Who says monopoly doesn’t pay?

The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft is to give away over $30 billion — to its shareholders. It seems that the cash mountain accumulating under Messrs Gates and Ballmer had finally become too irritating for Wall Street. Here’s the gist of the NYT story:

‘A large cash distribution to shareholders had been expected, according to Wall Street analysts, given investor pressures. Microsoft shares soared in the 1990’s, but have been treading water in recent years as the revenue growth has slowed.

At the same time, there has been mounting pressure on the company to do something about its mounting hoard of cash, which has ballooned to $56 billion. The $32 billion payout, which will be paid in December, will leave the company with more than $20 billion on hand.

“This has been a low- to medium-grade issue for at least a year now, and a high-grade issue in the last couple of months,” said Charles J. di Bona, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “Most investors would ask what took so long.”

Microsoft generates roughly $1 billion in extra cash each month. “I don’t know any company out there that generates that kind of excess cash,”‘Mr. di Bona said.

Nor do I. Now I wonder why that is….

Public service broadcasting

I’ve just been listening to a serious, intelligent and interesting discussion on BBC Radio 4. The subject: lust. And I’m thinking that this would be inconceivable in the US. The Radio 4 discussion exemplified perfectly what I was trying to communicate to the Commons Select Committee when I was asked to define public service broadcasting.

At last — a file-sharing music chart

I was asked to write a piece recently about the agreement between the BBC and UK record companies that will allow the Beeb to publish a top-20 legal downloads chart from September. I wondered then what the difference would be between the legal download chart and the most popular tracks being shared on P2P networks, but didn’t know if anyone was doing that kind of monitoring. Well, it seems that at least one company is. Interesting technical challenge that. Wonder how they do it.

Bobby Fischer’s descent into madness

Not being a chess buff, I paid no attention to the media reports of Bobby Fischer’s arrest in Japan. But then I read this appalling, fascinating, account in The Atlantic of his descent into deranged anti-semitism. Here’s a short quote:

But even the Fischer apologists had to throw up their hands when he took to the Philippine airwaves on September 11, 2001. In an interview broadcast this time by Bombo Radyo, a small public-radio station in Baguio City, Fischer revealed views so loathsome that it was impossible to indulge him any longer. Just hours after the most devastating attack on the United States in history, in which thousands had died, Fischer could barely contain his delight. “This is all wonderful news,” he announced. “I applaud the act. The U.S. and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians, just slaughtering them for years. Robbing them and slaughtering them. Nobody gave a shit. Now it’s coming back to the U.S. Fuck the U.S. I want to see the U.S. wiped out.”

Fischer added that the events of September 11 provided the ideal opportunity to stage a long-overdue coup d’état. He envisioned, he said, a “Seven Days in May scenario,” with the country taken over by the military; he also hoped to see all its synagogues closed, and hundreds of thousands of Jews executed. “Ultimately the white man should leave the United States and the black people should go back to Africa,” he said. “The white people should go back to Europe, and the country should be returned to the American Indians. This is the future I would like to see for the so-called United States.” Before signing off Fischer cried out, “Death to the U.S.!”

For once, words fail me…

iPod, therefore iAm…

… is the headline on Newsweek‘s preview of the new iPod.

Actually, it’s not that big a story — just an incremental upgrade to a successful product: better battery life, slightly better controls, cheaper.

The Butler Report in a nutshell — take 3

The cover of this week’s Economist (which supported the war BTW).

Butler Report in a nutshell — take 2

The Independent front page.

Apple profits rise

From today’s NYT: Apple Computer said on Wednesday that its fiscal third-quarter profit tripled, led by surging demand for the iPod portable music player and higher sales of its Macintosh computers.

“It was an outstanding quarter – our highest third-quarter revenue in eight years,” Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, said. “Our Mac sales were up 19 percent, and we’re thrilled with that.”

I’m not surprised profits are up, given what the Naughton household spends on Apple kit. Thinks… I’m still waiting for that Airport Express I ordered…

Instant Messaging systems inch towards interoperability…

Interesting news:

“After years of mudslinging, Microsoft, America Online and Yahoo on Thursday made a surprising overture toward peace in the instant-messaging wars.

The companies announced that later this year Microsoft’s Live Communications Server (LCS), which offers instant messaging for corporate users, will connect with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and its own MSN Messenger.

However, the three public IM clients will still not connect with one another for public users. Instead, it means corporations that use LCS will allow employees to chat with the Big Three public IM services as well.”

Hmmm… Two things missing from this report. First, this cosying-up represents not so much an outbreak of common sense among bitter rivals as a pre-emptive move against Reuters’s plans to create an interoperable IM system for financial services professionals. And second, the deadly implications of this for malware dissemination. Viruses spread by IM make email infection rates look like slow motion. One of the anti-virus companies (can’t remember which just now) has done a simulation model of malware propagation via IM. It’s a scary prospect.

The Butler Report in a nutshell

For those too busy to read the Butler Report in its entirety, Memex is pleased to offer this one-sentence summary: Blair & Co did cook the books in order to build a case — now known to be spurious — for invading Iraq, but there were mitigating circumstances. Now back to work!