Sneak was pleased to hear Microsoft staff are to undergo extra “antitrust training”. The move follows news that one employee innocently and mistakenly drew up a marketing agreement to stop makers of portable music players bundling anything except Windows Media Player on their devices. But how will Microsoft break the habit of a lifetime? Will staff be issued subliminal re-education tapes, incanting “You will resist the urge to crush the windpipes of your competitors” as they sleep? Or will counsellors tell over-aggressive managers it’s time to stop overcompensating for childhood bed-wetting? Sneak doubts that such lily-livered measures will work. No, nothing short of electro-convulsive therapy or a group lobotomy is likely to make this leopard change its spots – or indeed its habit of chewing on throats.

12 Dec 2005