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The Internet

Submission + - Emoticons in the Workplace

Submitted by Platonic
Platonic writes: According to the New York Times, the Emoticon has become much more than something the kids do after school. The little guys seem to have found their way into the workforce: being used by stock brokers and even the U.S. Military.
From TFA: "I mean, it's ludicrous," said Ms. Feldman, 25. "I'm not going to feel better about losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because someone puts a frown face to regretfully inform me."
The Internet

Submission + - opened tabs on browser startup

Submitted by alobar72
alobar72 writes: As I just installed a new computer and configured firefox with some tabs to open per default on startup... I wonder what are the default tabs, /.ers like to have on browser startup ?
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - 85-year-old man learns he needn't lease his phone

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: According to Bangor Daily News, a man from Hermon was still leasing his phone from AT&T. "Lloyd Overlock never had much reason to think about his telephone. The 85-year-old Hermon resident just paid his bills and knew the service was there if he needed it. But Overlock, who for five decades has been paying a monthly fee to lease his phone, found out recently that the arrangement is a pricey, outmoded throwback to the days of telephone industry monopoly." What's amazing is even when his niece, Roberta York, tried to cancel the service via customer services, the friendly operator on the other end attempted to dissuade her, "offering her uncle a 20 percent discount off his monthly rental fee and reminding York of the benefits of leasing. 'She said that if something goes wrong with that phone, they'd have a new one here the next business day,' she recalled. I was thinking to myself, 'If something goes wrong with that phone, I'll go to Wal-Mart and get one the next day.' But I didn't say it."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows Animated Cursor Flaw

Submitted by blindd0t
blindd0t writes: Security Focus has an article summarizing a flaw with how Windows deals with animated cursors, which allows for an attack through a maliciously crafted web page or email. Admittedly, this is not supposed to affect users running Vista with IE7 in protected mode; however, this does affect those running IE6 or IE7 with Windows XP Service Pack 2, which is presently the vast majority of users. Microsoft has a security advisory as well.
Portables

Submission + - OLPC manufacturer to sell $200 laptop

Submitted by srinravi
srinravi writes: ArsTechnica reports that — Quanta, the company manufacturing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project's XO laptops, plans to begin selling low-cost budget mobile computers for $200 later this year. According to Quanta president Michael Wang, the company plans to leverage the underlying technologies associated with OLPC's XO laptop to produce laptop computers that are significantly less expensive than conventional laptops.

The OLPC project, which hopes to bring inexpensive Linux-based laptops to the education market in developing countries, selected Quanta (the laptop manufacturing company that produces mobile computers for HP, Dell, and Acer) to produce the individual XO laptop units. OLPC project founder Nicholas Negroponte says that OLPC has no plans to make XO laptops, which are "designed for the poorest and most remote children in the world," available to ordinary consumers in developed countries. OLPC plans to sell the laptops in bulk to governments, which will then distribute the hardware to school children.
Security

Submission + - The art of apologizing for major security breaches

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "There are so many ways to say you're sorry. And few organizations have had as many opportunities to apologize over the past two years as those that handle the sensitive personal information of Americans. Companies in damage control mode offer a range of apologies, some that sound sincere and others that appear to deflect blame. Network World compiled a list of 10 data breaches and resulting apologies (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/031407-wide r-net-apologies-letters.html), and asked team members at Perfect Apology to rate each one in our list. They were not impressed by the mea culpas. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/031407-wider -net-apologies.html"
The Courts

Submission + - Charges Dropped in HP Scandal

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "Charges were dropped against HP's Patricia Dunn who faced four felony counts and jail time for spying. Most interesting is that, before the judge dropped the charges, an e-mail press release was sent out by her lawyers saying that she would plead guilty to the four counts of felony.

"It was just a mistake by me," said Nathan Barankin. "Our lawyers told me that the defendants were going to court and mak[ing] a plea. I mistakenly assumed that they'd be making a plea of guilty."
There's nothing like admitting to committing a crime only to have the charges dropped by the judge."
The Courts

Submission + - CCTV cameras to get microphones and speaker

Submitted by
c_g_hills
c_g_hills writes: "Unfortunately my home town of Redditch, Worcestershire, is looking to become one of the first towns to install CCTV cameras in the town centre which will be able to listen in and talk back to citizens. To add insult to injury, the police station is just a 30 second walk away! The solution to this, in my opinion, is that we install these cameras in government buildings so we can keep tabs on our civil servants ourselves."

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