What’s so tiresome about all of this is that no one reports this stuff as a political story. This is politics at its most basic. The Dow is going up, sure, but what does that mean, if the rest of the economy still sucks?

An investigative series I've been writing about organized cyber crime gangs stealing millions of dollars from small to mid-sized businesses has generated more than a few responses from business owners who were concerned about how best to protect themselves from this type of fraud.

The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don't use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online.

That speaks volumes.

Mint was a key leader of the next generation of game changers. And now it’s property of Intuit — the poster-child for the last generation. What a loss. Is that the best the next generation can do? Become part of the old generation? How about kicking the shit out of the old guys? What ever happened to that?

I'll be clear: I love Mint. It'severything Intuit's software isn't -- easy, beautiful, intuitive, simple, friendly and informative. Intuit, on the other hand, is one of my least favorite companies in technology. They had great software during the early part of their growth, and then became complacent, wholly satisfied to sit on the status quo they had created. They stopped innovation, released shitty software and more or less brought the personal finance software market to a crawl. They became a marketing company more than a development house.

Until Mint, that is. Mint shook everything up by figuring out how to improve upon every single weakness Intuit let languish for years. They nailed a revenue model. They had perfect integration with almost any financial account you could think of. Their website was good, fast, secure and well-designed. Their software wasn't user-hostile, and they didn't slow down the enhancements because they reached something of a critical-mass sweetspot.

Now, sadly, all of that has become the property of the lousy company that stifled the market in the first place. As Jason Fried says, the next generation just bent over for a $170M payday. And to think of all the time, effort and trust Mint's customers invested in them, only to have it turned over to the crumpled old-guard they were trying to avoid in the first place.

Is $170M big? Yes. But nowhere near what it could have been if Mint allowed itself to push Intuit out of the driver's seat.

I'm apt to cancel my Mint account because of this news, as I have been consciously avoiding Intuit for years now. But, ironically, I guess money talks, sometimes louder than vision.

Don't get me wrong: Mint was a good pickup for Intuit, and I hope they don't destroy the technology or alienate all its users. But I would have loved to see Mint take Intuit out behind the woodshed and show them there's a better game in town. Whatever happened to that spirit?