David Coursey

Much has been made of the seeming unwillingness of Googles founders to take the company public. Its like they are being dragged kicking and screaming into a multibillion-dollar payday. The lead Googlians say theyre doing the IPO so investors can cash out, but as soon as that happens they will run the company without regard […]

Its an accepted fact that using Microsoft PowerPoint during a meeting immediately lowers the IQ of all present by about 20 points. Average people confronted with a .PPT presentation seem to go simple—with their IQ eventually ending up around room temperature. Recovery takes several hours in a PowerPoint-free environment, at the end of which sufferers […]

Most people have never heard of Symbian. But if you own a high-end smart phone that doesnt have a Palm or Microsoft operating-system label, it almost surely has a Symbian OS inside. So, let me introduce you to Symbian and talk about why so little of its product is available here. For the introduction, let […]

I have seen Microsofts vision of tomorrow, and it both frightens and amazes me. Not long ago, I was in Redmond and had occasion to visit Microsofts Center for Information Work, a demonstration facility thats part of the companys executive briefing center. CIW is not open to the public—its for invited guests only—though Ive encouraged […]

Just as there are theories about how the Earth will eventually meet its end, so there are theories about what will happen to Microsoft someday. Not that the death of a software company—even the software company—is very significant compared with the loss of ones planet, but whatever happens to Microsoft could actually happen in our […]

Have you ever noticed how sometimes the actual end of something occurs a long time after people stopped paying attention? So when the end really does finally come, people just shrug. The latest example is Wednesdays decision of the Microsoft antitrust lawsuit—a case that most people believe ended in the U.S. a couple of years […]

One of my big unanswered software questions is why no one has managed to make relational databases simple enough for normal—as opposed to normalized—people to use. I cant be the only person on the planet who needs to create a database that encompasses many-to-many relationships, but isnt a professional database designer. Yet, I have not […]

Recent virus outbreaks only hint at an even more dangerous future, say two security company CEOs I sat down with recently. One was the CEO and co-founder of Zone Labs, Gregor Freund; the other was John Patzakis, CEO of Guidance Software, publisher of computer forensics and incident response applications. While some of todays viruses have […]

Theres been a lot of talk around eWEEK.com about the future of the Tablet PC, so Ive decided to add my two cents worth. My prediction? Someday every business notebook that uses a Microsoft operating system will be a Tablet PC. And most of them will even have tablet features! Whether you will use your […]

People who have only recently become familiar with a company called SCO will be forgiven if they believe the three initials refer to the companys “Suit-Crazy Owners.” This is, after all, the company thats pinning its future on winning lawsuits against competitors over technology it really had no part in creating. I wont try to […]

Thinking about SCOs chances of prevailing in its battle against Linux, I am reminded of a cartoon I once saw. It shows a scientist—probably a physicist—in front of a blackboard covered with figures and calculations. The final calculation ends with the notation, “A miracle occurs!” I may not remember the cartoon totally accurately, but the […]

I hate to be late to the party, but the recent discussion between Jim Louderback and Rob Enderle about Apple makes some good points and misses others. /zimages/3/28571.gifTo read their views, click here. For example, arguing over whether Apple should be in the PC business is lunacy. You can argue whether Apple should be in […]