Dell Bans E-waste Export to Developing Countries

Dell - which scored pretty poorly in the latest Greenpeace report - has just officially adopted a ban of the export of e-waste as part of its policy. The company, which also has a recycling program, says it's been holding its partners to high standards for several years, but has revised its policy to conform to the Basel Convention, an international treaty that governs e-waste handling. E-waste is growing, toxic problem in developing countries like China and Ghana.

Source: Engadget

Oracle Only Interested in Java, What to do with Sun Hardware?

The Financial Times today reports that when Oracle planned to buy Sun it was more interested in the software part of the company. Remember back in April, when the deal was announced, Oracle made a huge deal about Java? Well, apparently, that’s because initially that was all the company wanted!

Source: Financial Times

Eu Fines Intel For Anticompetitive Practices

The European Commission has imposed a fine of €1.06 billion on Intel Corp. for violating EC Treaty antitrust rules on the abuse of a dominant market position by engaging in illegal anticompetitive practices to exclude competitors from the market for x86 central processing units (CPUs).

Rebates such as those applied by Intel are recognized in many jurisdictions around the world as anti-competitive and unlawful because the effect in practice is to deny consumers a choice of products.

Update: Intel is appealing the decision. Russia recently initiated anti-trust enquiries against Intel.


Source: X-bit Labs

Hackers Holding Database Data for Ransom

The Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program has reportedly been compromised, with those responsible deleting records and now wanting $10 million before the records are restored.

Hacker's message: “I have your [expletive] In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions,” the hacker said in a ransom note. “Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :(For $10 million, I will gladly send along the password.”

The Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program website is used to help pharmacists track prescription drug abuse, and has the records of 8 million state residents available through the network. The network, along with other portals connected to the Virginia Department of Health Professions, is still unavailable at the moment.

Source: Zitzot