MICROSOFT: BRIEFED ON BREAKUP, COUNTING ON CONVERGENCE

While Justice Department lawyers were huddling with four economic advisors in the White House to go over their options in the wake of the action against the computer biggie, the Microsoft boss was in New Orleans for the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference putting his spin on the rumored breakup plans and introducing a new device called the Panja, which will interconnect your home TV and stereo with the Internet.

"We wouldn't have Windows today if it hadn't been for the Office group and the Windows group working together," he told USA Today. "In fact, I forced them to remain in the same room for three straight years living on nothing but Starbucks and Twinkies."

Back at the Redmond home office, CEO Steve Ballmer was rallying the troops with promises the company will not be broken up, offering new, low-priced options to all those former millionaires whose stock holdings had taken a dip in value.

Meanwhile, the company demonstrated a new device to "take down the wall between the PC and the home audio-video system" with the first public demonostration of a device incorporating the company's Universal Plug and Play initiative.

Panja allows the home TV and stereo to interconnect with the Web without the use of a PC. The application will begin shipping as a feature in the brand-new Windows Millennium, scheduled to ship in PCs by year-end. The demo utilized an interface from StreamSearch.com that offered an Internet menu in the form of a browser for finding and downloading video and music.

The government immediately ordered one for the Lincoln Bedroom and one for the Oval Office and charged them to the Department of Justice.