Low Cost PCs Threaten Ability To Innovate
Maintaining that "someone" is subsidizing the actual cost of low-cost PCs ($199 at Wal-Mart) running the LindowsOS, Microsot's Steve Ballmer insists Microsoft won't cut costs to be competitive. Ballmer: Windows prices are firm [ZDNet Tech News] 

---

Sell To LOB Managers
The discussion of how cost-justification duties are increasingly falling to line-of-business managers overlooks the larger trend - that LOB managers are increasingly driving all aspects of IT acquisitions. It's no longer adequate - arguably, it never was - to simply target the IT organization in sales and marketing efforts.

Business units inherit more IT cost-justification duties [Computerworld] 

---

Upside Shuts Down, Red Herring Retrenches
The NYT reports that Upside has followed Forbes ASAP into publishing oblivion by ceasing publication. Also, Red Herring has been sold to an investor and has seen staff shrink from 400 to less than 50. Data specific to Upside isn't at hand, but the entire tech publishing sector has seen ad pages - and consequently revenue - disappear. Pages for Red Herring are down nearly 70% year over year. 

---

Hurwitz Goes Under
Computerworld and InformationWeek report that IT analyst firm Hurwitz Group Inc. closed its doors and has gone out of business. 

---

So. Is That A Sell?
Gates Unloads $493 Million In Microsoft, Puts His Cash In Health Care Stocks [TechWeb] 

---

Kangaroo Kourt? Or Just Klumsy Kops?
At best, this sounds like a case of incredibly inept law enforcement officials who allowed evidence to be manipulated and damaged. At worst, they're railroading this guy.

News.Com: Electronic evidence anchors porn case. A Rochester, N.Y., federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former Xerox engineer accused of trafficking in child pornography to nearly four years in prison. The government's prosecution of Larry Benedict, 45, is unusual because all the evidence in the case is electronic, and all of the evidence appears to have been allegedly tampered with or otherwise altered after it was in government custody. [Tomalak's Realm] 

---

No Correlation Between Options, Performance
The study asserts that "The relationship between executives' stock holdings and their companies' performance is so close to zero that it is zero in statistical terms." As the article notes, this means an alphabetical ranking of companies is as apt to predict their performance as a ranking based on executives' holdings."

Options Do Not Raise Performance, Study Finds. Is the economic rationale for awarding managers stock to align their interests with those of shareholders as solid as it has always been? No. By David Leonhardt. [New York Times: Business] 

---

A Little Vulture Capital To Keep The Wheels Turning?
To the extent the claims are accurate, venture capitalists are at some risk of making themselves irrelevant. Having been burned by bad investments, entrepreneurs report VC are now increasingly risk averse and seeking demanding terms. At this rate, it won't take long before entrepreneurs and other investors just take a pass.

Venture Capitalists Are Taking the Gloves Off. Venture capitalists are offering the companies they bankroll increasingly hard-knuckled deals that leave little wealth for a start-up's managers or original backers. By Lynnley Browning. [New York Times: Business] 

---