As an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shareholder, these are the times that try men's souls. While remaining very positive on the company's long term goals and product trajectory, the latest spat of news coming out of nearby Cupertino has me thinking as to whether tomorrow would be an excellent time to get out of my Apple stock position, at least for the short term.

Apple announces quarterly earnings an hour after the NASDAQ market's close, and of late, the company's stock has been steadily climbing upward. Despite today's pullback of less than a quarter of one percent, the stock is above $93 a share, up 4% from last week, and more than 12% over the last three months. For me, I'm up just under 10% in this most recent short-term buy.

But in the midst of this, in the last few weeks, Apple has confirmed their next generation operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) will be delayed until the fall, rumors have arisen that the much-awaited iPhone is suffering from stability and battery issues, and the SEC's inquiries into stock manipulation and backdating continue. Today's well-documented news reported former CFO Fred Anderson's settling by paying fines of more than $3 million, and issuing a press release that CEO Steve Jobs instructed him to institute the irregularities in the first place. (See: GMSV)

Whether true or not, any suggestion that Jobs could be at risk sets shudders down the spine of any good Apple investor or Macintosh fan. As the company's business and marketing leader, Jobs represents the soul of the company, and is given the lion's share of the credit for all good things that have come to pass at Apple in the last decade. On the news of Anderson's finger-pointing, some in the media admitted to having cold feet, and selling all their Apple stock.

I've bitten the poisoned Apple a few times myself over the years, holding when I should have sold, yet also selling just before a rally. Even if the company reports stellar earnings, with all these questions, will the Street be satisfied? I'm not so sure. Come this time tomorrow, I just might not own any Apple stock. And truth be told, I might not be happy with my decision either way.

It's hard to know which posts are going to gain attention in the blogosphere, and which ones won't. Though I sometimes can call winners early, on occasion I am surprised. Sunday was one of those times, as a quick post I submitted on Google's Earth Day logo which featured the Google name as a melting iceberg was distributed throughout the Web, first landing on Robert Scoble's Link Blog, then on TechMeme, and eventually hit the front page of Digg, if only briefly. My observation that the company had subtly highlighted the crisis of global warming resulted in a wide range of comments here and on Digg, and multiple blog posts from supporters and detractors of the theory.

All told, after seeing above-average traffic Sunday, Monday morning's traffic went from surge to explosion. Hitting the front page of Digg saw visitors pour into the site at the rate of 1,500 in one hour - quite the achievement for me, considering peak traffic to the site for a single day was previously less than 600 (That's what I get for being small potatoes). At one point, Sitemeter said that if the rate kept up, I'd be over 1 million individual visits in a 30-day period. By end of day, we ended up with just under 3,000 unique visitors, 98% or so who had come just to see the Google Earth Day logo story. And as is very common with visitors from Digg, they didn't stick around. Though my total RSS feed subscribers bumped from 54 to 62, there was no momentous surge.

With the dust settled, we're almost back to normal here, staying under the fray. But in the wake of yesterday's traffic binge, you can see some of the conversations that emerged.

CNET: Google logo take Earth Day temperature
IP Democracy: Has Google Taken a Stand on Global Warming?
JD on EP: Google "Earth Day"
SearchViews: Green Advertising Moves Online for Earth Day

Any concerns I previously had about not meeting March 2007 traffic (See post: General Blog Direction: Up and to the Right) are now gone. Yesterday's spike put April ahead of March for good. Now I have to see if I can sustain the momentum.

On Monday, I noted my two-year relationship with my 60 Gigabyte iPod had come to an end. I had moved on, ready to upgrade to the next version - even thinking about how cool it would be to have the new iPod Video and watch TV shows on the airplane.

But before I made a trip over to Fry's or the nearest Apple Store, the iPod came back to life. Needless to say, I'm happy I don't have to shell out any dough in the near term, but on the downside, I kind of wanted to move forward.

More details around how I managed to get the iPod back to life are covered in my latest post to The Apple Blog, titled iPod Death and Rebirth. Per agreement with them, I will not be cross-posting the piece, but instead, have provided a link. Enjoy.

Cross-posted to Athletics Nation...

Ever want to try your hand at running the 2007 Oakland A's? Want to challenge a friend? Well, the ANtics have made it ever so easy! Simply find two player tokens (buttons and coins will do), a single six sided die, and some serious fandom, and you're on your way.

Instructions and Game Boards Below:


Click to See Larger Game Board

Simple Rules:

1) Roll the dice to see who goes first. Highest number leads off.
2) If you land on a square with instructions, follow those instructions. If you land on a photo, then bask in the glory that is A's baseball!

Special Squares:

1) If you land in the special "Two Minute Thank You Speech" square, your opponent must time your speech and ensure it passes for you to advance.
2) If you land on the "Playoff Square", you're incredibly lucky! Roll high, and you can avoid the early rounds of the playoffs!

The Playoffs:

1) Unless you are advanced to a further series in the special "Playoffs Square", you must play all three rounds of the playoffs, provided your dice are lucky. For example, rolling a six does not get you to the World Series from the ALDS. It only guarantees you made the ALCS, but keep the momentum up!

Winning the Game:

1) The first player to advance and become World Champs wins.
2) If neither team makes it to World Champs, whomever goes further in the playoffs wins. What? You expected you had a 50/50 chance of wininng? What team have you been following?

Want a full, high resolution copy you can play with at home?
Download the 1 Megabyte PDF for your own enjoyment!

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