This semi-split has been brewing for some time. I recall a meeting back in the last century arranged by two Intel engineers with no media relations person in tow. That in itself was exceedingly odd, but it got stranger. Their apparent purpose: to demonstrate the lengths to which algorithms built into Intel's Pentium chips had compensated for the completely cockeyed way Windows loaded itself each time at startup. The implicit message: See what we have to put up with?

The once mighty Wintel cartel has been good in many ways for the PC industry. Like industrious worker bees on amphetamines, Intel's engineers pushed Moore's law to the max, cranking out generation after generation of processors, each smaller and more powerful than the last. Microsoft obliged by churning out new operating systems, each more bloated and resource intensive than the last

-- if rumors hold true -- HP will introduce a Palm OS-based tablet later this month, a little more than a year after Ballmer demonstrated a Windows-powered HP slate at, yes, CES