Microsoft's hoping for a long wait before the judge's decision in their Department of Justice case, and if the article in the San Francisco Chronicle is any indication, they might just get it. Apparently Judge Jackson has an interesting reputation around Washington, though it's not one that many people would be thrilled to own.

Seems that Washingtonian magazine saw fit to grace Judge Jackson with the dubious title of "Absolute Worst Judge" in D.C. for 1996, calling him "mean, tyrannical, and [ignorant of] the law." Well, okay, nobody's perfect, but how about the critical issue of speed, here? After all, Microsoft would love for Jackson to take his own sweet time in making a decision, since Windows 98 is still months from shipping. Er, well, let's see... a Washington law professor says he's known for "sitting on his cases forever," one legal newspaper called him one of the "slowest decision makers in Washington," and another noted a day in which his court spent more time in breaks than in trial.

Who says tech trials have to be boring? We're looking forward to Friday's hearing. ;-)

NewsBytes is reporting that Steve Jobs will be delivering the keynote address at next month's MacWorld Expo, contrary to a note on the Expo web site which had originally stated that the address would be made by the new Apple CEO. Color us surprised...

The CEO hunt has dragged on way too long, in our estimation. Yes, we had a brief reprieve from the tiresome vacuum of information during the "Will he or won't he?" speculation about whether Steve would take the position himself. But ever since Steve turned it down, it's just become boring again.

Will the Expo keynote signal the end of the waiting? It's certainly feasible that Steve will start the keynote to summarize the changes he's brought to Apple in the past year, and then he could pass the torch on to the new CEO, who would continue the presentation. It'd certainly make for a nice Hollywood moment-- especially if the new CEO were someone anybody in the audience would actually have heard of. But these are big ifs, and it's very likely that no CEO will be announced until well into 1998. Still, those who can make it to the keynote are in for a big show led by Ringmaster Steve.

Apple's Vice President of Developer Relations David Krathwohl resigned, MacWEEK reported today. "It felt like a good time to move along," he said. Not too hard to read between those lines, hmmm?

Krathwohl stepped into the position after Heidi Roizen left last February. Roizen was universally loved by the Apple developer community, who, to be honest, haven't had all that much to love about Apple for many years. Thus, Krathwohl had some mighty big shoes to fill. (Not that we're saying anything about Heidi's feet. Never seen 'em.) Krathwohl's replacement will be Clent Richardson, a former Apple manager of evangelism, who is currently the vice president of strategic relations for a company called Design Intelligence.

Suppose we'll ever get to a point where we start to hear about talented people joining Apple's ranks, instead of deserting? Losing money for a few quarters is bad, but bleeding talent for that long... well, let's just say we hope the trend reverses soon.