Google explains the reason of keeping the logs of every query and activity we are doing with Google.

From the article:
“We recently announced a new policy to anonymize our server logs after 18–24 months. We’re the only leading search company to have taken this step publicly. We believe it’s an important part of our commitment to respect user privacy while balancing a number of important factors.

Three factors were critical. One was maintaining our ability to continue to improve the quality of our search services. Another was to protect our systems and our users from fraud and abuse. The third was complying—and anticipating compliance—with possible data retention requirements. Here’s a bit more about each of these:…” read more

Hugh Hefner’s infamous lad mag, Playboy, responsible for jumpstarting the careers of many a buxom lady, announced that bunny avatars will be setting up shop in the popular virtual world beginning in June.

Details on how exactly Playboy will appear in Second Life are scarce, though one can imagine a virtual Playboy mansion and grotto are in the works. And although most Second Life marketing schemes haven’t met with much success, there’s little doubt that teleporting (as avatars are wont to travel) into a pool full of nubile young women will have some appeal.

As if mom didn’t have enough to worry about when junior is at virtual play: Earlier this week UK police revealed they were investigating a German Second Life avatar who put child pornography images up for sale and paid for sex with underage players or players posing as minors.

Microsoft’s Windows Update has a component called Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) that downloads updates while you’re busy doing other things with your computer. If you get disconnected, the update will pick up where it left off when you get back on the network.

Sounds great, right? Well, generally it is. But since BITS is part of your operating system, your firewall doesn’t really check to see what it’s downloading. And while there is pretty much no risk of automatically downloading a virus or trojan through Windows Update under normal circumstances, hackers are starting to use BITS to download code to computers that have already been affected.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire yesterday signed this country’s first law putting the kibosh on the dangerous practice of text messaging while behind the wheel of a moving automobile. … Bully for her.

Lawmakers in the other Washington should take note and follow suit, but in the meantime several other states, including New Jersey, are considering similar legislation.

The analyst speculation is over. Google has admitted that it is planning to go head-to-head with Microsoft in the software market. Analysts are now discussing whether Google could actually win.

In the annual shareholders’ meeting at Google headquarters on Thursday, CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters that the search titan has changed its tagline and its target. The new tagline will be “Search, Ads, and Apps.” It’s that last word in the trio that might concern Microsoft.

Windows XP systems are still locking up during patch update attempts — even after users deployed the fix suggested by Microsoft.

Symptoms of the long-running problem — which the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) team dubbed the “svchost/msi issue” — include 100 percent CPU usage by svchost.exe and its multiple processes during Automatic Updates scanning, update downloads, and sometimes even if AU is simply enabled on a machine.

“Of course, the computer is virtually unusable” when that happens, said a user identified as Foxy-Perth on the Windows Update support forum.

Every month at patch time, Microsoft’s support boards fill with complaints from users. It was no different this week. “I have 6 (and counting) computers having issues with SVCHOST process running at near 100 percent CPU utilization,” said TKovacs on Wednesday, one day after Microsoft unveiled seven security updates. “Disabling Automatic Updates resolves the issue. [What] did Microsoft just release?”