ShadowRAM: August 14, 2006
The word from those in attendance was that Jobs was off his game big time. Is Jobs feeling the stress from the options scandal that is hanging over the company? Apple is one of a number of companies being investigated by the SEC for improperly dating options grants. The big question looming in the blogosphere is whether Jobs' magic is gone? Maybe it's just waiting to re-emerge after the options scandal is put to rest.
One CEO that has come out smelling like a rose in the current dirty options scandal is John Chambers. The Cisco President and CEO looked like the smartest kid in the class after Cisco CFO Dennis Powell informed Wall Street analysts last week that the networking leader is as clean as a whistle with its stock option grants.
"I can say with confidence that we did not change stock option grant dates to give employees a lower exercise price," Powell said.
That's no small statement given the fact that Chambers has been the most vocal Silicon Valley executive opposing changes implemented last year that require companies to expense stock options.
Andrew Morton, the No. 2 man on the Linux kernel group, said his decision to join Google and leave the Open Source Development Lab is no big deal. Last week, Morton's defection gave rise to a host of speculation about Google's plans. Google, incidentally, runs Linux on most of its servers. Morton was quick to dispel any speculation, saying he merely wanted to get back to his San Fran digs. But it's clear the two archrivals of Microsoft are getting cozier with each day that passes.
"[I'm going to] keep hacking the kernel as I have in the past five years," Morton told CRN via e-mail.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), who lost his re-election primary contest last week against newcomer Ned Lamont, also took it on the chin when his Web site was knocked offline.
Two days after the primary loss, Lieberman's Web site was still down. A statement from his campaign manager alleged that the site and Lieberman's e-mail box have been disrupted and disabled as "the result of a coordinated attack by our political opponents."
Lieberman's campaign manager has notified authorities, and the campaign will be filing a formal complaint.
Our suggestion? Tap a security solution provider to make sure things run smoothly, Joe. We've got several in the Rolodex, so give us a call.