I’m not sure “spell check this” has the same ring as “I’ll be back,” but I have enjoyed the series of promo videos for Office 2010 that try to cast the software as the plot of an action movie.

The latest installment shows the grave of Clippy, the oft-mocked help tool that has been absent from recent versions of the productivity software.

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You’ve heard of BYOB, now get ready for Bring Your Own Laptop. There’s a small but growing trend in which companies are choosing to give employees money toward their personal laptop, rather than providing a company-issued portable. British Petroleum is among the companies trying the approach.

One of the technologies making that possible is desktop virtualization, which allows companies to put their software or even an entire corporate image onto a device without having to worry about the fact that it doesn’t control the entire laptop. Basically, the corporate stuff can run in a sandbox, with personal data and programs running alongside–but not intermingling with–the business processes.

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Microsoft says its offer for Yahoo is off the table, but could this be just a negotiating ploy?

It’s a natural question to ask. I mean, if Microsoft has had the hots for Yahoo for two years, can it really be so sure that it is no longer interested?

My take is that Microsoft has ruled out two options, but that one possibility for Yahoo remains out there.

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