Gap contractor blamed for data breach .. Internet tax bill stalls .. SCO gets reprieve from Nasdaq

IN THE NEWS

Powerline networking groups connect their standards
Fast in-home networks over electrical wires got a boost on Friday as proponents of two rival technologies merged their approaches and said products already in the market will work together.

Gap contractor blamed for data breach
An unnamed contractor is being blamed for a data breach at Gap Inc. that has compromised the data of about 800,000 people who applied for jobs with the U.S. clothing retailer.

SCO gets reprieve from Nasdaq
The Nasdaq stock exchange has given The SCO Group Inc. a little more time to get its financial house in order.

Huawei, investment fund to buy 3Com for $2.2B
Network equipment vendor 3Com Corp. has agreed to be acquired by associates of Bain Capital LLC and of Huawei Technology Co. Ltd. in a deal worth US$2.2 billion, 3Com said Friday.

Internet tax moratorium bill stalls
A U.S. Senate committee has postponed action on a bill that would extend an Internet tax moratorium after it expires Nov. 1.

Avaya shareholders approve private equity buyout
Avaya stockholders have approved the company's $8.2 billion acquisition by two private equity firms.

Internet blackout in Myanmar stalls citizen reporting
The loss of Internet access in Myanmar has slowed the tide of photos and videos shared with the rest of the world but people outside of the troubled country continue to use new media sites and other technologies to protest military activity in the Southeast Asia country.

EFF sues to uncover alleged telco lobbying
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believes telecommunications carriers are pushing for an amnesty to protect them from lawsuits over alleged illegal wiretapping, and it is suing for the evidence.

Microsoft: Halo 3 caused 'minor' Xbox Live hiccup
If you were one of the few Xbox 360 owners who didn't buy Halo 3 this week, you were probably wondering why your game of Uno wasn't working properly. The answer, in a word, was Halo.


UNIX TIP

Recovering from a fatal error: Lost libgen.so.1
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com

Unix vets know that it is possible to recover from fatal errors. A recent example is when a sysadmin accidentally zeroed out a file named /usr/lib/libgen.so.1. This file is used for string pattern matching and pathname manipulation. When you don't have this shared library on a system, you will get errors such as this.

Read the full article here.


GADGET GIVEAWAY

It's Fall, and we have a new gadget giveaway ... just for the heck of it. We've brought back the ultimate geek tool, the Swiss Army knife equipped with USB flash drive, LED light, and ballpoint pen.

Enter now for a chance to win!


ITWHIRLED

Texas teen finds herself on Australian billboard, thanks to Flickr
When you put a picture up on Flickr with a Creative Commons license, do you know what that means, exactly? Among other things, it means that companies can use it in their advertising without paying you, or even consulting the people in the pictures. That's how Alison Chang of Dallas ended up on ads in bus shelters in Melbourne, Australia. Naturally, the lawyers are getting involved.


POLL

Have you ever been fired?

* Nope - I've been at the same job my whole working life
* Nope - I've always left on my terms
* Well, I've been part of mass layoffs, but I've never been singled out
* Yes, but I've grown as an employee since then
* Yes, due to personality conflicts with the boss
* I am unemployable

Vote now!