It is no excuse either for the HP board to have gambled its future on growth by acquisition to stem the way its old-line core businesses, like storage and enterprise software, were collapsing.

FORBES: HP-Autonomy Debacle Another Stain On Wall Street

Don't hold your breath, the latest and greatest Phenom II still can't steal the spotlight from Intel's spectacular top-of-the-line Core i7-980X, but if prices actually matter to you, you'll wanna read on.

ENGADGET: AMD's 3.2GHz hexacore Phenom II X6 1090T comes out for a review roundup

In assessing the value of a senior health-service manager or council chief, for example, the line between core competence and bonus-worthy brilliance might be hard to define.

ECONOMIST: Public-sector pay