A Florida man is a bit hacked off with the Bank of America after it refused to cash a cheque made out to his missus unless he provided a thumbprint - a slight impediment to the transaction, because he has no arms.

Steve Valdez, 54, explained to the Today show yesterday that he went to his wife’s branch, but “teller and branch manager refused to cash the cheque because he didn’t have an account there and he couldn’t give them a thumbprint to confirm his identity”.

Despite Valdez presenting two forms of photo identification, the bank was having none of it. The teller explained that “if he wanted to cash the cheque, either his wife could come in to cash the cheque or he could open an account”.

Marvellously, while Valdez couldn’t cash the cheque using the two forms of ID, they were sufficient to open said new account, something he declined to do.

Microsoft this week was sued in a Washington district court for allegedly violating privacy laws through Windows XP’s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) copy protection scheme. Similar to cases filed in 2006, the new class action case accuses Microsoft of falsely representing what information WGA would send to verify the authenticity of Windows and that it would send back information that could be traced back to individual users. Although the company has claimed no personal information is sent, the authentication system is said to provide daily information on the user’s IP address and other details that could be used to trace information back to an individual home.

The complaint further argued that Microsoft portrayed WGA as a necessary security update rather than acknowledge its copy protection nature in the update. WGA’s implementation also prevented users from purging the protection from their PCs without completely reformatting a computer’s system drive, leaving many with no real choice but to accept WGA after it was installed.

In its official stance, Microsoft has only said it provides system data and has denied that any identifying information would be sent. It has long since acknowledged WGA’s main role, which among other things has blocked important updates like service packs and Internet Explorer upgrades for copies believed to be pirated.

The lawsuit is specific and would ask for at least $5 million in compensation for the affected class of all Windows XP users in the US.

Intel put itself far ahead of AMD technically last year with its Core i7 desktop CPUs, but the high-end prices for the Core i7 900-series made Intel’s most advanced chip architecture more of a luxury than an industry standard. Monday’s announcement of Intel’s new, more affordable Core i7 800-series chips, as well as an even cheaper Core i5 CPU, will likely lead to Intel’s most advanced chip penetrating the mainstream retail market.

Intel has three new chips to announce, as well as the new Intel P55 Express motherboard chipset to support them. The new Core i7’s include the $562 2.93GHz Core i7 870, the $284 Core i7 860 at 2.8GHz, as well as the $196 2.6GHz Core i5 750 chip. Each is essentially a stripped-down version of its counterpart from the Core i7 900-series, the most affordable of which, the 2.66GHz Core i7 920, starts at about $280.

Mozilla recently released a product roadmap with a number of new details on what the foundation is hoping to release between now and the end of 2010, including information on when to expect the next major iteration of Firefox.

The report details that Firefox 4.0 is due to arrive in either October or November of 2010 and will bring with it a range of new features, such as a new slick user interface and multi-touch gesture suppport. But take note that this report is currently classed as a ‘draft’ and could be open to any number of changes.

For those existing Firefox users, a plentiful number of changes can be expected prior to the late 2010 release date of 4.0, with both 3.6 and 3.7 lined up for debut before then. These new releases will offer such improvements and features as faster javascript handling, improved form completion tools, bookmark synchronization and pageload enhancements.

Mozilla also revealed that when Firefox 4.0 does hit, it will take a leaf out of Google Chrome’s book, as each tab will function with it’s own separate process, reducing the instances of losing your precious browser session.

Anyone with a computer and Internet connection can be off to see “The Wizard of Oz” for free next month, courtesy of Netflix Inc.’s movie-streaming service.

The free showings will be available throughout the U.S. for 24 hours beginning at 9 a.m. EDT Oct. 3.

It’s part of a publicity stunt to draw attention to the film’s 70th anniversary. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is celebrating the occasion by selling a special edition of the movie on Blu-ray and DVD beginning Sept. 29.

While Time Warner Inc.’s home video unit is trying to drum up more sales, Netflix is hoping to introducing more people to the convenience of streaming movies over the Internet. The technology already has helped Netflix — the leading DVD-by-mail service — attract more than 4 million subscribers since the company unveiled its streaming service in 2007.

Netflix’s 10.6 million subscribers will be able to watch “The Wizard of Oz” in high-definition during the free promotion if they have a flat-panel TV and one of the many gadgets compatible with the company’s streaming service. Customers just have to remember to add the movie to their queues.

Non-subscribers should be able to watch the movie for free on their computers by going to http://www.netflix.com/wizardofoz.