Careers: Continuing the greater good discussion, a reader thinks that Bob Lewis previously missed the mark and that the Machiavellian bottom line criteria, in which the end justifies the means, is a negative function of what we, as a society, define as success. Lewis asserts that the reality here is that businesses exist to provide value to shareholders. “If you disapprove of how most companies are run, join the club,” he writes in this Advice Line entry. “It’s a big club, which doesn’t change my advice one bit.” Part 1: Is looking out for the greater good reasonable? Part 2: A greater good discussion. Tech Analysis: There’s no shortage of reasons why Oracle plunked down $8.5 billion for BEA Systems. And while those include gaining market share, “that reasoning doesn’t do justice to some glittering technology gems in BEA’s portfolio,” Eric Knorr explains in this Tech Watch post. There’s no “mystery about which competitor Oracle is arming itself against with its new BEA arsenal. IBM has all the SOA puzzle pieces BEA and Oracle have, but unlike with BEA’s integrated solution, you need IBM Global Services to put those pieces together.” Notes from the field: Robert X. Cringely knows a thing or two about when customer service goes bad. In these particular cases, a major PC maker, a security software vendor, a charity organization and the self-described biggest store on the planet are the guilty parties. “My inbox has been filling up with complaints about customers done wrong — or just plain ignored — by the companies they’ve chosen to do business with,” Cringe reports. The vendors “all seem to believe the phrase ‘customer support’ is some kind of oxymoron.” Show of the week: Macworld 2008. Careers