Eideard

Microsoft Corp. will require hardware makers to test their device drivers on Windows 7 to receive certification for Windows Vista, according to documents posted (.pdf) on the company’s site.

“Beginning with the release of the first beta of the next operating system, all Windows Vista client and Windows Server 2008 submissions must include a complete [set of] test logs for the new beta OS,” the company said in the document.

Although the company has disclosed a few tidbits about the OS, including multi-touch functions similar to what Apple Inc. now offers on its iPhone, Microsoft has not publicly set a release date for Beta 1…

Drivers don’t necessarily have to pass those tests in the first beta of Windows 7, said Microsoft, but the results must be turned over to the company. And Microsoft reminded the hardware makers and system sellers that it will hold them to account when Windows 7 nears. “Issues with hardware, system BIOS or drivers must be investigated and resolved by partners prior to the launch of the logo program for the new OS,” Microsoft said.

There are sufficient reason$ for someone to want to design products for Windows. Right?

For Australian combat troops the war in Iraq is over.

The Defence Force in southern Iraq has formally handed its commitment to the United States and lowered the Australian flag above Camp Terendak, at the US-run air base Tallil.

The handover, which fulfils the Rudd Government’s election commitment to withdraw Australia’s combat troops from a deeply divisive war, was based on an agreement between Australian and US commanders.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is expected to attend a ceremony for returning troops in Queensland this month.

Rudd campaigned on getting Oz troops out of Iraq. He kept his promise.

An important segment of the environment is that which is built to house and protect us. Often, it contains deadly chemicals we use to clean and preserve the structure.

According to a new study, knowledge of potentially toxic household substances among primary caregivers for young children is alarmingly poor. The results show that less than one-third of primary caregivers for children under the age of six could correctly estimate the toxicity of household poisons.

Led by Rika N. O’Malley, M.D of the Albert Einstein Medical Center, the study involved screening primary caregivers of young children who visited emergency departments, and asked participants to identify toxic items from a list of common household products.

“Young children are at risk of household chemical ingestion and their caretakers often do not have good understanding how toxic those chemicals are,” says O’Malley. “Parental education needs to be focused more on younger caretakers with more children.”

The study did identify a number of factors that increased the likelihood of knowledge of household poisons. These include: more education, responsibility for fewer children and an age greater than twenty-three years.

Yeah, yeah, I know – common sense. But, common sense still is stuck at analyzing a population often lacking in education and experience with a wider world.

Five weeks ago Leila Hussein told The Observer the chilling story of how her husband had killed their 17-year-old daughter over her friendship with a British soldier in Basra. Now Leila, who had been in hiding, has been murdered – gunned down in cold blood. The report on the final act of a brutal tragedy.

Leila Hussein lived her last few weeks in terror. Moving constantly from safe house to safe house, she dared to stay no longer than four days at each. It was the price she was forced to pay after denouncing and divorcing her husband – the man she witnessed suffocate, stamp on, then stab their young daughter Rand in a brutal ‘honour’ killing for which he has shown no remorse.

Though she feared reprisals for speaking out, she really believed that she would soon be safe. Arrangements were well under way to smuggle her to the Jordanian capital, Amman. In fact, she was on her way to meet the person who would help her escape when a car drew up alongside her and two other women who were walking her to a taxi. Five bullets were fired: three of them hit Leila, 41. She died in hospital after futile attempts to save her.

Her death, on 17 May, is the shocking denouement to a tragedy which had its origins in an innocent friendship between her student daughter, Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, and a blond, 22-year-old British soldier known only as Paul.

She died, still a virgin, four months after she had last seen him when her father, Abdel-Qader Ali, 46, discovered that she had been seen talking ‘to the enemy’ in public. She had brought shame on his honour, was his defence, and he had to cleanse his family name. Despite openly admitting the murder, he has received no punishment.

It was two weeks after Rand’s death on 16 March that a grief-stricken Leila, unable to bear living under the same roof as her husband, found the strength to leave him. She had been beaten and had had her arm broken. It was a courageous move. Few women in Iraq would contemplate such a step. Leila told The Observer in April: ‘No man can accept being left by a woman in Iraq. But I would prefer to be killed than sleep in the same bed as a man who was able to do what he did to his own daughter.’

Truer words were never spoken.