November 18 2004 - 'How to Get Rid of Customers ' for Dummies: Sue them.  - Posted by David Berlind, ZDNet, Across the Internet, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is being vilified for some comments he made during Microsoft's Asian Government Leaders Forum in Singapore. Pamela Jones, founder of Groklaw, spawned a thread called "Ballmer: Use our software or somebody might get hurt" that was closing in on 450 comments by the time I got around to writing this blog entry. Said Jones, "[Microsoft] used to muscle other IT companies. Now they are threatening governments of the world. What a charming company." After saying that he thought Linux violated more than 228 patents, Ballmer warned "Someday, for all countries that are entering the [World Trade Organization], somebody will come and look for money owing to the rights for that intellectual property." So, let's take a close look at what happened and what might become of it...

November 12 2004 - Dear IE, I'm leaving you for good - Robert Vamosi, Senior Editor ZDNet, Dear Internet Explorer: It's over. Our relationship just hasn't been working for a while, and now, this is it. I'm leaving you for another browser. I know this isn't a good time--you're down with yet another virus. I do hope you feel better soon--really, I do--but I, too, have to move on with my life. Fact is, in the entire time I've known you, you seem to always have a virus or an occasional worm. You should really see a doctor...

August 20 2004 - Google's courageous, clumsy debut - By Esther Dyson Special to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--This is the week that Google is useless as a search term to filter news results, because everyone is talking about Google. But a lot of what they're saying, at least in the press, is colored by the people the press is quoting, mostly Wall Street analysts and bankers. Of course those analysts want to paint the whole IPO as a dismal failure, because it flouted the rules of Wall Street and its gatekeepers. And of course would-be institutional investors, also quoted, successfully drove the price down from its originally projected--and too high--level…

November 04 2004 - Firefox, bah humbug - By John Carroll Special to ZDNet, Commentary--Firefox has been getting a lot of press lately. Firefox is free software in the Stallman-sanctioned sense--released under a GPL license and built atop technology developed for the Mozilla project. Everybody LOVES Firefox. Not only is it a great browser, but it will make your teeth whiter and secure you a date with Carmen Electra...

November 08 2004 - Prohibition redux? - By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com, Commentary--The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next month in a lawsuit that will, if successful, permit American adults to freely buy beer and wine over the Internet. It's slightly bizarre to think that it takes the nation's highest court to guarantee online shoppers the right to order a case of fine Merlot or Pinot Noir from California. You can thank a crowd of pusillanimous state legislators for that...

January 21, 2004 - Privacy--a right or a privilege? - By Fran Foo, ZDNet Australia, COMMENTARY--In the science fiction novel The Light of Other Days, authors Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter depict a world void of privacy where people can spy on each other without any chance of detection. In the non-fictional world we live in, unfortunately, there are numerous examples of privacy erosion. Soon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Northwest Airlines submitted millions of passenger records--including credit card numbers, addresses and telephone numbers--to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center after company officials publicly stated that it "never provided this type of information to anyone"...

September 02 2003 - Software makers should pay for bad products - By Tony Scott, CNET News.com, COMMENTARY--There are two things that really bug me about buying information technology, and right up front I'll apologize if this sounds like something Andy Rooney might have written. First, I hate it when things that used to work really well are intentionally "improved" (meaning that they probably won't work) by well-established companies that should know better. As an example, I recently bought a new entry-level printer for our youngest son, who is going away to college this fall. Installing a printer on a Windows XP laptop should be no more than a five-minute job. Not only did it take over an hour, but I'm still not sure how I eventually got the printer to work...

June 30 2003 - Microsoft's new interest in Washington - By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com, COMMENTARY--At the height of the U.S. government's antitrust pursuit of Microsoft, Bill Gates and his execs were vigorously denouncing rivals Sun Microsystems and Oracle for using the Feds to try to cripple the world's largest software company. For a while, it sounded like Gates was channeling capitalist doyenne Ayn Rand, saying in 1998 that the technology industry's successes were due to lack of interference from Uncle Sam, and claiming that "the government is still trying to slow Microsoft down." ...

March 29 2004 - Great disappearing act--online privacy - By Donal Daly, Special to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--Online privacy: It is at once both a libertarian's "cause celebre" and a thorn in the side of business and government. Consumers' passions erupt as marketers seek to "leverage" market intelligence, sometimes questionably gained. Privacy and its attendant concerns are shaping where dollars are spent--particularly on the Internet--and businesses better sit up and take notice...

July 10 2003 - "Neo-conned" Congressman Ron Paul addresses the U.S. House of Representatives - The modern-day, limited-government movement has been co-opted. The conservatives have failed in their effort to shrink the size of government. There has not been, nor will there soon be, a conservative revolution in Washington. Political party control of the federal government has changed, but the inexorable growth in the size and scope of government has continued unabated. The liberal arguments for limited government in personal affairs and foreign military adventurism were never seriously considered as part of this revolution. Since the change of the political party in charge has not made a difference, who’s really in charge? If the particular party in power makes little difference, whose policy is it that permits expanded government programs, increased spending, huge deficits, nation building and the pervasive invasion of our privacy, with fewer Fourth Amendment protections than ever before? ...

April 07 2004 - Making customers miserable the Microsoft way - By Ian Altman, Special to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--As if the torrents of Windows-related security flaws were not enough, Microsoft has found another way to leave customers with a foul taste in their mouth and an empty feeling in their pocket. The problem this time centers on Microsoft's Software Assurance program, a for-purchase piece of Windows Licensing 6.0 that the company says offers users "automatic access to new technology and provides productivity benefits, support, tools and training to help deploy and use software efficiently." ...

February 10 2004 - The Microsoft-Google incident - By John Carroll, Special to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--As the world awaits the European Commission’s antitrust ruling, certain pundits see the makings of a future investigation as Microsoft moves to compete more forcefully in Internet search, a domain where Google currently dominates. The fear, in short, is that Microsoft will integrate aspects of search functionality into Windows in such a way that it will foreclose opportunities to Google. No company stands a chance when faced with such integration, leading to the eventual demise of Google...

October 08 2003 - Alpha females: the zenith of womanhood - Sandra Smith, The Guardian, Think Nigella Lawson, Nicola Horlick and Nicole Kidman and you'll be on the right track when you consider the buzzword being bandied around to describe "high-achieving, glamorous, sexy women who manage to juggle a fulfilling career with family life - and, in some cases, still manage to fit in lovers on the side" (Daily Mail). This is alpha female...

January 05 2003 - Unexpected twists in Internet law - By Doug Isenberg, Special to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--Internet law in 2003 was full of surprises, with Congress passing an antispam bill, the courts blessing pop-up advertising, the music industry losing lawsuits and the Supreme Court finally upholding an Internet law. And those are just a few of the highlights from a year in which technology and the law saw their biggest clashes yet...

June 2002 - Why DHTML Will Win - Competition among user interface tools heats up, by Steven Champeon, New Architect, There's a lot of bold talk coming from a certain multimedia tools vendor (Macromedia, cough, cough) lately, about how its new Flash MX product is "the future of the Internet." Never mind that the company leaders seem to be confusing the Internet with the Web. What's interesting is how they demo this rich, multimedia future. The vendor's Web site makes much of an ETrade stock quote application—something that could have been thrown together in half an hour with Dynamic HTML (DHTML) without the need for proprietary technology, plugins, or a massive press campaign. How very 1997...

July 28 2003 - What Microsoft should do with all that cash - David Coursey, Executive Editor, ZDNet AnchorDesk, Microsoft said last week it plans to hire 4,000 to 5,000 new workers and to increase research spending by about 8 percent, to $6.9 billion per year. The company also said it has $49 billion lying around collecting interest...