Slashdot reveals that “[m]any participants in OLPC’s ‘Give 1 Get 1’ program of last November are now encountering what has come to be known as the ‘stuck key’ problem, in which one or more of the keys on their XO-1 laptop’s built-in keyboard become stuck in an activated position, or are activated when adjacent keys are pressed. […] [T]he official word from OLPC is that the root cause of this problem is unknown because ‘[t]here are several manufacturers of the keyboards.’”
Computerworld warns that “[b]usiness travellers to Russia might want to keep their laptops and iPhones well-concealed – not from muggers, necessarily, but from the country’s recently formed regulatory super-agency, Rossvyazokhrankultura (short for the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural Protection Service). […] Rossvyazokhrankultura’s interpretation of current law holds that users must register any electronics that use the frequency involved in Wi-Fi communications, said Vladimir Karpov, the deputy director of the agency’s communications monitoring division, according to an English commentary provided by website The Other Russia. Aside from public hotspots, the registration requirement also applies to home networks, laptops, smart phones and Wi-Fi-enabled PDAs, Karpov reportedly said. Registration only permits use by the owner.”
According to Yahoo!News, “Microsoft and Novell have announced they were expanding their alliance in making patent-protected and open-source programs interoperable into the hot China market. The firms said on Sunday they are putting "particular emphasis" on China because increasingly sophisticated businesses rely on combinations of software based on Microsoft’s Windows operating systems and non-proprietary Linux systems. […] Microsoft and Novell believe big enterprises in China are willing to pay to have the US firms keep hybrid systems updated and running and for assurances that there is permission to use patented software involved.”
Also on Microsoft, the Register reports that “[i]n a first for a major company, Microsoft has publicly pledged not to sue or press charges against ethical hackers who responsibly find security flaws in its online services. The promise, extended Saturday at the ToorCon security conference in Seattle, is a bold and significant move. While researchers are generally free to attack legally acquired software running on their own hardware, they can face severe penalties for probing websites that run on servers belonging to others. In some cases, organizations have pursued legal action against researchers who did nothing more than discover and responsibly report serious online vulnerabilities. ‘This is actually really important because online services – that’s our stuff,’ Microsoft security strategist Katie Moussouris told several hundred researchers. ‘The philosophy here is if someone is being nice enough to point out your fly is down, they’re really doing you a favor and you should thank them rather than calling the cops and saying you’re a pervert.’”
The Seattle Times points out that “[t]he three-year-old social-networking phenomenon Facebook, worth more than $15 billion by many estimates, got a good deal on going global. Its users around the world are translating Facebook’s visible framework into nearly two dozen languages — free — aiding the company’s aggressive expansion to better serve the 60 percent of its 69 million users who live outside the United States. The company says it’s using the wisdom of crowds to produce versions of site guidelines — especially terms specific to Facebook — that are in tune with local cultures.”