Updated

Pan-Silicon Valley WiFi network is coming -- The network will stretch from South San Francisco down to Santa Cruz. Seven players have bid to build the project, including Cisco, IBM and MetroFi. Winner announced Sept 12.

New cellphone recycle law in California today -- It allows you to take back your cellphones to any retailer. So don't throw them in trash. Our story in Merc today.

DVD Play, the DVD kiosk company, raises $23 million -- The Los Gatos company is placing DVD rental kiosks into places like McDonalds so that people can rent vidoes without having to go to a Blockbusters, Netflix or somewhere online. The five-year-old company apparently hasn't done that well. This investment essentially helps the company start over again. New investors El Dorado Ventures, Emergence Capital Partners, Palo Alto Venture Partners and Vanguard Ventures co-led the investment. This one we don't really get, but we have been wrong before.

Alien gets sued -- Things are going from bad to worse for the Morgan Hill RFID company that has filed to go public despite having losses that exceed sales (It lost $53 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 on sales of $19.8 million).

Google steals another from Microsoft -- This is getting into intimidating territory. First, Google stole Microsoft's man in China, reportedly causing Microsoft chief executive to throw a chair (though that story is contested). And now Google has hired away the general manager for platform evangelism at Microsoft, Vic Gundotra -- and this comes right after the departure of VP Martin Taylor, Ballmer's protege.

How good is Microsoft's new operating system, Vista? -- Here's a good Vista review by our colleague Michael Langberg, who has tested it. Separately, Microsoft is delaying Vista's introduction now, promising only to deliver it sometime in "early 2007" instead of the previously firmer January.

IBloks, a site that lets you mix music, images and games, has raised $3 million -- The San Francisco start-up, which lets you share your personalized media mashups with others, has raised the cash from Seattle firm Maveron, after raising $500,000 last January. It has a free and premium version of its software. Maveron is the investment firm co-founded by Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks.

Menlo Ventures invests in....a printing press? -- Yup, this is Silicon Valley 2006, and old Gutenburg's invention is alive and well -- except now the technology is digital. EPAC Technologies, based in San Leandro, has raised a $40 million third round of capital for a digital printing technology, with Menlo leading the round.

Francisco Partners, a San Francisco tech-only buyout fund, has finished raising $2.3 billion -- This is the firm's second fund, and puts it in the "big" camp, but behind Menlo Park-based Silver lake Partners' $3.6 billion tech buyout fund. Full story in Buyoutsnews.com (sub required).

Clarification -- We've updated post on Amerindo. LoudCloud shares, to be fair, have recovered somewhat from the depths. Now called Opsware, the company looks like a stable business.