Government & Regulation

Facebook and Zynga are facing a class-action lawsuit over their 'scam' advertising strategy. It's alleged that they 'cheat' users of games like Farmville and Mafia Wars. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers re-arrange the furniture to watch the show.

In today's podcast: European Ombudsman accuses EC of maladministation in Intel case; Sony e-reader won't arrive in time for holidays; and Chinese defense ministry's Web site gets attacked too.

A man and a woman have been arrested in England, for allegedly spreading banking malware. They were charged with using the ZeuS (or Zbot) Trojan to steal bank passwords. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers cheer the Brits for cracking down.

A layoff victim is forced to choose between severance and a noncompete agreement that could lead to financial ruin

Lenovo will soon be shipping an ARM Snapdragon-based netbook using Linux.

In today's podcast: Intel to pay AMD $1.25B in antitrust settlement; Fujitsu to offer two-piece cell phone; and Lenovo to launch SnapDragon-based smartbook.

Microsoft has often been pilloried by European governments and regulators who favor open source technology over proprietary software. But Europe's love of open source software may be one of Microsoft's biggest allies in the company's fight against Oracle.

This week on Security Levity... spam laws around the world. Many of us know about the U.S. federal law regulating spam, known as the CAN-SPAM Act, or at least we think we do. But what about the laws internationally? Here are a few notable international spam laws...

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In today's podcast: EC issues objection to Oracle takeover of Sun; HTC sees smartphone revenue shrink; and Google, Author's Guild miss deadline for revised deal.

In today's podcast: Microsoft's EC antitrust settlement needs minor changes; Android faces possible fragmentation; and Facebook, MySpace fix serious coding errors.

In today's podcast: New York files federal antitrust suit against Intel; Oracle ready to play hardball with EC over Sun deal; and Microsoft cuts another 800 employees.

The rumors were true: Microsoft confirms more layoffs. A futher 800 employees have been told their jobs are redundant. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder who, why, and where. Not to mention laughable comping...
(MSFT)

The sign off is sometimes pursued and valued as though it were some kind of ancient idol. It's taken for granted that it's a necessary part of the processes we use to produce product. But what does the sign off really mean?