1. , and : Social media sites Facebook and Twitter took a beating this week after both were subjected to a DOS attack. Twitter was down for two hours on Thursday and still suffered from the attacks on Friday. Facebook reported that people had trouble accessing the site on Thursday, but resolved the situation late that morning Pacific Time. A blogger from Georgia claimed that the Russian government sponsored the attacks in an effort to silence him for speaking out against the country's handling of Georgia. While Twitter was mum on the attacks' motivation, a Facebook spokeswoman said they were directed at an "activist blogger" -- possibly the Georgia advocate -- rather than the sites themselves.
2. : Google and Apple experienced a parting of ways Monday when Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board. Schmidt and Apple executive Steve Jobs reached the decision mutually, Apple said. Google's advances into the OS and mobile-phone spaces move it closer to Apple's main businesses, decreasing Schmidt's effectiveness on the board, Jobs said. Schmidt had been on the Apple board since August 2006.
3. : A filing from Yahoo revealed information on its recent search deal with Microsoft. Yahoo will receive US$50 million a year from Microsoft for three years, according to a document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Other interesting bits from the filing include how Microsoft and Yahoo can opt out of the deal. In one such exit move, Yahoo can pull out if average revenue per search flounders compared to Google's average revenue per search.
4. : Another SEC filing confirmed that Microsoft sees Linux as a threat to its Windows OS, something Microsoft executives had made pretty clear already through various public proclamations. Microsoft obliquely referenced the use of Linux in netbooks as a cause for concern. Manufacturers are looking to lower costs in emerging markets where "new, lower-price PC form-factors" are becoming popular, and Linux has gained some traction as a viable OS for these machines, Microsoft said in the filing.
5. , and : Intelligence-gathering operations, government recruitment of hackers and data-stealing cash machines may sound like the stuff of spy novels but in fact were part of the fun at this week's Defcon hacker conference. Show organizers kicked out three South Korean "journalists" after the trio raised suspicions by asking too-detailed questions. A U.S. Air Force colonel attended the conference to recruit candidates for government jobs, saying Defcon's character has shifted away from malicious hackers. And an effort to pilfer bank information with a fake cash machine failed. An attendee thought that the machine, placed in the hotel hosting the event, looked suspicious and, after examining it, discovered that its card reader skimmed bank card numbers.