MEPs vote against illegal downloading ban

European MPs have voted down a proposal to impose Internet banning orders on individuals who illegally download content, says Computing.co.uk.

The move conflicts with a UK government plan for a three-strike system against illegal downloaders.

"The vote shows that MEPs want to strike a balance between the interests of rights holders and those of consumers, and that big measures like cutting off Internet access shouldn't be used," said a spokeswoman for the European Parliament after the vote.

Yahoo is weighing its options to accept a buyout by Microsoft, or consider tie-ups with other companies, in particular a reported plan to join forces with AOL, as a way to stave off the software giant's advances, reports ITWorld.

The possibilities for the ending to the story that began on 1 February, when Microsoft made its $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo, have become dizzying, with rumours cropping up almost daily in the past week about what the ultimate outcome might be.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Yahoo's board was meeting to discuss the company's options, which to many seem limited to one: accepting Microsoft's current offer.

Gartner's analysts argue that conflicting server needs are increasing, necessitating Windows to adopt a multi-kernel approach, or perish under bloat and complexity, reports Daily Tech.

The analysts say that Windows is simply too big, and simpler and more targeted versions need to be developed. A controversial analysis by Gartner looks into Microsoft's Vista woes.

It's no secret that Windows Vista wasn't the resounding success that Microsoft hoped for. While Microsoft managed to push decent sales, it failed to surpass Windows XP's success and received a largely critical reception from the press.

A lot has been made this week of the beta launch of Google App Engine, a piece of software that lets users run applications on top of a company's own Web infrastructure, says eWeek.

But what's inside the platform and how is it different from the more mature AWS (Amazon Web Services) platform? Essentially, application developers will be able to harvest the same tools and building blocks Google uses for its own applications.

Google App Engine offers dynamic Web serving, storage through Google's Bigtable database system running on its GFS file system, automatic scaling and load balancing, says William Fellows, an analyst with The 451 Group who examined the Google App Engine in a research report on 10 April.