Arizona

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

From MSNBC:

LifeLock Inc. -- an identity theft protection company that backed its guarantees by putting its CEO's social security number on the side of its trucks -- will pay $12 million to settle claims it misrepresented its services, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Hoping to make Vista a distant memory, Microsoft on Thursday rolled out its highly anticipated Windows 7 operating system. The latest iteration of the software giant's flagship product offers a new interface and new features that aim to help consumers make the most of their PCs.

"With Windows 7, there's never been a better time to be a PC," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Together with our partners, we're bringing more choice, flexibility and value to the market than ever before. With Windows 7, you're sure to find a PC that fits your life."

Making a Windows Comeback

Richard Conniff in the New York Times:

A northern New Jersey man is charged with stealing a prime piece of Internet real estate and reselling it to basketball player Mark Madsen in one of the nation's first prosecutions of a suspected domain name thief.

Daniel Goncalves, 25, of Union, hacked into an online account belonging to one of the owners of the P2P.com domain name, New Jersey State Police said Monday. He allegedly shifted ownership to himself and resold the Web site address on eBay to Madsen, a Los Angeles Clippers forward who did not know the name was stolen.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and other company executives said Thursday they are excited about Windows 7, cloud computing, and other directions -- even as they tried to address the revenue loss reported for the company's fiscal year that ended June 30.

Ballmer acknowledged that the company, long the dominant force in consumer and business software, is getting "competition from a lot of different places." Among operating systems, he mentioned Linux, Apple, Android and Google's Chrome OS, although he noted that he doesn't know "what Chrome OS is yet."

Windows 7 Is 'Job One'

Work on a $4.2 billion chip plant supplying Advanced Micro Devices Inc. starts Friday in a woodsy patch of upstate New York -- across the Atlantic from AMD's sister factories and in the middle of a recession.

Even as the United States continues to bleed manufacturing jobs, AMD spinoff GlobalFoundries Inc. and its competitors in the chip industry are sinking billions into U.S. factories.

Qwest Communications International Inc. is doubling its top Internet download speeds in some areas to keep up with the offerings of cable companies.

The phone company said Monday it is introducing a plan with download speeds of up to 40 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 20 mbps in parts of 15 cities, including Denver; Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Salt Lake City; Seattle and Vancouver, Wash.; and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

It costs $110 per month for the first year when combined with home phone service.

Yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed an order that set aside 676,000 acres of federal land out west for the possibility of developing solar projects.  Of the huge lot, 351,000 acres are located in the Mojave Desert with the rest located in areas in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.