Best of the blogs: Personally, I’ve not shed a single tear over CompUSA’s intent to close retail outlets, but Martin Heller has. “They usually had a better selection of equipment that I wanted to try than my local Best Buy or Circuit City, or my local mom-and-pop computer shops,” is just the first reason, Heller explains, in Why I’ll miss CompUSA. “Sic transit gloria mundi. Maybe my local store will continue under new ownership.” Hardware: “AMD has had the kind of bad luck that just happens in all sorts of endeavors, and is common to all players in the semiconductor industry,” Tom Yager writes in Bad luck has AMD cowering. He’s referring, of course, to commercial availability delays that will result from a flaw affecting a CPU unit known as the translation look-aside buffer, aka TLB. “End-users won’t feel it, it won’t cost AMD any OEM wins, and AMD will have a strong position in Q1 ’08, where Intel has all eyes focused.” Careers: A distressed reader writes into Bob Lewis’ Advice Line with an ostensibly simple question. “If staff who have one good year shouldn’t be rewarded forever for it, why then should they be punished forever for having one bad year?” Lewis points out that such action is sometimes necessary. How long should a disciplinary freeze last? “Whether either of us agree with a particular disciplinary action, when an employee successfully corrects the issue and is back on course, the compensation freeze should end.” Technology Industry