At a stroke, MS cuts critical vuln reports. It’s easy [The Register]

Microsoft Spills Customer Data. A server glitch makes internal Microsoft documents, including a massive database of customer names and addresses, accessible online. By Brian McWilliams. [Wired News]

Secret U.S. court OKs electronic spying. A secretive federal court grants police broad authority to monitor Internet usage, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects. [CNET News.com]

Fiorina echoes Gates’ optimism. In her Comdex keynote, the Hewlett-Packard CEO picks up where Bill Gates left off, saying that in spite of current woes, the tech industry still has plenty of forward momentum. [CNET News.com]

For W3C, it’s a question of semantics. The influential Web standards group upgrades its Semantic Web activity, a push to make the Web a little more intelligent. But don’t call it AI. [CNET News.com]

MS exec rattles sabre, suggests Linux could infringe patents. Whose patents he doesn’t say… [The Register]

Segways go on sale. No need to walk ever again. Sidewalk interloper [The Register]

MS accused of banning mod chip Xbox from Live service. Have they got a little list? [The Register]

Cheap is in at Comdex. The convention, once the pinnacle of corporate ostentation, has decidedly gone downscale. If IBM announced it were throwing a kegger in a parking lot, it wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. [CNET News.com]

Two Washington Post articles I found from Joe Conason’s Journal:
CIA Led Way With Cash Handouts
CIA’s Cash Toppled Taliban