Technology & Society
Over at ZDNet, Ed Burnette asks an interesting question. He wonders if Microsoft has just as many troubles with patents as everyone thinks Linux does. His answer is that they must be in the same boat, but he’s missing a
Shopping is normally good for the economy, but not when the shoppers are net neutrality advocates looking for friendly deals on a regulatory forum. Policy makers in Michigan, their current target, should tell pro-regulatory activists to go home, with good
New scientific studies showing that it is possible to slow down the aging process are important for those interested in life extension but also key for those who want to see greater economic growth. That’s because life-extending treatments generate what
Today, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the appointment of Ellis Berns, Rachelle Chong, William Geppert, Charles Giancarlo, Paul Hernandez, William Huber, Christine Kehoe, Wendy Lazarus, Lloyd Levine, Michael Liang, Bryan Martin, Timothy McCallion, Sunne Wright McPeak, Milo Medin, Peter Pardee, Peter
Government has no place in the bedrooms of the nation, yet dusty old bureaucrats are always trying to push their way in. The lastest news on this score is that “the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29
This week the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) released “American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on U.S. Competitiveness,” a new study that reveals something that Silicon Valley netizens already know but scream for others to recognize: The
Nobel-Prize winning economist Milton Friedman died today at the age of 94. This is a tragic loss for humanity, as one of the greatest advocates for individual freedom and choice has ceased to exist. Milton was a close friend of
I met Anousheh Ansari last Friday before she gave a lecture to an audience at Stanford University. She was the first woman to go into space on a private exploration. She was also the first person to blog from space.
I almost choked on my morning coffee when I saw the headline last week that Novell and Microsoft announced a deal to make their software work together. As someone who once employed VMware to use Word on a machine running
After being away for two weeks for my wedding and honeymoon, I’m back. Regular columns will resume at TechNewsWorld next week.
In the recent movie “Thank You for Smoking,” a tobacco lobbyist comes under fire for working to protect people’s right to smoke. A similar movie could be made about gambling and the villain would be Representative Bob Goodlatte. The Virginia
Tuesday’s WSJ had an excellent piece (subscription required) by Ed Phelps where he argues that capitalism answers the Rawlsian test of justice because “the introduction of entrepreneurial dynamism serves to raise Rawl’s bottom scores.” Phelps just won the Nobel Prize
For years, Microsoft has come under heavy fire for not making its systems secure enough. Now, with the upcoming release of its new operating system (OS), Windows Vista, the company is being unfairly attacked by self-interested competitors for adding more
This week, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced that his mouse brain-mapping project has finally been completed. This major undertaking arrives in tandem with other advances in medical technologies that will soon force political leaders to face difficult policy questions. Mapping
A decade ago, Microsoft thought it could ignore bureaucratic rumblings with little or no fallout. That attitude led to the historic Microsoft antitrust trial and the realization that bureaucrats can indeed wield bigtime impact. Google is now learning a similar
European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is touring the United States this week. Her visit comes during a nasty spat between the commission and Microsoft that could seriously hurt technology businesses and consumers. Microsoft is planning to launch its new operating
My birthday is this month and my fiancé bought me a robot. It’s been a lot of fun — I especially like the fact that if you walk too close to it, it will scream. Its standard programming makes it
After spending the summer in NYC working on a book project, I’m back in SF. The book is on the politics of longevity. It isn’t exactly done yet, but I got a good chunk of it finished.
This week, a key federal official cautioned against calls for net neutrality, the effort to expand government reach in the Internet marketplace. It’s a wise move to keep the Internet free of red tape. So why are lobbyists pushing for
This week, the U.S. State Department began rolling out “e-passports,” new high-tech documents that bolster border security through identity safeguards. In a dangerous world, upgrading passports is prudent policy that serves the interests of Americans at home and abroad, but