The market may not always be right. But today raises at least an interesting question.

Intel's reluctance to expense stock options has been all over the news today. This is supposed to be a policy that is terrible for investors. It supposedly disguises actual costs and misleads people.

Intel stock was up 30 cents today. Perhaps investors don't agree. Are they wrong?

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The next post will be on Tuesday, June 1.

We've been stuck in a weather pattern more typical of mid-summer than May. A front has been oscillating between southern New England and the mid-Atlantic states, but isn't quite pushed far enough south to get NYC into the dry air. This front acts as a catalyst for instability from strong solar heating, generating "popcorn" type thunderstorms with occasionally torrential rains.

Still, it's a vast improvement over last year, when a nice summer weekend day didn't arrive until late June.

What goes around comes around.

AT&T has announced that it will offer wireless services through Sprint later this year. Wait--didn't they just sell out to Cingular? No; that's AT&T Wireless, which was spun off (and unoriginally named). AT&T Wireless will be acquired by Cingular. At that time, the right to use the AT&T name reverts back to, well, AT&T.

Should be fun for consumers to figure out. And it wouldn't be half as complicated if the AT&T Wireless marketing department had more than an iota of innovation. First, they couldn't think of any other name for the company, so they just kept it as "AT&T Wireless." Then, when they needed a new slogan, they used "Reach out," the same slogan AT&T had used years ago.

Why not just sign up for Sprint? Well, only AT&T delivers innovation and technical expertise you can depend on. That's why its voicemail system doesn't come with message existence indication services.

I'm enjoying the on-air chemistry of Channel 2 News's Ernie Anastos and new addition Roz Abrams (who came from WABC). Both are seasoned New York anchors with solid reliability, and Abrams brings a reassuring warmth to the presentation.

The only downside is that Channel 2 seems to be taking cues from Fox on news direction with too many hyped-up service pieces ("Your birthdate may be stolen the next time you buy a MetroCard! Stay tuned for what you need to know!").

Still, the team of Anastos, Abrams, sportscaster Warner Wolf and meteorologist John Bolaris makes for a reasonably good evening newscast.

The five best features of Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side:

5) The fruit stand at 72nd and Columbus on the southeast corner. These guys are as determined as any. On the most frigid days of this past winter, they covered the stand in plastic and hung a sign on it: "In Blue Car."

4) The Starbucks on 76th and Columbus. Although the city has too many, this branch made history. One day this corner was an empty storefront. 48 hours later, it was open as Starbucks, and 1 hour after opening, it was packed with a line out the door--even though there are 3 other Starbucks within a 5-minute walk.

3) Andy's Deli II on 81st and Columbus. The best breaded chicken cutlets I have found in the neighborhood--surprisingly well made for an unassuming establishment.

2) Roosevelt Park, east side of Columbus between 77th and 81st Streets. Of course, Central Park is the greatest. But this "other park" offers generous seating, ample shade and relative quiet on a pleasant afternoon.

1) The sudden gust of wind encountered when walking south from 68th to Lincoln Square. In the winter, take the bus. In the summer, it couldn't be more welcome.

The ideal summer lunch is the Asian chicken salad at Eatery (9th Avenue and 53rd Street). The perfect mixture of chicken, lettuce, jicama, peanuts, crunchy noodles and dressing is just interesting enough without being too busy. It's served with the chopsticks already planted in the salad, so it's fun too.

Summer is here! I got caught in a downpour without an umbrella, and my shirt will take 4 days to dry because it's too humid for evaporational cooling. I could put on air conditioning, but that will cost $200 per day to fund Con Edison's wasteful new ad campaign. What a pleasant change from those 2-degree nights several months ago.

First there was the trend to eliminate roaming charges on cell phone plans: Cingular and AT&T Wireless both have done so with their newest plan offerings. Now Sprint is trying to simplify matters another way with its "Fair and Flexible" plan. No more ridiculous overtime charges of 45 or whatever cents per minute--the plan automatically adjusts in increments of a few dollars depending on usage within a range of 25 minutes.

This is good if you really have no idea what your usage will be. But it won't be for everyone. My cell phone usage is stable on business days because I hardly ever use my cell phone. The only variations are on weekends when I have unlimited time anyway.

Still, the trend toward simpler pricing and no roaming is overdue good news for everyone.

It's Etch-a-Sketch, online. (Use it before someone sues for intellectual property infringement.)

Here are the top five most played albums on my iPod. I guess this doesn't exactly win any diversity awards.

5) Welcome to My Party, Rusted Root.

4) When I Woke, Rusted Root.

3) Live Phish 20.

2) A Live One, Disc 1, Phish.

1) Trey Anastasio, self-titled album.

In today's "Circuits" section of The New York Times, David Pogue is in top form in his devastating review of Sony's new Connect music service. To see just how bad it was, I visited the Connect Web site.

On the front page, which resembles that of a startup thirsty for angel financing, "top downloads" are listed. But the names of the songs aren't live links. When you go to staff picks, numerous albums are mentioned, but the album titles featured aren't live links either. I think this is all I need to see for now. (It's not like the music will sound better if I were to download it from Sony instead of Apple iTunes.)

This is an embarrassing market entry by a company otherwise known for world class quality. What happened?

The best summary I have seen on why, on weather radar, what you see is not always what you get (from Environment Canada): in English or French.

Eudora is a great e-mail application, but it has one odd quirk. If you sort outgoing mail (as I do with a separate sent messages folder for each client), there is a ten-second delay between when you send the mail and when it is sorted into its proper home. First the message will appear in the general "Out" index. Then, it's as if Eudora re-scans the header to determine that it fits a sorting rule, and the program moves it later to its proper place.

This seems slow and inelegant given the innumerable other complex information tasks that take place instantly with today's technology. But at least Eudora has the sent-mail sort option. It's the main reason Eudora is my choice for work email; Apple Mail, while excellent in other ways, just doesn't do it for serious use.

The package of Dole Tuscany Field Greens lettuce mix says "Triple Washed."

I wonder what exactly is removed in the third washing that couldn't have been removed in the first two?