Hello again, TweakTown. It's us at TechEye with a round-up over last week's news round-up.

Matthew Finnegan takes a look at the Semiconductor Industry Association's latest chip forecasts, and it's not all good news. Although worldwide sales for July alone tallied up to an impressive $24.9 billion, analysts tell us there are a few points to look out for. July is generally a weak point in the season, but "the real question is whether it will sustain a low level of growth in general," which is a possibility because of overall economic worries. We looked into it further, as the double dip recession looms over the entire industry.

Cisco's in hot water again. While out at the GlobalFoundries conference, GTC, in Santa Clara, we talked to cabbies about the allegations that it's helping the Chinese government spy on its own citizens. One told us it was treason. Now, the Law Foundation thinks Cisco has helped China in tracking down, monitoring and jailing members of the Falun Gong religious movement, which it has been persecuting with a very heavy hand. There have been allegations of torture, too. Cisco allegedly helped by developing "antivirus software" given to the Chinese government, which it then used to track down Falun Gong. It analysed behavior of users typical to Falun Gong and then forwarded the digital signatures on, allegedly.

In related news, IBM boasted about propping up China's identification database, which it spun as making the world all sunshine for the people of China.

Intel really wants its Ultrabook form factor to work. The problem is in the cost. As HP's last-minute supersale of its TouchPads demonstrated, sure, people will buy an alternative to Apple - if it is dirt cheap. The Ultrabook is not dirt cheap, and manufacturers are struggling with the idea of selling them for any less than $1,000 a pop. Key partners like Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba and Asustek are getting cold feet, and shipments will initially be around the lacklustre mark of 50,000 units. Intel hopes a half-plastic chassis might save its bacon on costs.

Long suffering AMD, which has tried to pitch itself against AMD's Omerta, is finally getting the chance to bite back. Intel released a number of new CPUs in what is understood to be a reaction to AMD's recent APU success. Could it be getting the upper hand, at last?

The drama continues at AOL, where the newly-ish acquired TechCrunch is up in arms about Arrington's departure. Journalist MG Siegler dropped a bunch of f-bombs in his rant against the Huffstablishment, and Arianna's plans to lay off staff, replace them, but keep the brand she didn't help establish.

Amazon.com, the peddler of everything, has helped rip off the co-founder of The Register, Mike Magee. His translation of the Yoni Tantra is being sold for £2.18 with a questionable cover in poor taste. The most straight forward way to have Amazon take down works that infringe on copyright is... by snail mail! Speedy, efficient. Don't forget the stamp.

Microsoft has been prodded by a WikiLeaks cable suggesting it engaged in suspect tactics to win IT contracts in Tunisia, with its recently ousted repressive government. The driving force seemed to be because it was on the verge of adopting open source alternatives to Microsoft products. Redmond has even been implicated in training authorities how to oppress their people - and it was questioned whether MSFT's involvement would provide Tunisia a "greater capacity to monitor its own citizens".

So long then, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who did not manage to please shareholders despite her foul-mouthed responses to journalists. She's an ex-parrot, she has ceased to be, but this doesn't mean Yahoo is up for sale, according to founder and ex-CEO Jerry Yang. Though it is exploring strategic options, whatever that means. It usually means firing people.

There's this and much more at TechEYE.net, including last week's Bible Reading, Ye Booke of Microsoft, and how God accidentally destroyed Microsoft for being a den of inequity.