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Weird News Of The Wired

According to the Los Angeles Times, surrogate mothers in India are a bargain for foreigners and a boon for the Indian women and their families. One woman in the story was paid $5,000, a fraction of the potential cost of surrogacy in the U.S., but the equivalent of six years' salary for her. The LA Times quotes the Indian Council of Medical Research, which estimates that this form of outsourced development project could grow into a nearly $6 billion-a-year industry.

Here's some actual good news if you've been outsourced: The federal government has reversed itself and decided that outsourced programmers can collect the same benefits routinely extended to factory workers who have seen their jobs disappear amid a flood of cheap, manufactured imports. At issue are benefits available under the Trade Adjustment Act to workers who have lost their jobs to cut-rate foreign competition, including extended unemployment payments, federally funded retraining, and relocation allowances. The key to qualifying for benefits is that the importing of a physical good has to be involved. Software had been deemed a nonphysical entity, but the Labor Department has agreed to view software as a physical product. Look, software is a physical entity, or can easily take that form, and outsourced workers aren't being fired for incompetence. Hopefully the benefits available under this act can help more IT workers retrain or fund their job searches and in turn keep the IT unemployment rate down.

The most recent example of someone getting a grip? Well, you can stop surreptitiously browsing the Web. A judge in New York ruled this week that you can't be fired for surfing the Web. According to AP, the judge said in his ruling that "It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work." He noted most companies apply the standard that Web surfing, personal calls, and newspaper reading are fine as long as they don't interfere with one's work. Makes sense to me!

Something the legions of battle-scarred CA customers and laid-off employees probably thought they'd never see: former Computer Associates CEO Sanjay Kumar and Stephen Richards, once a top sales executive for the company, pleading guilty to financial fraud charges. Few companies had weirder accounting practices or drove harder bargains with their customers or their acquisitions, so while there may be some satisfaction in this plea, the fact is that although Kumar could have gotten as much as 20 years, it seems he can expect a "significantly" lighter sentence just for pleading guilty. No reports yet on where he'll serve his time.

Another thing you probably never thought you'd see: a Sun lose its daddy. Scott McNealy stepped down after an apparent unwillingness to be Scott McMeanie. McNealy had failed to jettison workers or restructure the struggling company he founded 22 years ago--de rigueur 21st century remedies for righting listing ships and putting the luster back in tarnished stocks. His replacement, longtime Sun exec Jonathan Schwartz, is expected to have no such inhibitions. Sun's stock may have risen $9 on the news, but Sun without Scott? It's almost unimaginable.

While the newly retired NcNealy kicks back with a cup o' java, I can't help but wonder, what's next? Larry Ellison retiring to race, perform Japanese tea ceremonies, and open the school of one-upmanship? Bill Gates logging off to get a law degree? Steve Jobs setting aside the iPod to open up Steve's All-Night Stake-Out restaurant? (His take-out containers, BTW, would never leak. But you would, um, need an insanely great a la carte tool to hack open the seal once you got them home.)

(This time) he knows of what he speaks: According to our sister publication, EE Times, much criticized ex-FEMA head Michael Brown has joined LED maker OnScreen Technologies Inc. as chief strategist for the public sector. The company primarily sells to law enforcement agencies and says Brown will be promoting technology used to communicate disaster information to the public. "Based on my experience dealing with crisis situations, I know that first responders are always seeking innovative ways to more effectively communicate with the public while serving their communities," added Brown.

Not weird, but it would be pretty cool: Can't log off on the weekends, or god forbid, abandon the laptop on vacation? What you need is a waterproof laptop. And Matsushita Electric has one. Its new Let's Note CF-Y5 features a waterproof sheet and special drainage system said to protect the hard drive and circuit board from light water damage, according to AP. It will be available in Japan next month for about $2,300 U.S. To the beaches everyone!

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