You can measure the size of a man's regret by how much he spends to make up for his mistakes.

If you've missed your girlfriend's birthday, for example, then that could be a lolcat (http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/06/16/funny-pictures-fix-what-you-did/).

If you're Steve Ballmer and you've let Google run away with online search and advertising, that could be (http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-steve-ballmer-has-gone-bonkers-2009-6) $5.5 to $11bn of Microsoft's operating income for the next five years.

Ballmer's already spent billions more than Microsoft would have on R&D and M&A to build Bing against Google. But is it any good?

Then there's netbooks: how do you win the love of PC makers dabbling with Linux on netbooks? Potentially doubling (http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/06/16/windows_7_oem_netbook_price/) the price you charge OEMs to install your next operating system, Windows 7, on netbooks isn't going to do it - that's for sure.

Better to pretend netbooks out of existence and call them "low cost small notebook PCs (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/03/microsoft_low_cost_small_notebook_pcs/)" instead.

And what is it with security? Microsoft's re-built and re-launched its online anti-virus service - Windows Live OneCare - as Microsoft Security Essentials (http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3120). But the service is riddled with contradictions: it won't work on pirated copies of Windows - so there goes the China market. And there's no incentive for OEMs to put it on their machines, because it's a free service.

Reg software editor Gavin Clarke and All-About-Microsoft blogger Mary Jo Foley measure the size of Ballmer's remorse and how it'll take more than a bunch of flowers and a cute kitten to win over the web-surfing public, sceptical OEMs and millions of PC users across the planet.

You can listen through The Reg's player below, or download the MP3 here (http://go.theregister.com/k/microbite10_200906_mp3_dl) or the Ogg Vorbis here (http://go.theregister.com/k/microbite10_200906_ogg_dl). ®

MicroBite 10 (http://go.theregister.com/podcast/2009/06/20/microbite_june_09_mp3.mp3)