Stories by: Paul McNamara

The question of why so many Google products are classified "beta" -- and classified thusly for so long -- has knocked around the tech press for some time. However, no one really seemed to know the answer, at least no one outside of Google.

It all started when Adam Savage of MythBusters fame told a convention audience that legal bullies from the credit card industry had cowed Discovery Channel into scotching an episode of the show that was to have taken on RFID.

That's the uncomfortable verdict for PCMall and PCConnection rendered last week by the "ForeSee Results Top 100 Online Retail Satisfaction Index." Not only did those two outlets bring up the rear among computer and electronics sites, they brought up the rear, period.

Microsoft and Novell announced Monday that they are intensifying their joint effort to persuade Chinese IT executives to pay for their software, specifically through the much maligned marketing relationship that finds Redmond beating its deafening drum for the SUSE Linux Enterprise distribution controlled by its onetime bitter, now compliant rival.

The message posted Friday, February 22 on emacs-devel by Richard Stallman was cryptic: "Stefan and Yidong offered to take over, so I am willing to hand over Emacs development to them."

We'll get to my brother the axe murderer in a moment.

Sooner or later, Google is going to have to start doing a better job of coming to grips with the collateral damage created by the ever-expanding array of whiz-bang applications that have made it a worldwide phenomenon.