Mediabistro's FishBowlLA has the perfect recap of the last two weeks' dot-com frenzy (Lloyd Braun — pictured because I like picturing him — zigs, Steve Ballmer zags, and still they try to dance):

• Lloyd Braun comes out swinging today with what the NY Times calls "the most extensive of his initiatives to get final approval:" Yahoo Tech. The top-story panel is sometimes overlaid with an interstitial ad. Should've stuck with puppet-anchored news, Lloyd. [Yahoo Tech and NYT]

All right, I've been had by a flack. (Household hint: No cleanser can wash away the shame of using a PR piece.) A big-shot blogebrity (approval to name him pending), who probably got the eBay conference story pitch too, IMed last night:

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers kicked out partner Russ Siegelman, according to a trusted source. The former Microsoft employee, who once reported directly to Bill Gates, won't be part of KPCB's next fund. Was the bigshot VC firm sick of seeing its property Friendster languish under Siegelman's partnership? Or was he just bumped out to make room for another hotshot?

Closer and closer sources confirm the persistent rumor that Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy will bow out. The old softie can't handle the pressure to fire workers — he never did like to lay off staff — according to the San Jose Mercury News. And he'll always have a spot open as chairman.

Sadly, it's real. Google, Flavorpill, AOL, Root.net, The Happy Corp, and MSN will compete in a two-hour dodgeball tourney in New York City this weekend. It will not be pretty (but if anyone sends pictures, I'll put them up).

Now playing World of Warcraft can get you a job. Thrilling, really, to discover that a game played by destroying arbitrarily assigned enemies ad infinitum, rising up a ladder until reaching a disappointing top that isn't a top at all, commiserating with socially inept addicts with little life outside the computer, could prepare you for tech work. No, seriously, I am shocked at this news. [Wired]
It's funny 'cause it's petty: Just as Microsoft pushes Vista to 2007 and shuffles the whole Live department, MSN goes down for an hour. [Threadwatch]
AT&T doesn't really want to break your Internet. Sure, that's what it says while it's sober. [ZDNet]
Google Finance doesn't just disappoint Yahoo blogger (and "Expert Author") Jeremy Zawodny, it makes him sad. Jeremy comes this close to naming the folks who let Yahoo Finance rot, then praises the product manager in charge of Google Finance. "Not speaking for my employer" indeed. [WebProNews]
Idealab shareholders agree to pay founder Bill Gross's $50 million loan. And now he can't have that puppy he asked for, because that was the agreement about responsibility, Bill, and for now you can only keep your goldfish. [LA Times]
Songbird plays a good game of gotcha. Steve Jobs in 2002: "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own." France fighting iTunes in 2006: "The consumer must be able to listen to the music they have bought on no matter what platform." Oh, they couldn't mean it the way he did, they're just the French. [Songbird]

Meet the new Products and Services Division team at Microsoft. In the second part of Kevin Johnson's leaked internal memo, the MS co-president outlines who's coming and who's staying in Windows Live, the Core Operating System Division, the Online Business Group, and several other PSD departments.

Executives have been dropping like flies (flies that are only taking a break! Honest!) at MSN. The Microsoft division is sinking as Microsoft's Live project takes over.

Microsoft-fan forum LiveSide says Michael Rawding will follow senior VP David Cole out MSN's door. According to LiveSide's source, the MSN global sales and marketing veep couldn't nab Cole's old job, so he's "taking leave" instead.

MSN is a swamp, and Microsoft is flushing it out. MSN director David Cole sent a company memo announcing his retirement this morning. The senior VP ran the network since 2001; since then, its search market share has slowly drifted to the bottom.

A reader points us to the current "Popular Searches" list on MSN.com and asks, which of these things is not like the other?

Top Five Searches on msn.com at the moment:

From the MSN homepage right now: