Monthly Archives: May 2001

J.D. Lasica: Weblogs: A New Source of News. Blogs will supplement, not supplant, traditional media. Comments

Wall Street Journal: New FTC chief is expected to name regulatory skeptic to consumer post. J. Howard Beales III, an academic whose studies have been used by a tobacco company and other large consumer-goods makers to fight federal regulations, could … Continue reading →

Via Dave, Woody’s Watch has an excellent review of Office XP. Bottom line on the software, from this and other reviews, seems to be: Either it’s not that great an upgrade from Office 2000, or it’s not ready for prime … Continue reading →

It would be helpful if the main players in California’s energy crunch would at least tell the truth. Doesn’t happen, because they’re politicians. More in Wednesday column. Comments

Clay Shirky: Hailstorm: Open Web Services Controlled by Microsoft. In decentralizing their control over the client, Microsoft seeks to gain control over a much larger set of functions, for a much larger group of devices, than they have now. The … Continue reading →

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and some public-spirited lawyers have won a big victory on behalf of people who want to speak their minds without fear of unfair retribution. Thanks in part to EFF’s intervention, Medinex Systems dropped a suit against … Continue reading →

Lots of friendly and unfriendly remarks about my column recommending a crash national program to install fiber to virtually every home. It turns out, Ray Ozzie tells me, that Japan may be doing what I

Lots of excellent mail and other feedback is coming in about my column last week speculating about the value of a corporate death penalty. Several folks have noted an error in the column. I’m incorrect to say that more minorities … Continue reading →

It would be the data-highway inverse of the federal interstate road system — a taxpayer-funded project to put in place the fabled “last mile” of broadband connectivity. There’s no way private industry will ever do it in a timely way, … Continue reading →

Amnesty International, which has done more for human rights than almost any other organization on the globe, turned 40 years old yesterday. For decades, Amnesty has stood up to dictators and putative democracies, demanding that prisoners of conscience be freed. … Continue reading →