David Coursey

At the risk of appearing Pollyanna-esque and despite the inherent danger of wading into the rootkit battle, Id like to introduce Sony Corp. to a way of doing business that is apparently new to them, at least if their handling of digital rights management is any indication. What I am referring to is an amazingly […]

The discussion as to whether and what Microsoft should bundle with Windows Vista may be just a tad off the mark. Why? Because bundling just isnt what it used to be. And thats because the line between software and service is evaporating, at least to the extent Microsoft can make it happen. Bundling is, of […]

What the head of SBC says about paying for the Internet is a cause for concern. What follows is the most disturbing quote I have read in quite some time. Its from an interview with SBC CEO Edward Whitacre that appeared on the BusinessWeek Web site. Heres the exchange: BW: How concerned are you about […]

SAN FRANCISCO—About every five years, Microsoft holds an event to introduce a “big bet” that Bill Gates is making in hopes of changing computing as we know it. On Dec. 7, 1995, he announced Microsoft would support the Internet in its applications and operating systems. July 2000 brought .Net, a programming architecture for Web applications, […]

Nobody believed in the potential of the Internet more than America Online founder Steve Case. And no ones reputation has been so tarnished as a result of such belief. Its unlikely Case will ever live down the rap of being the architect of the “worse business deal in history,” but that part of his life […]

MSNs announcement of a plan to digitize 150,000 out-of-copyright books came as no surprise, given that Google has been embarked on the same sort of project since last year. But, where Googles work has been controversial and has taken the company into court, Microsoft is going to great pains to be perceived as the good […]

Should Internet registrars be able to impose requirements on the sites that reside within the top level domains they organize? In general, Id say no, but if there were to be an exception, the .mobi top-level domain makes a good one. If you want a domain name ending in .mobi, you have to agree to […]

What do you sell when you cant sell applications anymore? You sell servers and hope that if the servers are interesting enough, customers will buy new versions of applications as well. If everything works out, you have new servers to sell and youre back in the applications business again, at least temporarily. That is the […]

This weeks most interesting quote comes from Bill Gates, who told a college newspaper that Blu-ray, Sonys HD DVD format, “is the last physical format there will ever be.” “Everythings going to be streamed directly or on a hard disk,” Gates added. “So, in this way, its even unclear how much [Blu-ray] counts.” Gates had […]

eBay CEO Meg Whitman, apparently still under the influence of whatever caused her to invest $4 billion in Skype last week, says that within years voice telephone calls will be “free”, subsidized by advertising and transaction fees. Further, there will be so much free service that it might become impossible to sell voice telephony minutes. […]

It was a week for strange bedfellows: Google and Comcast reportedly talking about buying a piece of AOL while Microsoft and Real were playing kiss-and-make-up to the tune of $761 million. And, oh yes, Apple released its overhyped video iPod and the underhyped iMac media hub. The big winner of the bunch was Real Networks, […]

Repeat after me: Companies dont commit crimes, people do. And people who commit crimes in the workplace should be prosecuted and jailed just like the thugs who commit crimes on the street. If the U.S. Department of Justice is really serious about fighting white-collar crime, it will exercise its option to bring individual charges against […]