Feed news.com: Why Apple should launch iTunes movie rentals now (cnet.com)
Rumors are abound that Apple will release a movie rental service on iTunes. And as Don Reisinger points out, the company should do it as soon as possible.
Feed news.com: Cisco adds a pinch of identity to the network (news.com)
Company isn't always the first vendor to embrace a new model, but it can really move the market when it does, says Jon Oltsik.
Submission + - Microsoft's Bait and Switch on OOXML standard (robweir.com)
seanellis writes: "Rob Weir writes on his blog that Microsoft has pulled a Bait and Switch on maintenance of the Office Open XML file format. Previously, it had repeatedly promised to had over maintenance of the format to ISO, a move designed to allay fears that the format may be further manipulated by Microsoft itself during the maintenance phase. Instead, it turns out that the maintenance procedure will be under the control of the ECMA committee that first drafted the standard. This, of course, is basically under the control of Microsoft themselves. This is exactly the situation that the critics were trying to avoid."
Submission + - Mandriva supports terrorist countries?
An anonymous reader writes: The export of US origin software, especially inlcuding high crypto security features, to blacklisted as terrorist countries (Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea) is not allowed according to currently acitve export restrictions from the US government. The question is why the French distributor Mandriva can ship their Linux to such "terrorist countries". Mandriva runs an official website for their business in Iran. In addtion Mandriva has local partners in Iran as well. Mandriva has included in its distribution software, which is according to US export restricitions rated as "5D002" and therefore cannot be exported or re-exported to these countries. Mandriva's distributions contains (Open Source) software such as OpenVPN, Apache web server, OpenOffice, Tomcat, Websphere CE, Mozilla and others. The Linux Kernel itself is by definition a re-export of US-software. Hence Mandriva hereby violates existing and active export restrictions. The distribution also includes closed source software like Adobe's Flash Player und RealPlayer. So the next question is, why US companies (Sun, IBM, Adobe and others) allow a French company to ship their software to these embargoed countries? Why is this French company not being stopped by the US Government from actively violating US export restricitons? Why is Mandriva not being stopped by resposnible US agencies from exporting such restricted software to countries listed as supporting terrorists? Mr. Francois Bancilhon, you should stop the support of terrorists denying the Holocoust before legal action will be taken against you. Shalom
Feed news.com: Data-recovery firm reveals top client mishaps (news.com)
Ant infestations, failed parachute jumps were behind some of the unusual data-recovery jobs faced by computer forensics specialist in 2007.
Submission + - Is Java ready for Safety Critical Applications? (javolution.org) 4
dautelle writes: "Last week, I was invited at the Space 2007 conference to introduce Javolution (open source Java library) to rocket scientists. Here is the paper presented. This might seem like good news for the Java platform. But is Java ready for use in safety critical applications? Or in other words would you trust your life to a Java program?"
Submission + - Teleco Outage Force Air Traffic Control to use Cel
Shakrai writes: "CNN is reporting that Air traffic controllers were forced to use their personal cell phones to reroute hundreds of flights, after a control center lost radar and telephone service for more than two hours. A major communication line that served the center failed. Hope they weren't over their peak minutes!"
