Chris Nolan

Conventional wisdom says columnists should write about their own problems. But who pays any attention to conventional wisdom? For the past month or so, Ive been in a sort of computer hell caused by a confluence of things. Its not one persons or one companys fault. Its just the way things are right now in […]

Politicians have managed to stifle any sort of argument on the pros and cons of having government involved in providing free municipal-sponsored wireless Internet access with a simple and straightforward approach: Dont look a gift horse in the mouth. But the argument on this issue isnt one-sided and it is foolish to think it will […]

Its highly likely that the sort of conversation held this week in Tunisia about the Internet—yet another version of the “whos in charge?” query—will soon be heard. It might not be at a fancy gathering of international diplomats; it might be at your local city hall, but questions about whats happening on the Web and […]

There were a number of elections around the country yesterday. Ill leave it to you to pick your favorite for tealeaf-reading about what it all means. Here in Californian, we had the fourth statewide election in three years, which is unusual it itself. But theres something else at work—a trend that might provide interesting insights […]

Can the Internet—the home of “free” stuff—ever stray farther from its roots? Probably. But the path to pay might not be a smooth transition, and greed—always an element in an environment where venture capitalist and bankers hold so much clout—will have to be held at bay. Want a useful lesson? Look to the 18th century […]

The regular meetings of the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers—known as ICANN, the folks who make Internet domain names work as well as they do—have long been one of the tech communitys better held secrets. Its actual work is incorrectly dismissed as mind-numbingly dull, but ICANN has built a solid reputation for great […]

You can lead a horse to water, goes the saying, but you cant make him drink. The online corollary might be: Lead a computer user to broadband Internet access and you might never stop him from sucking down everything he can. A story in last weeks Wall Street Journal outlines the beginnings of what promises […]

Well, Ive seen the future of social networking technology, and I have to tell you, its kinda dull. In a good, warm-hearted, Craigslist kind of way. Much of the talk about Web logging, wikis and social software centers are their revolutionary potential: Getting folks who havent been connected to talk to each other. From that […]

San Mateo, Calif., county judge John Schwartz may be one of the few people in Silicon Valley possessed with common sense when it comes to money. He tossed out the proposed settlement in which Oracle Corp. was to donate $24 million to charity to settle allegations of insider trading by its CEO Larry Ellison. “The […]

Almost half of the companies that answered a recent survey on compliance with corporate disclosure and record-keeping arent going to meet the requirements spelled out in the law regarding retention of e-mail or other electronic messaging. Go ahead, call me cynical. But only folks who live under rocks—or arent working in corporate America—know that email […]

Heres the question of the week about Google, the little “search engine” company thats morphed into a big interesting Internet company: Will the company go into the business of offering free wireless Internet access? Boy, I sure hope so. And not just for the obvious “all about me” reasons. A roll out of free Internet […]

There are so many different things wrong with Larry Ellisons being able to make a $100 million charitable donation to settle allegations of insider trading, its hard to know where to start. The case is a textbook illustration of why no one in Silicon Valley or the larger tech world takes government regulation very seriously. […]