A court filing has just been made public which sheds light on the "no-hire" gentleman's agreements that have pervaded the tech industry—and reveals how Steve Jobs threatened litigation to prevent companies from stealing his staff.

The tech world is full of flops. This ain't them; some of these companies and their products were monstrously successful for a time; others never even had the high expectations and hype required for something to earn the title "flop".

Jon Rubinstein, the former Apple exec, godfather of webOS and ex-CEO of Palm, has left HP, reports AllThingsD. The move isn't too surprising as the writing has been on the wall since he left HP's Palm unit last summer to move to a lesser role at HP's Personal Systems Group.

We're all well aware of the commercial problems that HP has endured with WebOS. But now, according to the New York Times, insiders have admitted that the software was doomed from the get-go.

HP's earnings were brutal this past quarter, sure. In response, new CEO Meg Whitman's clarion call to investors, repeated over and over again? We need to be more clear. We need to let you know what's going on.

So apparently newish HP CEO Meg Whitman has held an all-hands-on-deck meeting to discuss the fate of webOS, which is exactly the kind of meeting you have when your ship is sinking. The verdict, according to The Verge: uh, give us a few weeks. Perfect.

Who wants a leg? Who wants the Palm? WebOS is about to be carved up by HP as part of an internal move that will see parts of it—and the Palm group—heading to different areas within the company.

Ah, the HP Touchpad. When it was previewed, it looked amazing. When it was reviewed, it was smashed. When it was launched, it was ignored. When HP killed webOS and dropped the price to $100, it sold out? Yes. And now it's selling for more than retail on eBay.

Down the rabbit hole we go, where tablets last six weeks on the market, great mobile OS's are put out to pasture before their time, and HP executives are not told of doomed tablets until days before their demise. Updated.