It’s been fashionable for years to knock Microsoft for not being hip, cutting edge, innovative. Choose your dart. The folks at Redmond have heard it all. But, of course, the picture is more complex. In its most recent fiscal year, Microsoft spent $8.2 billion on research. That sum makes it one of the largest research organizations in the world.

So when I was offered the chance last month to chat with Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer, I jumped on it.

Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission was in Silicon Valley this week. I got him on the phone for about 15 minutes to discuss a wide range of subjects. We covered the big move by the FCC this week to approve use of the so-called “white space” for wireless broadband. He also discussed some the initiatives he’s taken to expand access to broadband, and to encourage deployment of faster broadband speeds. And finally, we talked about some of the big issues and opportunities the new president will face in January 2009.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Craigslist.org, the online community and classifieds site that is one of the 10 most visited places on the Web. And its founder, Craig Newmark, is something of an Internet icon.

But less familiar is the Craigslist Foundation. Back when Craigslist started charging for job listings, it had to drop its non-profit status. But it created the foundation to continue giving back to the community. Specifically, the foundation focuses on advising, educating, and supporting non-profit start-ups.

On October 18, the foundation is holding a day-long Boot Camp in San Mateo for non-profits. I spoke with Darian Rodriguez Heyman, executive director of the foundation to learn more about the history of the organization and the boot camp this weekend.

Linda Ronstadt is more than one of the stars of the San Jose Mariachi and Latin Music Festival –she’s also a consuluting advisor. She spoke to Mercury News arts and entertainment Mark de la Viña about the role mariachi in her childhood while growing up in Tuscon, Ariz.

Junot Diaz is more than a talented writer who in April won the Pulitzer Prize for his debut novel, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Like the title character in his book, Diaz is a huge fan of fantasy and sci-fi. He spoke to Mercury News arts and entertainment reporter Mark de la Viña about what warms his fanboy cockles.

A few weeks ago, I got a chance to sit down with FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor. If you haven’t heard of FriendFeed, well, it’s been getting tremendous buzz this year as the next Facebook, Twitter, or whatever. It hasn’t drawn a huge mainstream following, but like Twitter, it’s attracted a lot of hardcore, social media types.

What makes this (maybe) more than hype, though, is that the four co-founders all have strong pedigrees. Each spent time working at Google and made significant contributions. Taylor, for instance, was a product manager who helped launched Google Maps; Jim Norris was a software engineer who helped develop Google Maps; Paul Buchheit was one of the main engineers behind Gmail; and Sanjeev Singh also worked on Gmail.

FriendFeed launched a little less than a years ago. Essentially, it’s a place that aggregates all of your social media activity. As people join more and more social networks or Web 2.0 sites, they face a problem of tracking all their activity across all these platforms. FriendFeed tries to pull all of that together in one place. In a way, it’s like Facebook stripped of all the social networking tools (no profiles, for example). Instead, it solely focuses on the feed aspect.

What’s interesting though, is that users have decided its also a great spot to discuss their various pieces of content, a development that the founders had necessarily intended or expected.

“One thing we didn’t anticipate is that conversations would be a driver in the growth of our product,” Bret Taylor. “But it makes sense. One of the things you want to do when you discover something interesting is that you want to talk about it.”

I discussed the background of FriendFeed with Taylor and where he sees the service going next.

Comedian Dana Carvey is in the midst of a comeback with a successful string of tour dates and a new HBO special, out on DVD on Aug. 19. The former “Saturday Night Live” star and San Carlos resident discusses his decade away from the limelight — until an earthquake interrupts his interview with arts and entertainment reporter Mark de la Viña.

T. Boone Pickens has launched a national campaign to create support for his radical plan to solve the country’s short-term energy crisis. In short, Pickens wants to take much of the natural gas being used to generate electricity, and use it to power new fleets of natural gas vehicles, primarily buses, trucks, and government-owned vehicles. Then he wants to construct massive wind farms in the Midwest to generate enough electricity to replace what was being created by natural gas. More details on the “Pickens Plan” can be found at www.pickensplan.com. On Monday, Mercury News business columnist Chris O’Brien spoke with Pickens about his plan and the campaign.

Brian Regan is among the best stand-up comedians in the business — and his performance style is not one to easily offend. Regan spoke with arts and entertainment reporter Mark de la Viña about why clean comedians are so unsual in this day and age.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said he would recommend that the other four commissioners rule that cable giant Comcast had violated the agency’s principles regarding open access to the Internet. While the ruling is not final, the statement marks a major victory for Free Press, a non-profit advocacy group that filed the original complaint against Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company.

On Monday, I interviewed Marvin Ammori, general counsel for the Free Press. We talked about what happened last week, what happens next, and why we should all care.

For background, the original complaint is here. And more background on the history of the fight can be found here.

Going forward, Martin needs two more commissioners to sign on to his proposed decision within the next couple of weeks for it to become official. While the FCC is not recommending a fine, Ammori said his group would be satisfied with the ruling that Martin has proposed.