A new year

July 1 is the new fiscal year for most state governments. Alas, unlike Will Rogers’ firm hope, we get all the government we pay for in California, and so there are lots of new laws. But one law stands out — in terms of newspaper, TV, web coverage and even freeway signs. To quote the LA Times,

Unless you have been living in a cave, you are probably aware that California's hands-free cellphone laws go into effect at midnight.

However, the big July 1 news is up north in Redmond. Again, unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard that the IT industry’s richest billionaire is no longer at the firm he founded 33 years ago.

Finally, InfoWorld’s quixotic quest to save Windows XP has failed, despite 200,000 signatures for its online petition FedEx’d to CEO Steve Ballmer.