Flaming laptop a ThinkPad

A burning laptop that frightened passengers at Los Angeles International Airport over the weekend was a ThinkPad, Lenovo confirmed, and that notebook ships with Sony`s battery technology, says CNET.

The incident involved a passenger running back up the jetway as a plane was boarding with a smoking laptop that eventually caught fire, the report says.

Because the area of the computer containing the battery was severely burned, Lenovo has yet to confirm that the ThinkPad T43 was using one of Sony`s batteries.

A modified version of Mozilla Firefox that lets users browse the Web anonymously has been released, reports The Register.

The Torpark browser can be stored on, and run from, a Flash USB memory stick, which can effectively turn a PC into an anonymous terminal, the report says.

Explaining the motivation behind Torpark, Hacktivismo founder Oxblood Ruffin said: "We live in a time where acquisition technology is cherry picking and collating every aspect of our online lives - so it seems that it`s a browser attempting to redress that supposed imbalance."

Novell`s delay in doing its paper work for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has resulted in a $600 million debt default notice from Nasdaq and Wells Fargo, reports The Register.

The software firm can fend this off easily enough - an appeal will give it breathing space to get its paperwork in order.

According to Novell, the bank`s letter "states that this asserted default will not become an `event of default` under the indenture, if the company cures the default within 60 days after the date of the notice".

Parintins, an isolated city on the Amazon River in Brazil, officially joined the online digital age as Intel dedicated a wireless, high-speed Internet network for the city, reports InformationWeek.

Physical access to the area is chiefly available via a 27-hour upstream boat trip to Manaus, but now the 114 000 residents of Parintins are getting online access to medical, educational and commercial resources.

The network is deployed with WiMax and WiFi gear, supplied by Intel and its partners in the project, Cisco, CPqD, Embratel, Proxim, and Brazil`s Bradesco Foundation.