] Even as the prospect of high-skilled American jobs moving
] to low-wage countries like India ignites hot political
] debate, some entrepreneurs are finding that India's
] vaunted high-technology work force is not always as
] effective as advertised.

The hidden costs of IT outsourcing are starting to become apparent...

Companies Finding Some Computer Jobs Best Done in U.S.

]
] This should keep you busy. IBM has subpoenaed almost
] everyone, including the following:
]
] * Morgan Keegan
] * EV1
] * Oracle
] * Royce
] * CAI
] * Center7
] * Novell
] * Canopy
] * S2

IBM Subpoenas Almost Everybody

] Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. have
] all jumped onto the Opteron bandwagon. Dell Inc. remains
] the only top-tier server maker yet to adopt the 64-bit
] processor.

Intel and Dell are practically married ... but Opteron may well
break it up.

Dell Will Join Opteron Party, AMD CEO Says

] The suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the
] Eastern District of Texas, contends that Forgent deserves
] royalties from the hardware and software makers based on
] its patent holdings that cover the compression technology
] behind JPEG. The format is one of the most popular
] methods for compressing and sharing images on the
] Internet.

Graphics patent suit targets Dell, others - News - ZDNet

As of 10:20EDT, SCOX was down 0.46 (6.41%) to $6.72, having
fallen from about $10 last Thursday!

U: (20040422) They rebounded about $1.50/20% today
on huge volume (&gt 1M shares). Maybe short coverage, maybe buyback...
very screwy.

] Last July, while most people were taking summer vacations,
] the Sony Corporation of America made a little noticed,
] but crucial announcement. Jay Samit, a longtime music
] industry executive, was appointed general manager of Sony
] Connect, a new subsidiary that will sell songs online and
] allow consumers to play them on their Sony gadgets.

Its really remarkable the way Sony screwed this up. At one point,
Sony was effectively suing itself: on one side as a member of some
anti-drm consumer electronics group and on the other as a pro-IP
record label thing!

They aren't going to make things better by introducing yet
another propriatery media format, either.

Teaching an Old Walkman Some New Steps

]
] Now it's getting interesting. BayStar wants SCO to
] immediately redeem BayStar's 20,000 shares of SCO's A-1
] Convertible Preferred Stock. They say SCO has breached
] their agreement. SCO denies any breach. Here is the
] agreement that they are fighting over. Here is the press
] release. My, this was a short honeymoon.

BayStar is basically telling SCO they want their $20M back.

U: SCOX closed down $1.29 (13.35%) at $8.37

Baystar Sends SCO a Letter

]
] But Microsoft just isn't the phenom it used to be. After
] 29 years, the software giant is starting to look like a
] star athlete who's past his prime. Growth is tepid.
] Expansion is stymied. Bureaucracy is a concern. And a
] company that used to be so intimidating it attracted
] antitrust suits on two continents seems, well,
] vulnerable.

If M$ can't reinvent the desktop OS and office suite with
Longhorn, I think Linux is really going to start snowballing
in the desktop space in just a few more years.

There's a quote in here from Gates that he thinks that M$'s
biggest competitor right now is their own installed base;
they have been having more and more trouble pushing upgrades.

BW Online | April 19, 2004 | Microsoft's Midlife Crisis

] Sun Microsystems Inc. has decided to drop the
] next-generation UltraSparc V from its road map in favor
] of its recently disclosed Rock processor, signaling a
] shift in the strategic direction of the company's
] processor division.

Is it just me or does it make no sense at all that Sun would be
making a huge investment in SPARC at this point.

Sun to drop UltraSparc V in favor of Rock processor - Computerworld

] No sooner has digital tunes really started to catch on,
] we hear that the $0.99-per-song -- or less, if you go to
] Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) -- price tag is being threatened.
] According to The Wall Street Journal, the recording
] industry has been trying to cook up ways to charge folks
] more for music. Even Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iTunes and
] Roxio's (Nasdaq: ROXI) Napster services have been
] charging premiums for some of the big names and hot new
] releases, the article said.

They just don't get it ...

The Death of Dollar Downloads? [Motley Fool Take] April 7, 2004