Beer and wine won’t be flowing at a Microsoft campus bar after all. Just three days before the Spitfire pub was to open there, the company has pulled the plug on the project. The decision has left pub owner Jonathan Sposato mystified.

"I am completely stunned and disappointed by the decision," said Sposato. "I am confused by the sudden change of heart." Earlier today, Sposato broke the news to the restaurant’s 22 employees. The Spitfire — which also operates a pub in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood – received a letter from Microsoft today terminating the lease. 

Sposato said no explanation was given, but other retail businesses in the Commons area at Microsoft’s new West Campus are still going forward.

"They wanted to build a bar — a pub — and they felt as we did too that this would be a very important and cool part of their campus life for the day-to-day experience for their employees," he said. But Microsoft has now reversed course. 

Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos confirmed the decision, saying the company reconsidered the potential impact of having a bar in the middle of the corporate campus.

"The goal was always to create a cool gathering place for employees, but to do so in a manner that’s consistent with a business environment," Gellos said. "We took a second at that, and we were sensitive to the business environment. We decided we should do something more appropriate, and that meant not having a pub."

The company is now looking into alternative ways to make the Commons a place employees want to gather.

Sposato said the timing is especially bad since the restaurant and bar was supposed to open Monday. Beer taps, menus and flatware are all ready to go and employees — some of whom left other jobs to work in the pub — were gearing up for their first day. Relationships have been established with beer and food vendors and signs have been hung, said Sposato.

A former Microsoft worker who now runs the Seattle Internet startup Picnik, Sposato declined to say how much he’s invested in the restaurant and bar. But he did say that he and his partner have invested "a lot" in terms of capital and sweat equity.

The new pub has been in development for more than a year, with Sposato winning a competitive bidding process against other bars.

It was a much-anticipated addition in the new Entertainment & Devices Division campus being built west of state Route 520.

"There was ample buzz on the part of the employees at Microsoft," said Sposato, when reached on his cell phone at the would-be Redmond pub. "Every so often, I would get an email from someone that’s going: ‘Wow, I can’t wait. I saw the signs up on campus and that’s so cool.’ "

Asked whether he was contemplating legal action, Sposato said he’s hopeful it doesn’t come to that.

"I would like to invite the decision makers and the stake holders to engage in a dialogue with us," he said.

Sposato said the space has been built out as a pub, with a giant bar, a fireplace and eight beer taps. Switching to a restaurant without alcohol would not be financially viable, he said. 

Todd Bishop contributed to this report.

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and Obsolete newsboxes as PCs? Geeks itching for P-I hardware  

The physical remnants of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer are capturing the imagination of some local computer geeks. Wouldn’t it be a great project to make a PC from one of those distinctive red distribution boxes? But it looks like they won’t be as easy to buy as it initially seemed.

The boxes were reportedly being sold by the Seattle Times Co. for $40 each, according to this post on the Stranger’s Slog blog. But the city’s surviving daily newspaper company — which handled distribution and other business functions for the P-I under their joint operating agreement — has put a damper on things for now.

"They’re not for sale individually at this time," said Jill Mackie, Times Co. spokeswoman, via phone this afternoon. "Along with many other decisions that have to do with the unwinding of the JOA, it’s still being determined. It’s possible that we may sell them individually to interested collectors of P-I memorabilia in the future, but at this time that hasn’t been determined."

However, some Slog readers apparently were able to get their hands on boxes, and one of them, George, said he planned to equip his with an LDC screen showing the continuing SeattlePI.com home page — really an art piece more than a functional piece of computing. I have to confess that I discussed a similar do-it-yourself project with one of my old P-I buddies at one point, but we never got around to it.

At any rate, if the Times ultimately does start selling them for real, it would be fun to see what Seattle’s techies could come up with. 

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and Report: Amazon developing large-screen Kindle 3  Amazon has been rumored for some time to be working on a third-generation Kindle with a larger screen. Now the Wall Street Journal says it’s true. Citing sources who have seen versions of the device, the Journal says the Kindle 3 may be ready in time for the 2009 holiday season.

That would be a pretty quick turn-around for Amazon, which just came out with its Kindle 2 in February. The Journal reports a larger-screen device could help Amazon "better compete for the business of newspaper and magazine publishers looking for new distribution platforms," and notes that publisher Hearst and News Corp. (publisher of the Wall Street Journal) are developing electronic readers.

There are other players circling the e-book market as well, including Plastic Logic, Barnes & Noble, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and a host of others.

Might the Kindle 3 also target the student market? College students — burdened by heavy and expensive textbooks — are seen as a potential market for lightweight electronic readers.

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Geospiza lands $750,000  

Geospiza has raised a $750,000 from Seattle area angel investors such as Steve Wood, Dan Rosen and Gordon Gardiner, with the Seattle company using the new capital to bolster sales and marketing efforts. 

President Rob Arnold said the company — which has raised a total of $6 million over the past six years — is doing well despite the slow down in the economy.  That’s in part because its GeneSifter data analysis product is used by biotechnology researchers at universities such as Yale, Harvard and Duke, organizations that Arnold said are attracting federal grants.

"It is very strong for us right now," said Arnold. "We are definitely beneficiaries of the increases in NIH funding."

The GeneSifter software manages the entire workflow process associated with genetic sequencing, with Arnold saying they "take data and turn it into knowledge" at the medial research organizations.

The 23-person company raised a $3 million series A round of financing in 2006.  Last November, it acquired the GeneSifter technology from VizX Labs.

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