Roundup: Dell underperformance, Tesla’s tough times, FCC blues and more

Here’s a roundup of some of the last stories of the year:

Is it penance? Carbon-positive Dell fires execs — Yesterday the WSJ pointed out that Dell’s ballyhooed carbon neutrality is based more on creative accounting than reality. Today the company has announced a management shakeup outing several top executives.

Maybe they need some free massages — Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan finally nails down why Microsoft can’t compete with Google in the search market. The basic problem, Sullivan says, is that Microsoft approaches search as more of a chore that it’s obligated to compete in, rather than something that is a real priority, much less something it’s genuinely passionate about.

Tesla factory has uncertain future — The San Jose factory Tesla Motors hoped to use to build its Model S sedan may not get built itself, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Founder Elon Musk reiterated his belief that the company will survive the downturn.

Bureaucrats choke the internet — It’s time to dismantle the Federal Communications Commission, argues noted lawyer Lawrence Lessig in Newsweek, before its bureaucratic inefficiencies strangle the internet.

Top of Techmeme — The tech news aggregator has released its own list of defining events in the tech world. It’s pretty representative of how the industry is developing, too: Four of the stories are about Google, three are on Apple, and two are about Microsoft (and Yahoo). Sorry, startups, you didn’t break in.

I get high on this weed — Air New Zealand conducted a successful flight test using half jet fuel and half refined oil from the non-edible jatropha plant, which we’ve written more about elsewhere.

DFJ looks to raise, gets cut down — While DFJ is raising a new $600 million fund, according to peHUB, they also note that Forbes just published a hit piece on the storied venture firm.

Game consoles are energy hogs — Combined, all the major game consoles consume about $1 billion in energy per year. The biggest offender is the PlayStation 3, which requires more electricity than the average desktop computer to run.

Sequoia scores big — GigaOm has put together a scorecard showing the layoffs at all the portfolio companies of Sequoia Capital, whose infamous internal memo demanding belt-tightening we published earlier this year. There have been over 500 to date between just 20 companies.