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You remember the time when mom used to tell not to talk on the phone while ironing clothes lest you make a mistake and burn yourself. And then one day she forgot to practice what she was preaching and…! Well a funny situation like this has occurred in the business world too. Business 2.0 is a magazine published by Time. They have been warning their readers against the hazards of not taking backups of computer files. So much so that in an article published by them in 2003, they 'likened backups to flossing - everyone knows it's important, but few devote enough thought or energy to it.' And one fine day, sorry night, (April 23 to be precise) the magazine's editorial system crashed, nullifying the work done for the June issue. The backup server failed to back up.

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Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages Tuesday morning saying: "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated." Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.

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Microsoft has been mailing free copies of Office to government employees, but at least two federal agencies are warning recipients to return the gifts or risk violating federal ethics policies. Microsoft has given out tens of thousands of free copies of its flagship software, which retails for about $500, to workers at its biggest customers.

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Meanwhile, Microsoft may have a hard time convincing the open-source community that nothing nefarious was brewing when it made a referral that led to $50 million in BayStar Capital funding for the SCO Group--another Linux foe. BayStar, an investment company, has confirmed that Microsoft introduced BayStar to SCO. But BayStar declined to share further details and is repeating its earlier position that Microsoft did not actually invest money in the deal.