Diebold, the electronic voting company and the subject of a recent Loose Wire column, have confirmed that they’ve decided not to sue folk who published leaked documents about the alleged security breaches of electronic voting. AP reports (no URL available yet) that a Diebold spokesman promised in a conference call Monday with U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel and attorneys from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that it would not sue dozens of students, computer scientists and ISP operators who received cease-and-desist letters from August to October.
Diebold did not disclose specifics on why it had dropped its legal case, but the decision is a major reversal of the company’s previous strategy. Ohio-based Diebold, which controls more than 50,000 touch-screen voting machines nationwide, had threatened legal action against dozens of individuals who refused to remove links to its stolen data.
I’ve written before about how printer manufacturers gouge us by selling us cheap printers but expensive cartridges. But either I’m missing something or these guys won’t stop at anything to make a bit more cash: I noticed for the first time yesterday that, with my HP DeskJet 640c, if I change the settings to print from colour to black (or vice versa) the software will automatically change my Draft output setting to Normal — meaning I’ll use more ink. Where is the justification for that? I can’t think of any, but I bet I’m not the only one who only notices the change after I’ve printed a page or two — if then. Sleazy.
Psst! Wanna buy the latest version of Windows, years before you’re supposed to? Head off to Malaysia’s Johor Bahru, where CDs containing software Microsoft has code named “Longhorn” are on sale for six ringgit ($1.58).
Nice story by the 