CRYPTOCHAOS

In contrast, one senior banker at Bear Stearns Cos. turned down the business. He questioned the propriety of selling deals to investors that a bearish client was involved in putting together, according to people familiar with the matter.

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In a statement, Goldman said it "never represented to ACA" that Paulson was investing in hopes the values would rise. People close to the firm said officials saw no need to disclose to investors that Mr. Paulson had a hand in creating the portfolio or was taking a bearish position.

Ning is laying off 40% of its staff and dumping free versions of its service. ...

The just-give-it-away-for-free-and-they-will-come-and-we’ll-be-rich automatron is as broken now as it was in 2001.

James Bach gave a stirring keynote today at ACCU 2010. He described a vision of testing that our industry sorely needs. Towit: Testing requires sapience.

Testing, according to Bach, is not about assuring conformance to requirements; rather it is about understanding the requirements.

Apple wants developers to do things the iPhone and iPad Way because they believe it will result in a better user experience and better designed apps. That’s an aesthetic, design-centered argument about how touch apps should be done. Apple has created tools customized to the iPhone and iPad; hell, they built a whole new touch-based operating system. They created a whole set of user interface metaphors that are supposed to be standard and system-wide, and they want developers to do things the new way not because Apple just loves power, but because they believe it’s necessary to force developers to think about the new world of touch-based computing correctly. All of this in service of giving users who are taking their first steps into touch-based computing a great experience.

Who, in his right mind, expects Steve Jobs to let Adobe (and other) cross-platform application development tools control his (I mean the iPhone OS) future? Cross-platform tools dangle the old “write once, run everywhere” promise. But, by being cross-platform, they don’t use, they erase “uncommon” features. To Apple, this is anathema as it wants apps developers to use, to promote its differentiation. It’s that simple. Losing differentiation is death by low margins. It’s that simple. It’s business. Apple is right to keep control of its platform’s future.

In Japanese folklore, ninjas were warriors who were skilled in espionage, traveled in disguise and often employed stealth fighting techniques many centuries ago. Today, a ninja is a hot new job title, vying to become the "guru" of the new century.

Ninja is "sexier" than its predecessor, Mr. Schliker says: "Guru is so Web 1.0."