Video: What someone is claiming is Windows 7 has circulated on YouTube. "Copies of the OS have apparently appeared on BitTorrent file-sharing networks," Martyn Williams of the IDG News Service explains. "While most reports said the torrents that are supposed to have Windows 7 don't actually contain the software, a couple of Web users claim to have installed and used it." Posting to YouTube is a way those users maintain they're backing up their claims. Watch the report here.

The news beat: Microsoft's compliance with its U.S. antitrust settlement agreement will stay under the court's eye for two more years, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled, thereby extending such supervision through November 12, 2009. Hewlett-Packard breathes life into used printer cartridges via a process that that makes new cartridges from recycled ones. MySpace says it will launch a developer platform next week that will enable users to build a business on top of the social networking site. And The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint is back in talks with Clearwire regarding a potential joint WiMax venture that previously fell apart.

From the Test Center: Delving into Part 2 of his look at Brocade's DCX Backbone, Mario Apicella begins with the reality that, "how physical security is implemented in your data center certainly has its weight but, generally speaking, a larger installation such as what you can get consolidating multiple fabrics with DCX, is more vulnerable than a smaller one to trivial errors and to security breaks." Apicella also writes that, "QoS and the DCX initial, rudimentary attempt at enforcing security from the fabric are what I find most attractive, but can't help thinking that those features are, must be, only a first step in that direction and that the best of the DCX intelligence is yet to come. Hopefully soon." Part 1: Review of Brocade DCX Backbone.

Columnist's corner: A self-proclaimed high-profile hotshot new to a company's marketing department thought highly of himself, the assistants he hired and equipment he procured, though not everyone under his command agreed. "Enter the plasma screen," our Off the Record author writes in Black plasma. That was to display updated information about the company, the business, it's customers. Suggestions to the contrary, such as opting instead for an LED, were summarily dismissed. "The Windows-based computer crashed frequently, at least a few times a week. The receptionists hated the thing spewing the same old drivel every day. Visitors must have been rolling their eyes." Ultimately, the screen died and the executive, having failed other projects as well, hit the road.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on January 30, 2008 05:41 AM