It sure seems like a verbal loophole, saying you won't accept money from lobbyists but will accept it from their paymasters.

The technocrat.net public discussion site is shut down. This has happened because the site never achieved the ability to financially sustain its editorial staff and system expenses with its revenues. When it became evident that Technocrat was un-viable as a business, I found that I did not wish to keep supporting the site as a hobby. Certain elements of the community that developed here, unfortunately, creep me out. At the end I faced the decision of asking for donations to keep the site running, or letting it die, and it became clear to me that I'd feel better if it would just die.

I am very busy building a new software business, with some great new (and yet unannounced) Open Source software in development. I must focus on that for now.

Best holiday wishes to you all.

Polaroids owner, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, filed for bankruptcy in October after its assets were frozen by a judge. ... Petters Groups founder, Thomas Petters, was arrested Oct. 3 on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors accused him of siphoning money from business ventures since 1995 to support an extravagant lifestyle.

As the economy turns south, PR firms are under increasing pressure to perform and justify their monthly retainers which range from $10,000 to $30,000 or more. In short, they have to spam the tech world to get coverage, or lose their jobs.

due to a recent spate of mishaps, it sure looks like that when it comes to the desktop and end-user side of things, Microsoft's days may be numbered. ... without question Vista was truly a public relations black-eye. It is incomprehensible how a company in the business for so long would release a desktop OS that had so many driver issues and was so bloated. ... Fierce competition in the desktop and end-user application space is looming large over Microsoft.

Then, there is this push of Windows Live. Since revamping Hotmail for this Live platform, there are numerous times when Windows Live Mail Hotmail simply hasn't loaded for me. Installing Live applications like Writer, Photo and Messenger takes a long time. Performance also seems a bit sluggish when using these applications

Finally, there is the Internet Explorer security mess. It's not just limited to IE 8, but it affects versions all the way back to IE 5. Microsoft's response on Tech Net was to advise users to temporarily switch to another browser. Could this latest security issue and the fact that it had not been addressed for the last several years ... be that proverbial straw that draws the masses to alternative personal computing offerings?

Wii is outselling the next closest gaming console, the XBox 360 by almost 3 to 1 in November. Microsoft had hoped that black Friday would propel them to the front of the market, but the Wii held onto its lead and actually pulled farther ahead than anyone had imagined. Wii shipments this month have exceeded 2.04 million while the XBox tallied in at 836,000, far under monthly prospects. Playstation ranks a very distant 3rd, shipping only 378,000.

Bellini, the top-ranked software analyst by Institutional Investor magazine, said every one of Microsoft's five divisions may miss the company's and analysts' sales forecasts. The world's biggest software maker won't be able to cut enough costs to meet profit goals. ... "Enterprises have gone on a buyers' strike just like consumers have," said Bellini. "You see the unemployment numbers — I don't think people are worrying about upgrading laptops and desktops."

"I don't see how they can eke it out," she said. "The environment has gotten materially worse since they gave forecasts."

More about netbooks here and here.

The risk posed by netbooks is just one in a series of cannibalization threats faced by Microsoft, the world's largest software company, that is already starting to weigh on the company's revenue growth. ... the company is struggling to offer its core Office suite of productivity tools over the Internet, a service broadly known as "cloud computing," without eroding sales of packaged versions of the products.

the move will "[s]horten the period following a change in control during which the termination of employment would trigger an employee's eligibility for severance benefits under the severance plans from two years to one year," "[c]larify the circumstances under which an employee may terminate his or her employment for 'good reason,'" and "[p]rovide that if a potential change in control transaction is pending, Yahoo!'s Board of Directors . . . may terminate or amend the severance plans in connection with a negotiated change in control transaction."

as this comes in the wake of 1,500 layoffs, the amendments probably aren't going to do corporate morale much good.

Office Depot Inc. said it will close almost 10 percent of its North American stores and cut 2,200 jobs as the U.S. recession saps demand ... Office Depot has posted losses or profit declines for the past six quarters as businesses stop buying desk chairs and computers.

Todays announcement boosts cash flow in year one, which improves the companys prospects for survival, said Poole. His firm manages $34 billion, including Office Depot shares.

This isn't to say, though, that Vista SP2 isn't worthwhile. In fact, it is. ... For now, the beta is a bit rough, so unless you have a need to test it out, I wouldn't recommend downloading it

It's a funny thing how Microsoft succeeds in getting their logo and the Windows logo plastered on everything — computers, advertising, and even other companies' ads. That "We recommend Windows Vista!" blurb is on every darned ad and product catalog that exists, it seems. Every word that falls from the mouths of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer is dutifully recorded and reported. And yet the news media go all forgetful when they're reporting on yet another malware outbreak. The most recent example of this is the mass worm outbreak at our largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

The Koobface virus uses Facebook's private messaging system to infect computers via a shared video. [blames Facebook]

You only have to look at the example messages above to see this and it should be used as a good hint these messages are malicious [blames user]

Because social networking sites allow messages only between fellow members who are confirmed friends, many users assume they are safe. [blames user]

Best advice remains never to open unexpected e-mail attachments to reduce the risk of infection, even if they come from people you trust. [too stupid for words]

The story has been the same forever. The word "Windows" accompanies every fluff tech article except the one type that seems most important to users. Why is it that Journalist keep making the same mistake?

Microsoft has asked "hundreds and hundreds" of sites to test whether they work with IE 8's default standards mode, or to add a tag or HTTP header to their site to instruct IE 8 to view the site in compatible-view mode. ... BBC, CNN, Facebook, and MySpace ... still don't work with IE 8.

Most web-site and online applications are optimized to old versions of IE. Version 8.0, therefore, introduces a significant breaking change as sites won't display the same way.

Now that we can officially say were in a recession, it makes sense that theres a resurgence of sites devoted to floundering companies. ... they include LayoffBlog.com, Screwdd, FuckedStartups, It Died, Timely Demise and web2.0fuckedcompany.com [and] TechCrunchs longer-running deadpool.

A Microsoft spokeswoman confirms that the bribery machine "experienced an unexpected outage for several hours." But Redmond is sorry. "We apologize for any inconvenience that this issue caused," she said.