

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