Ill............The numbers you have provided show that while the O/S has been reduced by one billion, the float has increased by aprox 3 billion. The restricted has dropped by aprox 4 billion. Retiring restricted shares is of no real benefit to the shareholders.
BTW....did the TA give you that total A/S? Since It looks like Dan and crew have been in touch with the TA, one might think he's follow through with the reduction in the A/S as he had PR'd.
One other thing....the Float: 29,289,934,558 as of 2005-03-11
Now its 36,797,804,907
I think thats called dilution.