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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