Author Archives: Dan Gillmor

My “Freedom from Microsoft” campaign continues to bring some surprising mail. Several writers are calling me a socialist, or worse. Puzzling. I’m trying to restore, not diminish, competition in the marketplace. If that’s a radical idea, we’re in real trouble. … Continue reading →

Mercury News: Top VC Doerr apologizes for helping fuel dot-com frenzy. By billing wealth over innovation, Doerr says, his oft-repeated quote helped fuel a dot-com frenzy that focused more on a “mercenary” drive to make quick fortunes off Internet start-ups … Continue reading →

Ever since blaming the problem on Logitech, Microsoft has pretty much ignored my continuing inquiries since I first wrote about my disaster installing Service Pack 2 on Windows 2000. Logitech, meanwhile, has posted a new MouseWare driver on its Web … Continue reading →

When I declared independence from Microsoft a couple of weeks ago, the idea was to do my part to reduce the power of an unrepentant monopolist. I discovered that lots of other folks want to do the same. It got … Continue reading →

Commercial Alert: Complaint Against Search Engines for Deceptive Ads. The complaint states that such listings “look like information from an objective database selected by an objective algorithm. But really they are paid ads in disguise.” Comments

There’s good news and modestly hopeful news from the California legislature on privacy rights. But whether you’ll have a say in what people do with your most private information is still very much up for grabs. The good news first: … Continue reading →

When I declared independence from Microsoft a couple of weeks ago, the idea was to do my part to reduce the power of an unrepentant monopolist. I discovered that lots of other folks want to do the same. It got … Continue reading →

Mercury News: Students who made recruiting splash lose jobs. “They experienced both of the extremes — one being hired very easily, and the other flip side of the coin, being let go just as easily,” said Amandip Sehmbey, the ex-Nortel … Continue reading →

A flurry of announcements (and revelations) in the music industry leads you to the inescapable conclusion that the endgame is near. For the moment, the anti-consumer control freaks have won — totally. Napster is dead (Cnet) in every way that … Continue reading →

Dave Winer: Distributed membership and preferences. The frustration of decentralized systems, as expressed by many users of our software, is that it’s cumbersome to enter your information manually for every site you want to join. Isn’t there some way to … Continue reading →