Those rocks in iPod boxes are looking at me funny

Apple And The Mafia Threatened My Life Via My iPod, Says Man

Always in search of competing better with Microsoft

Oracle:

Of course, the merger still faces antitrust scrutiny, but Oracle insists it will be completed by the end of the summer. Oracle is probably right. And with ownership of Sun’s Java programming language and the Solaris operating system, Oracle will be a systems and software powerhouse capable of taking Microsoft (MSFT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and IBM (IBM) to the mat.

Last four standing: Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, and HP? Whither Dell, EMC, SAP?

Analyst mac sales showdown

Up. Down. Up.

Apple Shows Weakness In PC Market

Mac shipments up and down in competing surveys

Analysts pull Mac sales numbers out of a hat

Final word goes to Enderle.

Quality of life matters

People need (and like) water:

In Yonkers, a long-stalled revival effort for the city’s ailing downtown core that could break ground this fall includes a plan to re-expose 1,900 feet of the Saw Mill River, which currently runs through a giant flume that was laid beneath city streets in the 1920s.

Cities from San Antonio to Singapore have been resuscitating rivers and turning storm drains into streams. In Los Angeles, residents’ groups and some elected officials are looking anew at buried or concrete-lined creeks as assets instead of inconveniences, inspired partly by Seoul’s example.

Short-lived euphoria for Microsoft

Hmm:

Turner may not be the best known analyst on Microsoft, but he certainly is now the most bearish – and one of the boldest.

Turner contends EPS for the fiscal fourth quarter ended June, which is due next week, will come up short of Street expectations: he sees 33 cents, while the Street is at 36 cents. That puts his FY 2009 EPS estimate at $1.66, below the Street at $1.70. Moreover, his forecast for FY 2010 is for $1.64, well off the Street at $1.83.

The much lower number for the June 2010 year reflects his view that adoption of Windows 7 will be slower than the Street expects. Moreover, he thinks MSFT is going to see its market share in the operating system segment gradually eroded by simpler offerings from rivals – for instance, Google (GOOG) Chrome OS.

Duck! I see flying chairs.