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Stories of the month - October 2007
McDonald's wi-fi, The IT Crowd, ID cards and naked PCs...

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Wednesday 31 October 2007

This month Vista, The IT Crowd, wi-fi and naked PCs all proved a hit with silicon.com readers.

The UK ID card scheme was making headlines again with the Home Office explaining to silicon.com how information held on the National Identity Register will be secured, as well as the penalties for abusing access under the Identity Cards Act.

Stories of the month - October 2007

Click on the links below to read the stories everyone is talking about...

Dell CEO: Linux server sales increasing

Microsoft says sorry for update blunder

Photos: Are you part of The IT Crowd?

AS Profile: Mark Zuckerberg

Cheat Sheet: MiFID

McDonald's: 'Do you want free wi-fi with that?'

Vista SP1 'lacks wow factor', says Microsoft

Naked PCs: The naked truth

AS Profile: Steve Jobs

ID cards will be secure, insists Home Office

The comments were made after Frank Abagnale, the one-time confidence trickster turned security expert (who also inspired the film Catch Me If You Can), said the scheme should be scrapped if the government can't guarantee its security.

We also found out how techies can inspire television comedy, with an intriguing interview with writer and director of The IT Crowd, Graham Linehan.

Meanwhile, October saw the arrival of silicon.com's 2007 Agenda Setters list which emphasised the impact of a new generation of tech leaders, with 23-year-old Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, named the most influential figure in tech this year.

But the current obsession with all things Apple was also reflected with the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, coming in at number two.

Talking of big brands, McDonald's announced plans to roll out a free wi-fi service in its 1,200 UK outlets in an effort to attract new customers.

silicon.com readers had their say this month about the pros and cons of so-called 'naked PCs' - or PCs sold without an operating system - but the idea doesn't appear to be everyone's cup of tea.

Microsoft has had better months after it admitted that the first service pack for its Vista OS lacked wow factor, as it doesn't include any new features that should be considered must-haves. And the Redmond company also apologised for an error with its latest Windows Server update which, in some cases, installed the Windows Desktop Search app without the user's approval.

And with the European investment banking regulation MiFID due to come into force on 1 November, October also saw renewed interest in silicon.com's MiFID Cheat Sheet.