Best of the blogs: Smart software vendors react directly to their customers, rather than letting feedback fall into the typical quagmire of departmental handoffs that inevitably delays improvements to the software. And no one knows this better than the open source companies. “When you draw from the Open Source community, it’s like outsourcing in that you leverage the knowledge, interest and capability of the project team, rather than relying on yourself or your organization as the sole source of these,” writes Harper Mann in this IT Troubleshooter post. “This is not the same as dealing with one-off tasks for customers.” Wireless: It’s just a phone, for crying out loud, but already there are weird, scary and bizarre iPhone tales. “So prepare to be amazed, ladies and gentlemen! Step right up and take a front-row seat for Steve Jobs’ unintended sideshow attractions,” Computerworld’s Mike Elgan writes. Within you’ll find a lobster-thumb boy, the world’s fastest iPhone and fattest phone bill, plus Karl Rove, among others. The news beat: IBM finally issues Lotus Notes and Domino version 8, which ought to please current Notes users, even if it doesn’t lure anyone away from Microsoft Outlook. Three Florida men are indicted on software piracy charges alleging that they sold millions of dollars worth of counterfeit software. After it seemed as if they’d been fixed, the latest word out of Skype is that its VoIP problems might continue throughout the day. And in their ongoing legal feud Nokia asks the U.S. ITC to ban Qualcomm imports that it claims infringe on Nokia patents. Notes from the field: It’s Friday and that means Cringe is back with the geek week in review. Appearing in this episode are Sprint’s new WiMax service, otherwise known as Xohm, former CA CEO and current jailbird Sanjay Kumar and, believe it or not, Goofy, Daisy Duck and Pinocchio. Oh yes, and lest I forget, those You-Tube debatin’ Republicans. Technology Industry