Good morning tech

DELL IN TALKS TO SETTLE SEC PROBE: CEO Michael Dell “has emerged as an additional target of the Securities and Exchange Commission in a long-running investigation that has broadened to focus on the company’s dealings with chip giant Intel,” the WSJ says. The company said Thursday that it is talking to the SEC to settle the allegations, which touch on its accounting and its relationship with Intel. “The company said it will take a $100 million reserve to cover expected costs of settling the case.”

HUTCHISON ACCUSES NASA OF SKIRTING THE LAW: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) on Thursday accused NASA leadership of skirting the law to shut down the Constellation human spaceflight program. Hutchison released the statement in response to an announcement from NASA that it would “pace, rather than terminate” work on Constellation contracts due to budget shortfalls. “For months, NASA’s leadership has claimed they are not working to subvert Constellation despite information to the contrary,” Hutchison said in a statement. 

NUMBER PUNCH

77…The number of Democratic members of Congress who have come out against Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to change the regulatory status of broadband services so that the agency has more power to set rules for providers. The latest addition is Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) who sent a letter to the chairman Thursday. (*Updated on Friday at 3:39 p.m. to reflect an additional Democrat who came out against the plan last month.)

SAID

“Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias. Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.” -Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker in an NYT op-ed arguing that the Internet is an asset to our intelligence rather than the bane of it. 

FOR THE WATERCOOLER

ANCILLARY ACRIMONY: An opponent to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to change broadband’s regulatory status may have inadvertently bolstered the chairman’s arguments during a subcomittee hearing this week. In aggressive remarks toward the chairman, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) said, “You’re a lawyer,” and demanded a legal explanation for the FCC’s plans. But Culberson may be the one who is unclear on the law. He went on to contend that the agency lacks “ancillary authority” and that an appeals court had told it as much. This argument — on the commission’s diminished grounds for claiming ancillary authority — is the exact argument the commission has made for weeks in its quest to locate new power to set rules for broadband providers. Others who oppose the FCC’s plan, such as AT&T, make an argument starkly different than Culberson’s, alleging that ancillary authority remains intact and that the agency therefore does not need to seek more authority.  

BING ENVY: Nick Bilton at the NYT’s Bits muses that Google might have been trying to look like Bing through an abruptly-ceased remodeling experiment that had its homepage featuring a large background image yesterday. The company said it took down the image when people interpreted it as a permanent change to the homepage.