Retail mania, IE woes, EU charges

As in years past, this was a traditionally slow IT news week, especially in the U.S., where Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday was a primary focus, followed by the annual retail extravaganza known as Black Friday. For the uninitiated, the day after Thanksgiving is spent by many in wild throes of consumerism with some stores opening at the stroke of midnight to admit hoards of bargain hunters, while others spend online, on what we're told is the start of the holiday shopping season. While it may seem that the "black" refers to how woeful many will feel when their credit-card bills arrive, it's actually a reference to retailers moving into profitability because of holiday shopping. Our trivia lesson for the week over, we also should note that there was some real news that occurred, what with the ongoing IE exploit and the larger world not sidetracked by holidays, real or imagined.