6. : This week's ironic twist came from Amazon.com, which dealt with illegally sold copies of the George Orwell classics "1984" and "Animal Farm" and other novels for its Kindle e-reader by deleting the works from its e-book store and eliminating any digital trace of them. The move meant the books were not available to people who had bought them from Amazon, prompting a lot of comments about how that kind of thing does not happen with books bought at brick-and-mortar stores. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos apologized for the company's Orwellian move: "Our 'solution' to the problem was stupid, thoughtless and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission."

7. : A new set of legal principles governing software contracts that was developed by the American Law Institute prompted concerns from IT vendors and industry groups that innovation will suffer and the cost of software will go up, contrary to the ALI's goal of protecting consumers.

8. and : Apple's third-quarter results indicate that it is utterly impervious to the recession (or perhaps that its customers will cut back in a whole lot of other places before they will forsake buying a new iPhone or Mac). A number of other tech bellwethers also reported financial results this week and although, for instance, Microsoft's earnings were disappointing, overall IT financials and forecasts for future quarters boosted investor confidence.

9. : It has been a long, slow road, but it appears that the IEEE 802.11n standard for high-speed wireless LAN will be approved in September.

10. : We do not often in IT news have the chance to write about shoes, a subject dear to our hearts and, ahem, soles. So, we feel compelled to wind up this week's edition with word that Amazon is buying Zappos.com, the popular shoe and clothing e-tailer.