Roy Mark

With President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill calling for at least $20 billion for a national health IT network, a new debate is emerging over an old health IT issue: privacy. Traditionally, privacy advocates have urged patient consent for virtually every transaction within a national IT network.But a new line of thought about the seemingly […]

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), a frequent critic of the tech industry’s use of the H-1B visa system, didn’t wait long in the new session of Congress to bring up the subject again. As soon as Microsoft announced it was cutting 5,000 jobs, Grassley fired off a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wanting to […]

Democrats sent a strong signal Jan. 22 that network neutrality would play a starring role in the $6 billion broadband piece of the U.S. House’s overall $825 billion economic stimulus package. Inapproving $2.9 billion for network build-outs in rural and underserved areas, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce insisted that network neutrality and open […]

Lawmakers appeared Jan. 23 to be nearing a deal that would allow television stations to move forward with the digital television transition on a voluntary basis while moving the mandatory shutdown of analog broadcasting from Feb. 17 to June 12.Then President-elect Barack Obama told lawmakers Jan. 8 that Congress should delay the Feb. 17 transition […]

Having successfully turned back a hostile $1.50 per share hostile takeover bid from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, Certicom announced Jan. 23 it has accepted a $2.10 per share offer from VeriSign. The deal, valued at $73 million, represents a 40 percent premium over RIM’s offer of $53 million. Certicom said the transaction was subject […]

President Obama’s call for widespread broadband deployment won its first congressional victory Jan. 22 when the House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved rules for $2.8 billion in government funding for high-speed Internet networks in unserved and underserved areas.Recipients of the funding will be obligated to build or expand existing networks under open access and […]

The White House confirmed Jan. 22 that President Barack Obama will use a smartphone while in office, although it may not be his beloved BlackBerry e-mail device. The announcement represents a victory for Obama over the myriad security officials assigned to the president who wanted to strip him of his smartphone. White House Press Secretary […]

Whatever the symbolism of Barack and Michele Obama dancing the night away to Etta James’ “At Last” on inauguration night, for the U.S. intelligence community another seminal landmark has arrived: the ability to perform unified searches and provide classified e-mail access across 16 spy agencies. Known as the Intelligence Community Information Integration Program, the early […]

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion said Jan. 20 it is withdrawing its $53 million hostile takeover bid for Certicom after an Ontario Superior Court granted Certicom’s request for a permanent injunction blocking the deal. The Certicom board opposes the RIM bid as undervaluing the company that develops the elliptic curve cryptography technology coveted by RIM. […]

It should come as no surprise that Qualcomm opposes any delay in the digital television transition currently scheduled for Feb. 17. After all, the company has spent hundreds of millions to obtain a slice of the spectrum being vacated by television broadcasters. Qualcomm is anxious to expand its cell phone television service known as MediaFLO […]