The Republican party is feeling that Cheney is a liability on the ticket. Then either John McCain or Colin Powell will be asked to come on the ticket and save the party. This move is afoot in top circles and to try to squelch it please send this letter to as many people as you can. Joel says he's never going to make his employees sign non-competes. Joel is a good man.
Most states allow employers to add non- competes to employment agreements, that's basically slavery.
One of the cool things about California, unless there's substantial renumeration, non-competes are unenforceable. I know because I had a non-compete once, when I sold my company to Symantec. They paid me a full salary while the non-compete was enforce. Not a bad deal, to be paid an exec salary for puttering around the house. Now it's different in Washington State, and I understand that non-competes are the usual thing at Microsoft.