Microsoft's 'Apprentice'

Microsoft had a cameo at the conclusion of "The Apprentice" last season, when some remote Xbox installments were included in one of the show's culminating events. But this season, one of the actual job candidates competing to run one of Donald Trump's companies is a Microsoft employee.

Although the show is somewhat vague on the specific corporate backgrounds of the candidates, recent weblog posts by some of her Microsoft colleagues identified "Apprentice" candidate Verna as an employee of the Redmond company. (See also her own Web site.) One of her past bosses also roots for her in this post.

On the Inside Microsoft weblog, Nathan Weinberg offers a good recap of last week's first episode, focusing in part on how Verna did and what she said. Assessing her performance, he predicts that she will make it "at least halfway through the competition."