Careers: To answer one reader’s quandary about communicating with internal accountants Bob Lewis probes into the deep, chaotic and murky waters of IT budgets, personnel specifically. “Have I snorted too much coffee, resulting in total malfunction of my two remaining synapses?” the reader wonders. After addressing the snorting practice, Lewis tackles the matter at hand. The fist step “is to segment IS, because different areas of responsibility have different staffing drivers,” he offers. Major projects and discretionary infrastructure are just two of those. Other areas of responsibility will depend on how your particular company is organized, but “you can apply the same sort of thinking to these as well.” The news beat: Microsoft moves Windows Live services out of the beta testing phase and into the real world, so now users can download and access several services, though two key offerings remain in beta. Symantec lays out its integration plan for Vontu, after acquiring the data-loss prevention vendor Monday. Big Blue’s Rational unit deepens its ties to IBM’s mainframe systems with modernization applications, the first in a series of releases to come during the next 6 months. And Senator Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who previously criticized a government contract with Sun Microsystems, says the corresponding GSA investigation is incomplete and poorly organized. Video: Nick Barber of the IDG News Service examines Google’s Android open-development platform for mobile phones, which has already gained the backing of many heavyweight handset makers, and what it all means. “Really, the question is, do the networks get fast enough to deliver a full Web browser experience without having to wait?” asks Joshua Martin, analyst with Yankee Group. “The 3G networks need to be built out.” Watch it here. Careers