Hardware: After opting not to go through with a full recall, Fujitsu reports that one of its user's battery's kicked out sparks, though it did not catch fire.

Best of the blogs: Many news sites and Web pundits are aghast with president Dubya's remarks about 'the Google' and, as Ted Samson points out in Politicians don't get IT, there are larger, more important concerns at play. "Bush isn't the only elected leader out there who has demonstrated a poor grasp of fairly basic technology -- and worse. As such, I think these kinds of gaffes ought to elicit more than dismissive snickers or disgusted eye rolls."

Security: Yet another vulnerability is detected in IE 7. Much like a previous one, the latest is a ghost lingering from IE 6 -- in this case it was first uncovered two years ago. The workaround Microsoft provided then, though, does not seem to prevent attacks in the new version. Microsoft's new browser is haunted by an old flaw.

The news beat: Seagate says it will deliver a hard drive featuring built-in encryption in early 2007. Juniper details its plans for branch offices, including a cadre of products to ease network management. And Sun is looking to raise NetBeans' profile with a partner program and new endorsements.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 30, 2006 07:38 AM