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Notes from the Field | Robert X. Cringely® » Geek Week: Facebook settles, Yahoo fiddles

June 27, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Geek Week: Facebook settles, Yahoo fiddles

Case closed. A judge in the Facebook code theft case said F-U to ConnectU yesterday, telling the plaintiffs that they made their settlement with Zuckerberg and now they have to lie in it. The Winklevosses are now free to row in the Olympics, while plucky Zucky cements his reputation in the pantheon of high tech d**ks. When spoiled rich kids sue each other for gazillions of dollars, it's really hard to develop a rooting interest.

Another bunch of Yahoos. In its second or third major shake up since the Peanut Butter Manifesto, Yahoo is reorganizing itself again, booting its top sales honcho and splitting into three divisions. It's also adding a cloud computing group in an effort to take on Amazon and Google in the server farm market. That's got to inspire confidence in its shareholders (not). Memo to Carl Icahn: You sure you want this company?

Going down, down under. Anyone ever told you to just 'get a life''? Well now you can, and for less than $400K. Ian Usher of Perth, Australia, is auctioning off his entire life -- including a 3-bedroom home and everything inside it, a Kawasaki motor bike, a car, a jet ski, his job and his friends. Bidding was up to AU$400K as I write this, and yes he is serious. Usher plans to take the cash, his wallet, and his passport and catch the next train to nowhere. It's the mother of all mid-life crises, but probably not as uncommon as it sounds. Admit it. Haven't you been just a little tempted to do something similar? Now's your chance to do it by moving to Perth. There's about a day left on the auction, so you still have time to call your banker.

Got hot tips or lives you want to auction? Post them below or email me here: cringe (at) infoworld (dot) com. Swell swag awaits those whose tips make it into this blog. (But we're not shipping it to Perth, if you're planning to win that auction.)

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Posted by Robert X. Cringely on June 27, 2008 07:05 AM


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