Talking Tech, Friday, December 8th

0.30 – Mark and Kevin welcome technology analyst Duncan Stewart as their first ever live guest.

0.50 – They dive into the split between Nortel and its accounting firm, Deloitte.  Kevin bemoans the fact that Nortel was once interesting but can’t shake its accounting woes.

2.47 – Duncan believes it was an important step to move on from the accounting mishap to partner with a firm that investors will have (more) trust in.  Mark notes the amount of accountants that were embedded within Nortel made it a messy, protracted split.

3.57 – Mark brings up the one for 10 stock consolidation which Duncan rigorously analyzes.

4.50 – Troubled stock prices leads into a discussion of Yahoo! and the succession of Sue Decker.  Duncan likens her promotion as a sports team’s towel manager being announced as new starting quarterback.

5.45 – Mark asks Kevin if he knows what Yahoo! is, and whether it knows it is.  Kevin references the infamous peanut butter manifesto and points to the string of convoluted acquisitions as evidence of confusion.

7.16 – The news release that anointed Drecker referenced Jerry Yang, but not co-founder David Filo.  Duncan calls Yahoo!’s approach “a mile wide and an inch deepâ€?.

8.08 – What does Yahoo! want to be when it grows up? 

8.30 – Mark gives some thought to the slew of acquisition and what it means to the tech start-up industry in Canada – he’s disappointed by the lack of innovation happening at the moment.

9.05 – Kevin think the Canadian start-up scene is in a valley and can’t see the next RIM out there.

9.58 – Duncan points out that people we thought had died, Wi-Lan and Servicom, are coming back and making some ripples, if not waves.

10.10 – The trio turns their attention to getting Kevin some nice gadgets for Christmas.  He’s excited by video game consoles, the LG Chocolate phone and the Blackberry Pearl.

12.10 – Duncan reminds everyone that tinsel and assorted Christmas decorations will cut your wireless network’s performance by up to 75 per cent.  Geeks may be interested in D-Link’s new wireless router which provides gigabit Ethernet for under $200 (CDN)

12.53 – Mark has mixed feelings on the Zune but likes the idea of an iPod stressball for under $10

Audio comments for Mark and Kevin can be left on the Talking Tech hotline: [phone] or emailed to [e-mail].

Our announcer is the lovely Amber Mac and the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.