April 4, 2004

Settlement of Sun Microsystem's protracted antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft reflects growing realization among companies in Silicon Valley that legal system can do little to resolve their quarrel with Microsoft; many Valley executives say Sun sued for peace in face of Microsoft's overwhelming power and financial might; many executives continue to consider Microsoft an imitator and predator that has freely borrowed Valley's best ideas and added them to its products, but some give Microsoft credit for reaching out to them and trying to change what they see as its overly aggressive business style; photo (M)

Workers are suing their employers over doctoring of their time sheets to show fewer hours worked; experts say practice, known as shaving time, is far more prevalent than most Americans believe because computerization of time records has made it easier and harder to detect; companies accused of shaving time include Family Dollar discount chain, Pep Boys auto parts chain, Taco Bell restaurants, Wal-Mart and Kinko photocopy centers; some of them say they prohibit practice, but acknowledge that it sometimes happens; compensation experts say many managers, whether at discount stores or fast-food restaurants, fear losing their jobs or having their bonuses cut if they fail to keep costs down and profits up; photos (L)

Gretchen Morgenson column in special report on executive pay cites new, comprehensive study by Profs Joseph R Blasi and Douglas L Kruse that shows increases in executive pay, particularly stock options, do not, on average, translate into later gains for shareholders; study found 1 percent rise in total compensation for each of top five executives at companies predicted 0.22 percent drop in average shareholder return over next year and 0.12 percent drop over three years; found incentive pay for many chief executives rose even when shareholder returns fell; graph of chief executive stock option paper wealth (M)

Computers, which has sped up modern dating, also make it easy to digitally erase traces of former love interests; ease of consigning electronic remebrances to virtual trash seems to be changing age-old sorrow of breakup and rituals of moving on; photos (M)

Jeremy Eichler article on controversy in classical music world over political identity of Dmitri Shostakovich; says debates are likely to continue with publication of 25th anniversary edition of Testimony, memoir 'related to and edited by' Russian musical journalist Solomon Volkov, which says composer was critical of Communist regime that he was 'forced to serve'; holds book's authenticity is subject of vitriolic debate by American musicologist Laurel Fay and enjoined by Allan B Ho and Dmitry Feofanov, who refute Fay's position; Shostakovich's works and his place in modern musical canon discussed; photos (M)