TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

January is nearing an end. But before the month closes out, we wanted to share the top 10 most read stories on TechFlash. It was a busy month, from Microsoft layoffs to the Minecode scandal to news that Hearst may pull the plug on the Seattle P-I. February is shaping up as an interesting month, and we'll continue to cover our beats in full force. Thanks to everyone for reading.

Online file storage from ... Dilbert?

Laid-off Microsofties offered free office space, linux servers

Microsoft: Mac Office use is 77%

Amazon's annual regulatory filing, released yesterday, contains a curious disclosure: "In January 2009, we learned that the United States Postal Service, including the Postal Service Office of Inspector General, is investigating our compliance with Postal Service rules, and we are cooperating."

An Amazon spokeswoman says the company has no comment beyond the filing. What is this all about?

[UPDATE: U.S. Postal Inspection Service says Amazon investigation is "ongoing," as theories emerge about the focus of the probe.]

The good news keeps coming from Amazon.com. After surprising Wall Street with a stellar fourth quarter, the Seattle-based Internet retailer disclosed in its annual regulatory filing late Friday that its employment had risen to 20,700 people as of the end of last month. That translates into net growth of 3,700 people -- the company's biggest annual jump in nearly a decade.

Brad Smith (Microsoft photo)

Lawyers are usually the ones arguing against corporate blogs, but Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith was pushing for "Microsoft on the Issues," the law and policy blog launched by the company a few weeks ago. Smith, who introduced the blog in this post, is expected to be one of the people posting there regularly.

In an interview, Smith explained his motivation, described the first difficult situation encountered by the blog, and discussed the prospects for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ever trying his hand at this blogging stuff. Read on for excerpts from the conversation.

Microsoft solutions adviser Dan Woodman achieved minor celebrity status for getting a tattoo of the company's unofficial "Blue Monster" mascot -- a character created by Hugh MacLeod imploring employees to "change the world or go home." In this impassioned blog post last summer, Woodman expressed his love for Microsoft and explained that he got the tattoo as a daily reminder of that mantra.

In a post this evening, Woodman acknowledged that he was among the 1,400 employees laid off by the company last week. However, he says, he has no plans to give up the Blue Monster. Nor is he giving up on the company.

Former Microsoft employee Miki Mullor responded this afternoon to the company's allegation that he illicitly accessed confidential company documents to support a patent lawsuit filed by his startup over a Microsoft anti-piracy technology. Mullor called the allegations "shameful, dishonest attacks on my character by Microsoft – the company that stole my idea in the first place."

See this earlier post for details of Microsoft's case, and read on for the text of Mullor's statement.

Marianne Marck, a vice president of engineering at Disney Interactive Media Group in Seattle, has jumped to online jeweler Blue Nile as senior VP of technology, the equivalent of CTO.

Reuters is now reporting that Paul Allen's Charter Communications is preparing a bankruptcy filing. AP's Deborah Yao recently did an in-depth story on Allen. Here's the hard-hitting lead: "How do you lose $7 billion? That's a question for Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, who has seen his massive investment in cable TV operator Charter Communications Inc. all but vanish." [More after the jump.]

Plastic Logic reader

Feb. 9 is shaping up to be a big day for electronic book readers.

Not only is Amazon expected to introduce its next-generation Kindle reader Feb. 9, but Plastic Logic, a company developing its own e-reader, plans to make some splashy announcements at a publishing conference in New York that starts the same day, Crosscut reports.

Ekos Corp. has scored $12.5 million in new funding, with plans to raise another $2 million as it strives for profitability in late 2010. The Bothell medical device company sells a $2,700 ultrasound-based catheter that is used to dissolve blood clots in the legs. Chief Executive Bob Hubert said the 115-person company has sold about 10,000 of the devices since it was commercialized three years ago.

How did Amazon's cloud computing business do in the fourth quarter? That's not an easy question to answer. Amazon lumps its web services business together with other non-retail activities under "Other" sales.

But given the growing buzz around cloud computing, and the fact that Amazon was a frontrunner in this area, there's growing curiosity about how the company's web services unit is performing.

Matt McIlwain

Two years ago, I took Forbes to task for not including any Seattle area venture capitalists on its "Midas List." At the very least, I noted that Madrona Venture Group's Matt McIlwain -- an early investor in Isilon Systems -- should have been considered. Well, maybe the editors of Forbes finally listened. McIlwain appears on the latest  "Midas List" of the top tech deal makers, debuting in the 57th slot. He's the only Seattle area VC to make the list this year.

Windows 7 development is proceeding as planned, if not better, judging from a blog post today by Steven Sinofsky. The Windows engineering chief writes that the "next milestone" in the development of the new operating system will be the release candidate. As the term suggests, that's a test version that the company puts out as a proposed finished product.

Sinofsky doesn't give a timeline for the Windows 7 release candidate or the final release. In fact, to avoid any confusion, he explicitly says the post "is in no way an announcement of a ship date, change in plans, or change in our previously described process."

However, the post is one more piece of evidence suggesting that the company is aiming to ship Windows 7 this year.

Microsoft's Surface tabletop computer is being used to coordinate security personnel at this weekend's Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla. See the video below for to get a sense for how it will work. Gizmodo points out that the device could be just as useful for holding Super Bowl snacks.




<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:286ccd43-a8c8-4fd8-be1f-f942d4da016f&showPlaylist=true&from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Super Bowl: Microsoft Surface helps police monitor security">Video: Super Bowl: Microsoft Surface helps police monitor security</a>

Almost lost amid the recent news of Microsoft’s unprecedented layoffs was a glimmer of hope for technology job seekers: The company is still hiring.

Microsoft will “continue to hire in most of the areas it has been investing in, areas such as online services, search and cloud computing, to name a few,” a company representative said in a statement this week. Analysts and outside staffing agencies cited Live Search and the Server & Tools Division as two areas where the company is likely to continue bulking up.

Amazon's Q4 earnings yesterday showed continuing sales growth from the company's international segment -- its U.K., German, Japanese, French and Chinese retail sites. And that got me wondering about Amazon's next global move.

 A few weeks ago, I ran across some chatter on Twitter that appeared to indicate Jeff Bezos was in India. Amazon never responded to my questions on that, but it got me thinking about India or other places where Amazon might establish a retail presence.