Notes from the field: The oft-curious Robert X. Cringely chimes in with a question: Is Microsoft ready for people? And he doesn’t stop there, no. Cringe calls out several so-called A List Bloggers to the carpet for churning out pure mush on exactly what the Redmond slogan “people-ready business” means to them because, it turns out, such personal reflections were inspired by some sort of cash infusion from Microsoft. “That caused other bloggers to rightfully question their ethics,” Cringe reports. “A spitball war has been raging ever since.” Cringe turns back to Microsoft, which he considers to be “clueless corporate clones stuggling to look hip.” Columnist’s corner: Tomorrow is the big day for Apple and it’s iPhone. They’re already piled up in the back rooms of AT&T stores lining strip malls the continent over. “Apple has answered most of the non-feature-related iPhone questions that I’d have asked on my readers’ behalf, but several remain open,” writes Tom Yager. What’s the absolute minimum cost, for one? Here’s another: Can you use iPhone without AT&T service, as a sort of Internet tablet-cum-PDA? iPhone: Apple answers all the big questions. “Apple Stores and AT&T Stores will be mob scenes on June 29 at 6:00. If you actually touch an iPhone and you can afford one, you’re likely to buy it.” Related: iPhone spawns gray market. Careers: Many technology professionals will, at some point in their careers, be tasked with developing an IT strategy for their company. One such reader is bold enough to write Bob Lewis asking for advice and confessing to lacking an idea about how to get started. Bob’s answer? “You bring in an outside consultant like me, pay a few bucks (well, more than a few) and we walk you through it.” Okay, okay. He goes on to write in Advice Line that, “there are quite a few different formats for an IT strategy,” and he suggests starting with a situation analysis, then a look at the business objectives, extracting what IT can do to support those and, ultimately, defining IT performance. Software Development