Short Takes
November 26, 2007 (Computerworld) -- California Secretary of State Debra Bowen filed a lawsuit charging that Election Systems & Software Inc. sold 972 ballot-marking devices in the state last year without completing recertification requirements. It is seeking nearly $15 million in reimbursements and penalties. U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling disclosed that a CD containing personal information on 15,000 participants in the national insurance plan was “lost in transit” by a courier used by the U.K.’s tax agency, HM Revenue & Customs. Hewlett-Packard Co. credited sharp boosts in its OpenView and Mercury software businesses as key reasons for strong sales and profits in its second fiscal quarter, which ended Oct. 31. HP reported a profit of $2.3 billion on sales of $23.8 billion. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has launched Spider, which combines the chip maker’s new Phenom quad-core processors, graphics cards and chip sets in one platform.