Author Archives: Dan Gillmor

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said: “Open source is not available to commercial companies. The way the license is written, if you use any open-source software, you have to make the rest of your … Continue reading →

Mercury News: Agency actions invited power disaster. While the state, utilities and energy companies share blame for California’s failed plan, FERC had a unique responsibility under a 66-year-old federal law to make sure the state’s new market would lead to … Continue reading →

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 →