GAJIZMO

We caught an artist's interesting take on the Microsoft store concept. Is a Microsoft store more like Wal-Mart or a little closer to Crazy Eddie? eWEEK offers an artist’s rendition of what the future holds for Microsoft’s retail efforts.

Check out this spec of whimsy at eWeek.

The UK government is considering a plan to require all mobile phone users to register on a national database and confirm their identities by presenting a passport or some form of government issued id. The plan, already being decried by privacy advocates as extending the UK governments massive surveillance capabilities and another step closer to a dreaded surveillance society, was reported by The Sunday Times.

According to the Times report, the move is aimed primarily at the 40 million pre-paid mobile phone users who are able to stay relatively anonymous because the service can be paid using cash and does not require personal identification. The pay-as-you go mobile phone service is popular among criminals and terrorists but is also used by millions of people who  wish anonymity or privacy in their communication.

A similar requirement has been in use in Japan for some time now where prepaid mobile phone users are subject even stricter identification requirements and where the service goes through a certain holding period prior to activation.

FTC action on spammers: takedown or temporary shutdown?

A post from the UN Dispatch

 If you are still skeptical about the connection between investing in girls and the social and economic development of poor countries read the report Girls Count from the Center on Global Development.

It's Blog Action Day Today!

Hello Bloggers! The day is finally here and it's already rockin! Thousands of posts have been going up in the last few hours as countries wake up to Blog Action Day. Follow the action over at http://blogactionday.org

Posts, Press and More ...

1. Use Your Business Success To Help Eliminate Poverty
    
2. How To Make Yourself Happier During the Economic Crisis
    
3. On Footy and Poverty
    
4. 30 Simple Ways to Battle Poverty With Technology
    
5. 15 Volunteers with 200 Lunches hit the streets of San Antonio
    
6. Instantiate Podcast- How Technology Companies are Contributing to Fighting Poverty
    

It's all happening people! Find TONS more articles through Google's Blogsearch.

Small British Columbia school gets taste of Apple's bite, denies logo infringement

The logo for Apple is recognizable worldwide - its apple has a stylized bite out of its right side. The company has been using the symbol for about 30 years.

Victoria Business School's apple logo has been around for only three years. But Mr. Gerhard says its design incorporates a mountain and has three bumps on top instead of the two used by Apple. There is no bite out of the business school's apple.

"We're saying no one can use an apple for anything any more?" Mr. Gerhard said.

A Canadian human rights group based at the University of Toronto has uncovered a system that tracks politically charged text messages sent by customers of Tom-Skype, a joint venture of which eBay’s Skype is a partner.

The revelation draws more attention to the controversial Internet monitoring and filtering efforts by Chinese authorities, which recently drew international concern during the Beijing Olympics games this past summer. It has been reported that Chinese researchers have estimated 30,000 or more "Internet police" monitor online traffic, Web sites and blogs for political and other offending content in what is called the Golden Shield Project or the Great Firewall of China.

Related Discussions on the Web: Salon, p2pnet, Nart Villeneuve, The Next Web, The Dark Visitor, AppScout, ZDNet Government, The Register, The Blog known …, Connecting the Dots, Memex 1.1 and CNET News

Related News: EFF to sue Bush, Cheney, NSA and others over telecom spying (NetworkWorld)

Here's looking at you, kids.

The first Android phone is dropping next week, and the people who pick it up will be toting around mobile Google software in their pocket wherever they go. They'll be using mobile Google apps, probably in concert with using Gmail, Gcal and Google Maps on their normal computer. We know that Google is tossing out all user data after 9 months, but you've got to wonder what kind of a picture Google is getting of its heavy users.
Follow this tongue-in-cheek story at Gizmodo.

T-mobile expected to move 400k Android phones in 2008