British publisher Penguin has launched a Web-based, collaborative novel that can be written, edited or read by anyone, anywhere thanks to "wiki" software, the technology behind Web encyclopedia Wikipedia. The novel, "A Million Penguins," went live on Thursday and its first lines are already being written, edited and rewritten by enthusiasts. Penguin, which embarked on the project with a group of creative writing and new media students, says it is using the novel as a test of whether a group of disparate and diverse people can create a "believable fictional voice."

According to a recent Reuters report, the FSF’s (Free Software Foundation) board was going to be looking into Novell’s rights to continue selling its version of the Linux operating system. That’s not actually what will be happening.

McAfee announced its initial foray into the emerging data loss prevention software market at the RSA Conference, launching a set of tools to manage the flow of sensitive information across corporate networks and endpoint devices. Built through a combination of internal development and McAfee’s October 2006 acquisition of Onigma, the package promises the ability for organizations to oversee and control data distribution via a wide range of desktop applications and storage technologies, including email and instant messaging systems, removable USB devices, CD-ROMs, and even printed documents.

Shareholders have filed an expanded securities-related lawsuit against Dell, adding Intel as a defendant over the chipmaker’s controversial marketing rebate program. The expanded complaint, filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, alleges that the computer giant failed to make required disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission and investors about the "existence, impact and uncertainty of Intel rebates." The lawsuit also names additional Dell executives and Dell’s auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to the complaint.

Americans lost about $49.3 billion in 2006 to criminals who stole their identities, an 11.5 percent decline that may reflect increased vigilance among consumers and businesses, a study released on Thursday shows. Losses declined from a revised $55.7 billion in 2005, according to the third annual study by Javelin Strategy & Research. They had increased in each of the prior two years.

IBM gathered business partners, industry analysts and reporters to unveil some innovations IBM is working on that it believes are commercially viable and could be on the market by 2012. Real-time language translation, medical monitoring via the mobile Web and nanotechnology to purify water are some of the innovations IBM Labs thinks will be on the market within five years.

Even as offshore outsourcing has matured, best practices have been few. Now two top academics reveal the principles that should guide CIOs.

To coincide with the release of Service Release 1, ThinPrint–the Mobile Enterprise experts, are making their Mobile Document Output System, Content Beamer, available for the first time as a free 30-day demo version. It is accessible via their Web site and comes equipped with a full range of functions. This software solution lets BlackBerry users print, send faxes, and transfer emails and attachments to Notebook monitors. The new version includes a Setup Assistant for simpler installation. In addition to this, other steps have been taken to enable easy installation and operation. Most mail attachments are now sent as PDF data, so the PDF printing process has been completely reworked, and is particularly resource-saving.

While the vast majority of PC components and peripherals work with Linux, some don’t work at all, and others are marginal. A leading Linux kernel developer has come up with a solution. In a recent blog and email posting, kernel hacker Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote, "The Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. No longer do you have to suffer through all of the different examples in the Linux Device Driver Kit, or pick through the thousands of example drivers in the Linux kernel source tree trying to determine which one is the closest to what you need to do."

The official Web site of Dolphin Stadium, home of Sunday’s Super Bowl XLI, has been hacked and seeded with exploit code targeting two known Windows security flaws. In the attack, which was discovered by malware hunters at Websense Security Labs, the server hosting the site was breached and a link to a malicious JavaScript file was inserted into the header of the front page of the site. Visitors to the site execute the script, which attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities.