First you got your hands on a leaked copy of the Windows 7 RTM. Bad idea, says Microsoft.

Then you tracked down 7loader, which took advantage of a leaked Lenovo product key. We know it's out there, came the nonchalant reply from Redmond.

And now, thanks to a cooperative effort, the workaround has already been defeated. The official blog post touts improvements in Windows 7, which "already includes an improved ability to detect hacks, also known as activation exploits, and alert customers who are using a pirated copy." The post continues, stating that no systems will ever be sold using the particular OEM key that was utilized by the exploit.

So what's Microsoft's real goal here? "Our objective isn't to stop every "mad scientist" that's out there from dabbling; our aim is to protect our customers from commercialized counterfeit software that impacts our customers' confidence in knowing they got what they paid for."

Sure...There's absolutely no reason it would have anything to do with crippling the biggest Windows competitor on the market - pirated copies of Windows.

Dell's doing it. Acer's kind of, sort of doing it. Now Lenovo has announced that they too will begin selling laptop computers pre-loaded with Linux. While Dell has gone with the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, Lenovo plans to offer Linux software provided by Novell (we assume that means Suse).

It's not clear which Lenovo laptop models will get the Linux treatment. But they should be on sale during the 4th quarter of 2007, and will be available to business and home users.

Pretty soon we're going to stop reporting every time a mass market computer manufacturer announces they'll

be distributing Linux PCs, because it's starting to get commonplace. Well, unless you count the possible scammers over at Medison that claim they'll be releasing a Linux-based PC for $150 using commonly available computer parts. That's not exactly commonplace. But it also looks like a case of too good to be true. We all know Microsoft Windows costs a lot of money, but picking up a fully functional PC for less than the price of Microsoft's operating system? That's probably just too good to be true.

Sony was hit hard with the battery recall mess that has been going on over the past few months. Now its time for the laptop makers to fight back, on a brand note. PC manufacturers believe that their brand images were tarnished due to the mass recall of Sony PC batteries. Apple, Dell, Hitachi, IBM, Lenovo, and Toshiba have all recalled batteries in fear those consumers machines may overheat and catch fire. Even though Sony has said that they would in fact cover all recall costs, Toshiba is stepping out in front and asking for more to fix their brand image, and loss of potential sales. Other manufacturers have yet to file such claims.

So now we have another manufacturer who is recalling Sony batteries for its laptop computer products. Lenovo has issued a voluntary battery recall for over 500,000 batteries. Where does the carnage end? Will Sony still provide batteries for laptops after this, or is this a minor set-back? I know mistakes happen, but I don't know that Sony can afford another big battery catastrophe like this if they want to keep their battery business. Do they even care? Sony is a big company, so what do you think, will this incident hurt their bottom line enough to matter? This is the one time when I am actually glad I have an older laptop. One that isn't subject to a battery recall. It really isn't much of a consolation, but its something, right?

OK, this isn't exactly a download. But all that software has to run on something, right?

Greenpeace has released their first ever global "e-waste" scorecard that ranks computer and electronics manufacturers in terms of how much effort they are putting into shrinking their environmental toxin profiles, and how successful they're being. Many people probably don't realize it, but most consumer electronics are potential mini environmental disasters: Lithium, Mercury, Bromine and Nickel--among other things--in batteries, switches, and relays; more lead than you can shake a stick at; petroleum-based plastic and polymer shells. And we haven't even gotten to the chemicals used in production or how the raw materials are mined and harvested. So how did the companies do? As you can see from the graphic above, not well. On a scale of one to ten, Dell and Nokia scored respectable sevens for their strong recycling programs and efforts to phase out some dangerous chemicals. In fact, their continued use of dangerous chemicals seems to be the only thing holding Dell back is its reliance on BFR-coated materials and PVC, for which companies lose double points in the rankings. The rest of their scores look surprisingly green.

On the other end of the spectrum are Motorloa and Lenovo, with scores of 1.7 and 1.3, respectively. Not much to say there, other than "shame on you." Apple, at 2.7, also loses out big, largely for playing nice with companies like Motorola. Apple itself has fairly high standards, but imposes few or no environmental requirements on its suppliers and contractors. They also don't match up to higher-scoring companies in the takeback/recycling department, offering take back policies in only five markets, and then only of their own products and only with a new purchase, although the policy is a little more liberal for corporate and educational customers. They get a "shame on you," too.

Of course, Greenpeace is hardly an unbiased source, so caveat lector, but it's an interesting start to what will almost certainly be a long and important discussion. Hopefully the next version will be a little more comprehensive. Where are the the chip makers, the big iron vendors? An electronics reprt card that doesn't even mention Sun, IMB, Cisco, Intel, or AMD seems incomplete to me.

[via J.Y.]

For awhile now people have been coming up with novel uses for the Sudden Motion Sensor, the accelerometer that hides inside Apple laptops, but this is the first one I've seen for a non-Apple laptop: knockAge is a Linux program for IBM and ThinkPads that lets you control your system by physically knocking on the side of it. It lets you record unique sequences of knocks and then configure specific commands for that knock. There's a video at YouTube showing knockAge being used to start the screensaver with one sequence of knocks and stop it with another, allowing the user to lock and unlock the computer using secret knocks. Of course, I'm not sure I'd want to use this for real security, but it's still pretty neat and might actually be useful. Of course, basically any laptop could be made to do this by substituting, say, the space bar for an accelerometer, but this is cooler.

[Via Miles Barr]

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, or USCC, is calling for an investigation into Lenovo, the Chinese company which bought IBM's PC arm last year, before the State Department closes a $13 million deal to buy 15,000 Lenovo PCs. The USCC wants to be assured that the Chinese computers, which are built in Mexico and North Carolina with components manufactured in Taiwan, are not equipped with bugging devices that could be used to spy on the U.S. government. Lenovo exec Jeff Carlisle says the prope is unwarranted, but says Lenovo has "nothing to hide" and the company will cooperate fully.

[Via Engadget]