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Microsoft

Submission + - Europe charges Microsoft with abuse of monopoly ag (goodgearguide.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has been formally charged with monopoly abuse by Europe's top antitrust authority, the European Commission, over the way it bundles the Internet Explorer browser with Windows. The move follows an unsuccessful attempt by U.S. authorities nine years ago to strip Internet Explorer (IE) of its unfair advantage over competing browsers. European authorities were more successful in their prosecution of Microsoft over similar antitrust offenses five years ago, fining the company over EUR1.6 billion and ordering it to change the way it does business. (MS is also being sued by Wisconsin small business for allegedly misrepresenting the capabilities of its Live Communications Server, so not such a great week.)
Microsoft

Submission + - Dell helps Microsoft: Vista to XP upgrade now $150 (pcworld.com)

Submitted by
ozmanjusri
ozmanjusri writes: "Dell has tripled the charge to upgrade Vista PCs to XP.

Under current licensing "downgrade" agreements, system builders can install XP Pro instead of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate, however Dell has opted for a surcharge of $150 over the price of Vista for the older but more popular XP Professional operating system.

Rob Enderle says the downgrade fees could potentially be disastrous for Microsoft;

The fix for this should be to focus like lasers on demand generation for Vista but instead Microsoft is focusing aggressively on financial penalties," says Enderle. "Forcing customers to go someplace they don't want to go by raising prices is a Christmas present for Apple and those that are positioning Linux on the desktop.

"
Security

Submission + - Is there a cyberwar, and is the US losing it? (businessweek.com)

Submitted by
kenblakely
kenblakely writes: "Business week is running a story asserting that the "US is Losing the Global Cyberwar". [businessweek.com] This whole cyberwar thing has been discussed a few times on /., most recently here,[slashdot] where the Chinese are asserted to be using cyberwar to attain military superiority. And, of course, there is the whole Russia-Georgia thing.[slashdot] Even the US military is getting in on the action,[slashdot] and the fear of a cyber Pearl Harbor [fcw.com] seems almost palpable. I'm curious what the /. crowd thinks about the growing fascination with "cyberwar": hype to get more $ and create new force structure, source of the next world war, or somewhere in between?"
Intel

Submission + - Intel boosts optical communication speeds (goodgearguide.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Intel has developed a device, the Avalanche Photodetector (APD), that senses light pulses and amplifies output signals for faster data transfer over long distances. Researchers claim this is a big advancement in the field of silicon photonics, in which silicon is used to transfer light pulses for data exchange between chips and devices. APD can detect light at higher frequencies and moves data at rates of 40G bits per second (bps), making it more sensitive and quicker than earlier photodetectors.
Privacy

Submission + - Obama's Mobile Phone records compromised, Shared?

Submitted by Tiger4
Tiger4 writes: CNN, Reuters, and the AP all report that Verizon has confirmed some of its employees have accessed and perhaps shared calling records of President Elect Barack Obama. Verizon says the people involved have all been put on leave with pay as the investigation proceeds. Some of the employees may have accessed the information for legitimate purposes, but others may have been curiosity seekers and may have even shared the information around. The account was "only" a phone, not a Blackberry or similar device, and Verizon believes it was just calling records, not voicemail or email that was compromised.

The articles do not dip into the similarity to the warrantless wiretapping or hospital records compromise situations of recent months. But thaty immeditately sprang to mind for me.
The Military

Submission + - Row over altered US Army photo

Submitted by djupedal
djupedal writes: BBC online reports...

The Pentagon has become embroiled in a row after the US Army released a photo of a general to the media which was found to have been digitally altered. Ann Dunwoody was shown in front of the US flag but it later emerged that this background had been added.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency subsequently suspended the use of US Department of Defense photos.

"For us, there's a zero-tolerance policy of adding or subtracting actual content from an image," said Santiago Lyon, AP's director of photography.
The Internet

Submission + - Film studios sue Oz ISP over BitTorrent downloads

Submitted by Da Massive
Da Massive writes: Leading Hollywood film studios Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Disney Enterprises are suing Australia's second largest ISP, iiNet, saying it's complicit in the infringement of their copyrighted material. According to a statement of claim, "the ISP knows that there are a large number of customers who are engaging in continuing infringements of copyright by using BitTorrent file sharing technology".

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