ShadowRAM: March 1, 2004

Financial disclosure forms for Kerry and Bush, found online at OpenSecrets.org, show that both owned modest investments in the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip maker during their most recent reporting periods. Bush's 2001 disclosure showed that he held an investment of $1,001 to $15,000 in Intel stock just as he entered the White House. Kerry's 2002 disclosure forms, filed with the U.S. Senate, showed he also owned $1,001 to $15,000 of Intel stock,a drop in the bucket for Kerry, whose family fortune reportedly hovers between $600 million and $800 million.

Politics seem to be on everyone's mind these days, and it even surfaced last week at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. Political commentator and journalist Cokie Roberts took the stage at the event and poked fun at the Washington political machine and how it compares to security. "When I saw the sessions, [especially the] hacks, attacks and identity theft [tracks], I knew I was right at home," she said. "I live with a lot of political hacks. Washington certainly has a lot of political attacks, and there is a lot of identity theft. Every Democrat has been trying to steal Bill Clinton's identity,without Monica [Lewinsky], of course."

Roberts continued, "In Washington, no one is secure about anything. It's because Strom Thurmond isn't there. We could always count on him being there. He was a rock we could depend on. Truth is, at age 100, he left the Senate, taking Trent Lott with him. And when [Thurmond] left the Senate, he died, which we all knew would happen."

Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and a former technology executive and onetime CRN columnist, is hitting the reality TV circuit. ABC says Cuban will offer $1 million in a new series called "The Benefactor," in which 30 people compete to get on his good side and win a seven-figure prize.

CDs sent by Microsoft to its "classic" infrastructure solution provider partners have raised some eyebrows. The disks contained all the bits and bytes of the Navision and Great Plains applications. That had some Microsoft Business Solutions partners wondering if the company plans to open distribution of those apps to the broad channel, just as it has done with Microsoft CRM. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the promotional CDs are just an effort to recruit new MBS channel partners, and there's "no change to the current strategy of having a restricted channel" for those business apps. Still, MBS partners are waiting,and watching.