Apparently its squirting has become irregular.

But the bigger question is over Microsoft's handling of that and another minor black eye on the eve of Vista's launch. Where has the spin doctor been?

Instead of waffling on a Zune glitch that prevents some song sharing, why didn't Microsoft fess up right away and say when a fix can be expected? How about giving the affected customers a batch of free songs, or at least providing guidance so this doesn't scare away Zune buyers more than it already has? Can the unsquirtable songs be tagged and sold at a discount?

Instead of trying some creative damage control -- as it's done with great Xbox customer service -- it's just shrugging and saying it's a 1.0 product. Wait for the service pack, I guess.

Then Microsoft looked untoward because it hired a vendor to correct Wikipedia entries. If the company truly had difficulty fixing the entries itself, it should have offered some proof.

It may have seemed safe to use a vendor, rather than touch Wikipedia directly. Other companies probably do that all the time. But Microsoft ended up looking as if it doesn't get it, even though it has plenty of employees who do.

Doesn't anybody in Redmond have a way to reach Jimmy Wales? Maybe they should invite him to an arm wrestling match with Ray Ozzie at Mix.