- Google supports right of users to unlock Android boot-loader
As Ryan Paul at Ars Technica explains, a security engineer at the search giant, Nick Kralevich, posted a statement to the effect that locking down the boot loader isn’t necessary to achieve the carrier’s security requirements. In the same release, he highlights the openness of Google’s own new phone, the Nexus S. You do have to wonder how the energy going into these locks could be re-invested given how the modding community has defeated them to a one, anyway. - Microsoft launches its own map/reduce competitor
The Register has details that I will admit confound me. As Cade Metz points out, there is already Hadoop which runs pretty much everywhere. As near as I can tell, this is a pretty transparent move to increase sales of high end Windows boxes, regardless of its research heritage. I also have to wonder whether this exposes Microsoft to complaints based on Google’s patents on map/reduce. - National ID scheme to finally end in the UK, The Register
- Microsoft’s HTML5 prototypes could bring greater acceptance of developing standards, Ars Technica
- FCC opens developer challenge, to build apps for testing network QoS, Gov 2.0, ht @digiphile