What do you know? The former OLPC head of software and content did indeed resign at least partially over NickNeg's growing fondness of Windows XP. In a recent soul-spilling interview with xconomy, Walter Bender made clear that he resigned his post at the non-profit due to the general de-emphasis of "radical projects like Sugar," the innovative XO user interface which Mr. Bender was unsurprisingly neck-deep in during his stay. Essentially, he felt as if the outfit had stopped trying to "be disruptive" and started "trying to make things comfortable for decision-makers," hence Walter darting out "to do his own thing." Needless to say, the lead developer of Sugar isn't satisfied with seeing his work forgotten, and while details have yet to be worked out, he is looking to "find a new central home for the community of educators and software developers who have been creating Sugar-compatible applications."

[Image courtesy of The New York Times]

Man, we know AMD's had a bit of trouble meeting shipment (and chip performance) expectations lately, but it looks like things are really beginning to come apart at the seams. Merely four days after AMD trimmed its Q1 sales outlook and announced that it would be doing away with 10-percent of its workforce by Q3, the company's CTO and senior vice president Phil Hester is voluntarily "stepping down." According to Market Watch, the bigwig is doing so to "pursue other opportunities," which is about as canned a reason as you can get. Still, the most intriguing part of the whole bit isn't that Mr. Hester won't be coming in to work on Monday, but that no replacement will be either. A chipmaker. With no chief technology officer. Sorry, but we aren't buying that one just yet.

[Via PC Perspective, thanks Ryan]

It's one thing to put the kibosh on whispers of across-the-board layoffs; it's another to go and fire twice the amount rumored. Sure enough, a recent report from the AP notes that the California-based chipmaker is expecting to layoff 10-percent of its 16,000-person workforce by Q3 2008. Additionally, the outfit is trimming its sales outlook for Q1 due to "poor sales in all of its business segments," and as if that wasn't enough, it's expecting to "incur an [undisclosed] restructuring charge in the second quarter as a result of the layoffs." Ouch.

[Via The Street, thanks Aaron]

The tough times just don't seem to end at Motorola -- the company announced today that it's laying off another 2,600 workers, for a total of 10,000 positions eliminated since the start of 2007. That's on top of the various high-level executive departures that have been taken place lately, not to mention the company's plan to split off its mobile phone business, which will undoubtedly lead to more cuts down the line. The goal is to reduce costs by some $500M by the end of the year, and some of the jobs being lost come as Moto closes a factory in Singapore and a WiMAX development lab in Florida. There's no word on when the cuts are going to come, but here's hoping all these aggressive steps lead to a little vacation for Sad Moto here.

Nary a fortnight after Nicholas Negroponte affirmed that his role wouldn't be changing all that much once a new CEO was strapped in, along comes word that the nonprofit's highly regarded Director of Security Architecture, Ivan Krstić, has moved on to greener pastures as of three weeks ago. According to a soul-bearing post on his own blog, the ex-chief outrightly noted that he could no longer "subscribe to the organization's new aims or structure in good faith, nor [could he] reconcile them with [his] personal ethic." Additionally, he admits that he was "asked to stop working with Walter Bender," someone he greatly respected, and forced to report to a replacement "with no technical or engineering background who was put in charge of all OLPC technology." It should be noted that Krstić seemed to admire his colleagues overwhelmingly, but we can't help but wonder who else in there is feeling similarly about the recent internal restructuring.

[Via Yahoo / Infoworld, image courtesy of TheAge]

Merely days ago, Digeo trumpeted a number of Moxi-related partnerships and simultaneously failed to give us any additional details as to when we could expect either of its standalone HD DVRs. Now, we could have a reason why. According to a breaking report from The Wall Street Journal, the firm is axing 50-percent of its staff (leaving 80 employees) and Mike Fidler, CEO, is handing over his position to Greg Gudorf, the company's current president and chief operating officer. As if that weren't enough, the report also claims that Digeo will "not release two digital media recorders that had been planned," and rather, it will "focus on a [single] next-generation consumer model." Notably, we aren't told whether or not said model is the HD DMR that's already out in beta testers' hands, but we suppose only time will tell. [Warning: read link requires subscription]

Update: We've now learned that the oft delayed Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR and the Moxi Home Cinema Edition DMR will not be released. Additionally, we're told that details about the firm's upcoming consumer DMR (which will be released) will be "announced later in the year." Full release posted after the jump.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint is currently looking for Gary Forsee's successor. Apparently, the firm's board began "quietly looking for a new leader in August," suggesting that key members had lost faith in current management. A new chief executive could be named by early December, and it's looking like the replacement will indeed be hired from outside of the company. Notably, the future of Sprint's substantial investment in WiMAX remains foggy, as certain analysts have questioned the sensibility of such a large commitment to a technology "that is so far unproven commercially." Regardless, it looks like a change in strategy will be the number one priority moving forward. [Warning: read link required subscription]

UPDATE: Gary Forsee has indeed stepped down. The firm's CFO, Paul Saleh, was named acting CEO, while James Hance, Jr. will serve as acting chairman.

[Via BloggingStocks, thanks Matt H. for the update]

According to an article recently put out by The Wall Street Journal, Advanced Micro Devices' chief sales and marketing officer Henri Richard is stepping down. Reportedly, AMD's top sales exec "decided to leave AMD because of another job opportunity," although we aren't told where exactly he'll be heading. The firm is supposedly planning to "formally announce Mr. Richard's resignation" soon, but attempts to contact the chip maker for comment were apparently in vain.

[Via Hexus, thanks Arneh]

By a fairly wide 420-3 margin, the House of Representatives gave a nearly unanimous thumbs-up to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which would "prohibit employers from using genetic information or test results when making employment and health benefits decisions" if it gets a similar nod of approval from the Senate. Fortunately for supporters, the Senate has been known to look fondly upon similar legislation in the past, and if the bill becomes law, health insurers couldn't use "genetic information to set premiums," nor could they require customers to submit genetic tests. Essentially, this could ensure that any future human mutation hacks you inflict on yourself, or more frightening, any robotic humanoid whose genes would find it out, will be safe from scrutiny come interview time. It's about time to order up that oh-so-keen intelligent carpet, right, hiring managers?

[Via Wired]