How brilliant is that? IBM pulled the family card, and what a card it is… because obviously when a man decides to upsticks from Texas to California, to throw 26 years of his life in a truck and turn his back on his friends, he does so on a whim. He wakes up in the morning and says “honey, forget the toast, I’ve decided to ditch my suit for a polo neck and work for Apple, I don’t know if there’s a position available but by lord I intend to find out. I’ve spent nineteen years designing servers and now I want to follow my dreams… what do you mean the children? Oh, who cares, Tom’s always been a nuissance… his name’s Mark you say, well that proves it. Come along darling, the bus for Cupertino’s waiting!”

Erm no. Papermaster took this decision with the full backing of his children – who no doubt have dreams of ballponds filled with iPods – and his wife, who’s probably relishing the prospect of the next 26 years without any server pillow-talk whatsoever.

I don’t know whether the comment shows a particularly cack-handed attempt at man-management from one of the world’s great technology companies, or rather a touching last-ditch attempt to keep hold of a man it clearly values. On the other hand, if you take the comment out of the cosy surrounds of the office, and place it in the mouth of a shadowy figure, standing behind a pair of beaming headlights in the parking garage – it all goes a little bit mafioso.

Oh well, the point remains this entire thing is becoming a bit of a guilty pleasure. I imagine this is what all those surreptitious Big Brother watchers feel like. Anyway, I await with baited breath the next thwack of the Papermaster pinata, and whatever delights fall out.