Ouch! Apple posted its fourth-quarter financial results today, and the news is worse than even the "industry analysts" had predicted (and you know how cranky those guys can get). Apple lost a whopping $161 million this quarter, compared to the expected $18 million or so.

We're obviously not happy with the results, but at least one person has reason to smile: The winner of our first "Beat the Analysts" contest is

Fred wins a shrinkwrapped copy of LucasArts' smash megahit from years past, "Rebel Assault II." And, for entering the super-secret magic EvangeList password of "Spartacus" (you DO subscribe to the EvangeList, don't you??), he wins the bonus EvangeList prize of a shrinkwrapped copy of "The Mask: The Origin," by Cyber Comics, based on the cool Dark Horse comic that got turned into a Jim Carrey vehicle.

For more interesting tidbits about the contest (like average guess, most off-the-mark guess, etc.), go check the results. While you're there you can send us suggestions for our next survey.

There's dirty work afoot... The Mac Home Journal claims that Yale's recent push to migrate its students from Mac to Wintel machines may have been an attempt to win a $3 million "migration grant" that Yale received from Intel, applied for by the same Daniel Updegrove (ITS Director) that sent that infamous letter to Yale's incoming freshmen this past June. (The letter recommended that all students buy Wintel computers since Yale couldn't guarantee Mac support past the year 2000.) Webintosh also has some excellent coverage.

Donna Ladd, the freelance journalist who wrote the story for MHJ, earns her sleuthing merit badge by discovering that Updegrove sent the grant proposal the same month that he sent the letter to incoming students. And what makes things even more suspicious is the secrecy surrounding the grant and its proposal-- for instance, Updegrove's personal web site originally referred to him as the "co-principal investigator" of the grant, but the reference has been removed. Meanwhile, Updegrove himself repeats the mantra of the soon-to-be-roasted: "I won't dignify any of these absurd questions with a response."

The best part of the whole thing (aside from the delicious ethical violation and the ensuing scandal, that is) is that Yale's medical school, which accounts for 42% of Yale's total income, is maintaining its pro-Mac stance-- regardless of what second-rate crap Updegrove pushes. Yeah, baby! Stick it to the MAN!!

The end is nigh for the first casualty of the Great Clone Wars of 1997... MaCNN reports that Power Computing, formerly the first and most successful Mac cloner, is giving up the ghost. Once Apple bought back its Mac OS license, Power planned to sell off all remaining Mac OS machines and compete in the Wintel world, starting with their new PowerTrip notebook. Now it looks as though they are just calling it quits entirely, in as little as a couple of weeks.

Since AtAT is produced primarily on a Power Computing PowerTower Pro, we were naturally somewhat concerned about hardware support. According to MaCNN's sources, such issues are being outsourced to another company. Of course, that doesn't make us feel a whole lot better about watching Power's lights go out. They brought a lot to the party, even if they didn't expand the Mac market, so it's a little painful to read that they are having financial difficulties all the way to the grave.

Power, we hardly knew ye...