Google News makes news out of Windows 7 non-story

Google News reports prominently that a university isn't supporting Windows 7. The headline screams Windows 7 Beta Flunks Out Of Georgetown.

This of course is not news. No IT organization supports beta software; they can't, because the definition of a beta product is that the vendor itself doesn't support it. Windows 7 is the next version of Microsoft Windows, an attempt to patch the many design flaws in Vista. It's available to the masses as a beta download. The university's IT department is merely warning the campus not to use an unsupported product.

Yet the Google News robot not only snared this non-story, it placed it above the fold, adjacent to news about world security, the global financial crisis, and the fool Blagojevich.

Ascribe original blame to Information Week -- but understand that IW is a tech industry publication whose readers will put the story in proper context. It's a problem when Google News yanks a headline from a speialty publication and republishes it for a general audience.

Jobs working less than 40 hours

Interesting juxtaposition of headlines in Google News just now.... Yesterday's inaugural address mentioned people who are voluntarily working less than full time jobs so that colleagues can stay employed; meanwhile, compensation experts are taking Steve Jobs to task for standing for re-election to Disney's board. They argue that if he can't work full time for Apple, he can't fulfill his duty as a director.

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The unnoticed Presidential transition