We had high hopes that after four days of non-stop punditry, the Microsoft-Yahoo bid might not be the only thing anyone was talking about. It seems it's still on the tip of everyone's tongue — and probably will be for quite a while — but a few other stories have managed to slip through. Here's what we've got.

Getting straight to it — and getting it out of the way — the Microsoft propaganda machine is marching on full speed ahead. The latest word from Big Evil is that Yahoo's Board has six weeks to give in or get out of the way — after which, the Empire plans to give the Board the boot and install their own evil henchmen.

Yahoo, for it's part, has promised to consider selling it's soul, but is a bit preoccupied with other matters. The company was busy shuttering the Yahoo Music service and shuttling its subscribers off to RealNetworks's Rhapsody service, just one of many cost-cutting strategies for the ailing outfit. Rhapsody, in turn, has been under fire the last few days after anti-malware site StopBadware.org labeled RealPlayer a threat over its installation of the Rhapsody Player Engine.

And, of course, Google has been busy shouting its opposition from the rooftops, swearing that the shotgun marriage could cause everything from acid indigestion to liver spots. So far, the only thing it's caused is a drop in Google's stock price, which come to think of it, might account for the indigestion. It didn't stop the search powerhouse from unveiling its next big thing, an API that maps connections between users on various social networks and other websites, making it possible to connect the dots between ones larking on LinkedIn, frolicking on Facebook, and the MySpace mistress nobody is supposed to know about. As if any of us really needed to be more plugged in.

In non-merger news, much of the Middle East is still suffering from Internet withdrawal, as a third undersea cable was severed over the weekend, while a fourth bit the dust yesterday. The exponentially-coincidental occurrence has of course led to a flurry of conspiracy theories, including a couple of rather interesting ones being bandied about by Dilbert creator Scott Adams. For our money, we think the Krikketers did it.

In other news, Dell is keeping mum its thoughts on buying Motorola's mobile phone division, but the LiMo Foundation is happy to announce it's mobile Linux platform will see it's first release this March. Speaking of embedding Open Source, research group Gartner, Inc. is predicting that, among other things, 80% of proprietary offerings will be embedding Open Source code by 2012. Considering the amazing growth FOSS is seeing, it doesn't seem out of reach.

And finally, if you're an IT professional wanting to make a bit of cash from your Open Source experience, Australia is apparently the place to be. According to reports, the first Australian Open Source Industry Census has found that IT pros working on FOSS are charting out at three times the national median salary. With the low end starting at almost $70,000, if anybody needs us, we'll be Down Under.

And that, boys and girls, is that.
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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
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