The right to search laptop data will be limited under a new bill introduced to the US Senate today. Three Democratic senators introduced a bill to ensure that the existing rules for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are altered to protect data from random searches.

“Most Americans would be shocked to learn that upon their return to the U.S. from traveling abroad, the government could demand the password to their laptop, hold it for as long as it wants, pore over their documents, emails, and photographs, and examine which websites they visited – all without any suggestion of wrong-doing,” Senator Russ Feingold said.

View: The full story @ vnunet

Contrary to all the blog buzz, Microsoft hasn't extended OEM Windows XP "downgrade" licensing by another six months. What Microsoft has done is agree to provide OEMs with Windows XP media until June 30. Surely, somebody will accuse me of playing semantics. Not so. It's called accuracy in reporting, and pretty much everybody has it wrong.

The blogosphere buzzed with excitement, ridicule and accusation over the weekend about the rumored extension. Seems like anybody and everybody wagged the "We told you that Vista sucks" finger at Microsoft. I don't doubt that several OEMs want to continue offering Windows XP after Jan. 31, but they didn't need any extension to do it.

View: The full story @ MS-Watch

Yahoo has developed a new online calendar that the company said offers significant improvement over the current product because it makes it easier to share items and has a more interactive interface. Yahoo will begin to offer the new version of Yahoo Calendar on Wednesday in beta in the U.S., Brazil, India, Taiwan and the U.K. General availability is expected in the coming months.

Although Yahoo Calendar and Yahoo Mail are tightly integrated, only about 8.1 million use the former and about 278 million the latter, said John Kremer, Yahoo Mail vice president. The situation is similar among other major providers of Webmail and online calendar services, said Matt Cain, a Gartner analyst. Only about 3 to 4 percent of consumers also use their preferred Webmail service's companion online calendar, he said.

View: The full story @ PCWorld

In July, Microsoft and Facebook had made a search and advertisement deal, which meant that Live Search would be integrated into Facebook, along with advertisements. Well, the search has finally started to appear in Facebook now.

When you start typing in the search bar at the top right of your homepage, you’ll notice a ‘Search the Web’ option. This is a very clever placement for Live Search, and I expect this to work in favor for Microsoft’s search efforts. The search results are displayed in native Facebook style search results. Related text ads for the search results are shown at the right, showing how the new layout has been thought out well for monetary benefits by Facebook. The search results are provided by Live Search but directly open the search results upon clicking. Notice there is also a link for advanced search.

The search is also accessible from the All Results page, through the Web link.

Link: Redmond Pie

Traditional anti-virus tools have become an outdated way of responding to today's threats, according to security giant McAfee. McAfee built its security empire on signature-based anti-virus products. However, Chris Kenworthy, senior vice president for enterprise at the firm, told delegates at the ISSE security conference in Madrid that the evolving nature of current threats should force firms to look at alternative ways to secure their systems.

He advised security professionals to invest in multiple integrated technologies to cope with different types of malware, including zero-day exploits, rootkits and Trojans. But more important than the technology is an enterprise security policy, according to Kenworthy. "We vendors want to sell you lots of products, but really it's the policy that will drive good security practice in an organisation. If you don't have the policies the technology will be ill-deployed," he said

View: The full story @ vnunet

Underscoring the severity of a new class of vulnerability known as clickjacking, a blogger has created a proof-of-concept game that uses a PC's video cam and microphone to secretly spy on the player. The demo, which is available here, appears to be a simple game that tests how quickly a user can click on a series of moving targets. Behind the scenes, it combines a generic clickjacking attack with weaknesses in Adobe's Flash technology to record the player using the PC's video camera and microphone.

The proof of concept is a powerful demonstration of the spooky implications behind clickjacking. The vulnerability allows malicious webmasters to control the links visitors click on. Once lured to a booby-trapped page, a user may think he's clicking on a link that leads to Google - when in fact it takes him to a money transfer page, a banner ad that's part of a click-fraud scheme, or any other destination the attacker chooses.

View: The full story @ The Reg

Toshiba is close to launching its first commercial direct-methanol fuel-cell device, which promises a faster way to recharge portable electronics products. The company said Monday that the DMFC will be launched during its current financial year, which ends March 31, 2009. Toshiba won't say yet what the product will be, although it offered a possible clue last week at the Ceatec show in Japan, where it showed a cell phone based on a fuel cell.

DMFCs produce electricity from a reaction between methanol, water and air. The only byproducts are a small amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide, so DMFCs are often seen as a greener source of energy than traditional batteries. Another advantage is that they can be replenished with a new cartridge of methanol in seconds.

View: The full story @ PCWorld

Remember that time when you sent an email to an ex when you were drunk? Perhaps an email to that cute girl in the office that you've always wanted to speak to or perhaps a rant at your boss under the influence of beer?

Google to the rescue! Google has announced "mail goggles". When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?

Google's idea is to prevent those embarrassing mishaps on a Friday evening after a few alcoholic beverages. Perhaps phone manufacturers could implement this too as I regularly need electronic restraint on a Friday evening from txting the wrong person at the wrong time.

View: Google's Mail Goggles

In a move to compete with Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will announce a split of operations today.

AMD will form two companies, one focused on designing microprocessors and the other manufacturing them. Investment for the move is from two Abu Dhabi firms who will inject $6 billion into the two firms.

The move has been expected for weeks and will strengthen AMD's liquidity in increasingly worrying markets.

AMD will confirm the move in a press conference arranged for today at 8am EDT (1pm BST).

Video: Watch Live Webcast - 8am EDT
View: AMD Press Release

A Saanich web design school is holding its ground, following a threat by Apple to take legal action if the local firm does not change a corporate logo it has used since 2005.

Calling his company a dedicated customer that uses Apple hardware and software almost exclusively in its operation, Victoria School of Business and Technology vice-president Christopher Boag said he and partner Dieter Gerhard were surprised to receive a strongly worded letter with no advance warning.

"It was a total shock," he said. "It was like the small guy was kind of getting blown away and Apple was pushing hard in order to get us to (submit to their demands)."

Boag and Gerhard argue that the apple is a "traditional representation of education" and that the logo in question, which incorporates the mountain logo of a sister company and has the words VSBT in one corner, in no way can be confused with the Apple logo.

View: School Victoria

eBay has said it is laying off 10% of its workforce, as part of a move to streamline the business.

The amount is approximately 1,000 staff and hundreds of temporary workers. It is also expected a number of "open" positions will now be closed.

The firm hopes to cut costs and strengthen the organisation and its competitiveness. EBay - which already owns online payment firm Paypal - has signed an agreement to buy Bill Me Later for $820m in cash and $125m in options.

"PayPal and Bill Me Later belong together," said eBay president and chief executive John Donahoe in a statement.

View: eBay

An interesting slide show from PCWorld about the 10 Most Overrated Products against Underrated ones.

Hype springs eternal. Lots of technologies, products and services don't merit the praise heaped on them. Here are 10 tech items that don't live up to their billing -- and 10 that deserve respect that they don't receive. Worth a check out.

One comparision among the many : PCWorld feels XP is overated and Vista under-rated.

"Save Windows XP! is the rallying cry of Windows users dismayed by the needless bloat of Vista. But didn't everyone have the same critique of Windows XP when it first galumphed into public view like an unsteady rubber monster?

What did Vista get right? For starters, though the User Account Control feature is like an annoying little sister who constantly pokes you, it makes Vista more secure than XP. Vista also trounces XP in handling mobile de­­vices, networking, multimedia files and photos. On top of that, it has a cleaner, more navigable interface -- one eerily reminiscent of a certain Mac operating system."

Link: tech.msn.com

Can machines think? That was the question posed by the great mathematician Alan Turing. Half a century later six computers are about to converse with human interrogators in an experiment that will attempt to prove that the answer is yes.

In the Turing test a machine seeks to fool judges into believing that it could be human. The test is performed by conducting a text-based conversation on any subject. If the computer's responses are indistinguishable from those of a human, it has passed the Turing test and can be said to be "thinking".

No machine has yet passed the test devised by Turing, who helped to crack German military codes during the Second World War. But at 9am next Sunday, six computer programs - "artificial conversational entities" - will answer questions posed by human volunteers at the University of Reading in a bid to become the first recognised "thinking" machine. If any program succeeds, it is likely to be hailed as the most significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence since the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. It could also raise profound questions about whether a computer has the potential to be "conscious" - and if humans should have the 'right' to switch it off.

View: The Guardian

Crunchgear has sneaked a couple of shots of the BlackBerry Application Center, RIM’s answer to Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market.

The application center is the same as Apple and Google's offerings, you browse, purchase, download and rate applications wirelessly.

The Application Center is set to debut with the BlackBerry Storm software version 4.7 and app data will be stored at the carriers locale meaning carriers can put the applications they like on their own store.

Screenshot: >> Click here <<

Over 90 per cent of UK firms are putting their customers at risk of identity fraud, according to the results of a study released today to mark National Identity Fraud Prevention Week. The event is aimed at advising consumers and businesses on best practice for preventing ID theft. The survey highlighted that, in many cases, consumers blame companies for any problems, and not their own housekeeping.

The report, commissioned by Fellowes for National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, found that 97 per cent of UK consumers are not completely confident that the organisations they deal with are taking adequate steps to protect their information. Worse still, 92 per cent of employees at the firms in question confessed that the identity of their customers could be stolen by a fraudster, while 75 per cent admitted that their employers could be doing more to prevent fraud.

View: The full story @ vnunet