Rob Fixmer

While last weeks headlines focused on Hollywoods battle with the publisher of a hacker magazine that posted DVD descrambling code on the Web, hostilities were also escalating in another ugly row that has even broader implications for entertainment content, copyright and antipiracy technologies. Until recently, you could almost forgive the Secure Digital Music Initiative for […]

Excite@Home, the pioneer in delivering high-speed access over cable television lines should today be a jewel among service providers. With 3.2 million subscribers — by far the worlds largest high-speed access provider — it should be growing fat off the insatiable appetite for bandwidth among consumers and small businesses. Instead, Excite@Home is bleeding red ink […]

If you were holding your breath for tech stocks to hit bottom and turn around, last week finally offered some good news in the form of earnings reports from AOL Time Warner, Apple Computer, Celestica, Extreme Networks, IBM and Microsoft, just to name a few. But while markets and the economy may be poised for […]

Have you noticed which company is acting like there is no downturn in the technology sector? Just when you think things cant possibly get any worse for computer, Internet and communications companies, reality hits you upside the head with a two-by-four. Veteran warrior Motorola sees its earnings crumble into losses. Last years class valedictorian, Yahoo!, […]

We Americans place a great deal of faith in the theory that open competition in free markets will ensure a sort of Darwinian efficiency; The most innovative, productive companies will grow and prosper, while weaker enterprises will wither and die. For the most part, the truth of this economic model, even in its most brutal […]

For those of you who miss the days of unbridled dot-com fantasies, I direct your attention to the infant wireless commerce industry, where hype has found a comfortable new home. Mondays through Fridays, my inbox is relentlessly bombarded with press releases announcing some new scheme or product that promises to take wireless communications beyond the […]

Whats keeping some of the worlds most successful I-managers awake at night? Though labeled and described in various ways, the two concerns that most often popped up in presentations, discussions and question-and-answer periods at last weeks Open Systems Advisors Crossroads conference were customer relationships and information overload. Granted, this was just the impression of one […]

Wall Streets current strategy with regard to dot-coms and other pure Internet plays echoes that dark rationalization from the days of the Vietnam War: We had to destroy the village to save it. The major difference is that in this case, it may be true. The pain grows as companies fail, careers are dislodged or […]

A subtle transformation took place in the season premiere of The Sopranos last week. As if to help us rationalize our national obsession with this dysfunctional crime family, the shows writers introduced a new kind of moral relativism. First, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was portrayed as a very accessible, likable bunch of guys who […]

Where is the oh-so-rational Alan Greenspan when we really need him? The Federal Reserve chairman disappointed much of the investment community during an appearance before a congressional committee last week, because he failed to signal a further lowering of interest rates. That did not bother me at all. I was disappointed that he failed to […]

In last weeks column, anticipating the forthcoming release of Microsofts new consumer operating system, Windows XP, I toasted a future without DOS. My e-mail in-box is now packed, and another 20 online readers have joined the fray. The spontaneous vote among these respondents is closer than a box full of Florida ballots, but before declaring […]

There is reason today for great celebration throughout computer land. Users, developers and hardware manufacturers should be popping corks and shouting from the rooftops. There should be fireworks and spontaneous parades. And yet, the digital landscape, from the desktop to the far corners of cyberspace, is strangely placid, as if nothing changed last week with […]