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Are you intuitive?

If you've ever been involved in any sort of home construction, you know it always takes longer than the contractors say it will. For the past 10 weeks, the Tobaks have been doing a swimming pool project. So far, so good.

Last night, as the Bay Area cooled down from a three-day heat wave, my wife said, "It would sure be nice to get water in the pool in the next two weeks."

"What do you mean?" I exclaimed, "You know the pool company is scheduled to come out tomorrow and fill it up on Tuesday. Two weeks? We'll be swimming in two days!"

"Uh huh," she said.

The next morning, my wife pulled the pillow off my snoring head and announced, "We have no water."

I replied with a blank, bleary-eyed stare.

"The pool guys are all here and we have no water."

"Okay," I replied, "I'm getting up."

Apparently, a stuck check valve in our irrigation system had been dumping precious water faster than our well pump could pump it. Our holding tanks were dry.

No water meant the pool guys couldn't do their thing. An hour later, the whole gang packed up and left.

When you live in a rural mountainous area, this sort of thing happens from time to time. That means every few years.

So I'm sitting here trying to figure out how my wife knew something was going to happen. She couldn't possibly have known. Wait, I know. She sabotaged the irrigation system just to appear prescient. Nah, that's just crazy.

When I asked her about it, she said she'd just had a feeling.

That got me thinking: Is there such a thing as intuition? And if so, what is it and how does it matter to you and me?… Read more

News.com Daily Podcast: So clean tech's another bubble? Not so fast

More new investment money is going into clean technology than any other sector of high tech. And while that's exciting a lot of investors, it's also raising questions about whether we're about to repeat history. CNET News.com's Martin LaMonica, who recently heard a number of experts debate the question, offers some comparative context to that question.

New York Post reporter Michael Kane followed two of professional gaming's best-known teams, Team 3D and CompLexity, as they fought for the coveted No. 1 spot in gaming. The result--Kane's book, out today, called Game Boys: Professional … Read more

The 404 126: Where we're going to miss George Carlin (except Wilson)

Today we celebrate the life of George Carlin, whose controversial brand of comedy paved the way for future acts like the 404. We promise to continue pushing the envelope, sir! On today's show, we give it up to Weezer, say bye-bye to Bill Gates, spout out some serious Bakalisms, pimp the greatest Web site on the Internet, and dish out our best advice to our teenage listeners. We also make plans to build a giant pool full of gold coins. The 404: Whoo-ooh! EPISODE 126 Download today's podcast

Microsoft after Gates, Bill without Microsoft

As Bill Gates prepares to walk away from Microsoft, both the man and the company he founded will face challenges getting along without each other, according to the new issue of Newsweek magazine.

Gates, who is stepping down from his full-time role at Microsoft this week to focus on his $37 billion charitable foundation, is the subject of an article that profiles Microsoft's successes and failures during his tenure, as well as the difficult transition the company and its founder will likely face. (CNET News.com plans to publish its own retrospective on Gates' departure, but in the meantime, … Read more

Bill Gates in transition

With Bill Gates just days away from his semi-retirement from Microsoft, look for a tidal wave of reminiscences and glossy magazine spreads.

Yes, we do indeed have our own in the works; more on that in a sec. But one of the first to arrive is Fortune magazine's package, "Microsoft Without Gates," published online Friday.

Fortune, known for its rankings of the rich and the companies they've built up, lauds the 52-year-old who former Microsoftie Nathan Myhrvold describes as "one of the greatest business minds of all time" and lays out how "Bill … Read more

EIC Squared podcast: Yahoo exodus, Firefox 3, Gates' final days and more...

On this week's EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I discuss the executive exodus at Yahoo, the launch of Firefox 3 and Bill Gates' last days as a full-time Microsoftie. We also talk about the impact of millennials, the younger generation brought up digitally, on the corporate workplace. Will they turn off their Facebook, MySpace, iPod, and Twitter while they crunch numbers for a sales report or resolve configuration problems in a data center?

Gates-Ballmer rifts marked Microsoft power shift

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have been close friends and business partners for nearly 30 years. But the two sometimes clashed over the sharing of power at Microsoft, particularly before Ballmer's rise to the CEO slot.

The sparring became so intense that at one point, board members intervened to iron out differences, according to a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at the men Thursday in The Wall Street Journal. The power struggle may have also undermined product strategies and slowed decision making on key issues.

The story forms a backdrop to Gates' planned transition out of day-to-day management at Microsoft, beginning … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 738: OS X 10.6: Liger, lolcat, or Cougar?

Rumor has it that there will be code details about OS X 10.6 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week. Bold prediction, considering it's a developer's conference. Geniuses. Now, what cat to name it after? Also, Bill Gates gives his last speech on the road to his nearly-full-time-job-retirement; Oklahoma City has a sweet Wi-Fi mesh network that you can't use (unless the password is "password"); and you can now get your Outlook e-mail on an LG enV(2).

Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 738

Mac OS 10.6 debuting next week? … Read more

Memorable quotes from D6

The witty John Paczkowski has come up with his list of the best quotes from the D6 conference. (See our full coverage here)

Following is a small sample:

"Guys like us avoid monopolies. We like to compete."--Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates

"AOL is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Web. We don't get no respect."--Jeff Bewkes, president and CEO, Time Warner

"I didn't leave business school to go bankrupt."--Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on his first days at Microsoft

"Hollywood is a community that's so inbred, it's a wonder … Read more

EIC Squared: D6, Dell's future, and Comcast hacks

On this week's EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet's Larry Dignan and I discuss the celebrity interviews at the D6 conference, hosted by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Unfortunately, I called in from the San Diego airport United Airlines gate area, so you'll hear crying children and the ticker taker coaxing me to get on the plane. Larry gives the lowdown on Dell's earnings and the most recent security issues, patches from Apple, and the Comcast hack.