michael

Cat fight! Arrington calls attention to Demo-related plagiarism claim

In a move guaranteed to stoke the fire of confrontation between the upcoming TechCrunch 50 and DemoFall conferences, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has decided to publicly air a bit of dirty laundry involving some plagiarism charges against his conference partner, Jason Calacanis.

On Saturday, Arrington posted Calacanis' suggestions for how start-up companies presenting at TechCrunch 50 can best present themselves and their products or services.

But on Sunday, after a blogger named Alexander Muse republished Calacanis' e-mail on his own site, Muse got an e-mail from a former Demo PR woman named Deb McAlister, alleging that much of what Calacanis … Read more

The 404 160: Where we're Ogg at heart

On the show today: Erica Ogg from CNET's Crave takes time out of her NY vacation to chat with us about the Olympics, hockey, Chinese smile deficiencies, Facebook spam, Barack Obama's twitters, Antivirus XP, and Batman spoilers!>

Even though the Montauk Monster has thrown New York into a typhoon, our buddy Erica Ogg still makes it to the studio to join us for today's show. And what a great change of pace from our normal Monday show, huh? This is just what The 404 needs to brighten up our day. Erica writes for Crave, CNET's … Read more

Dell Redux and the end of an era

Last I heard, Ted Waitt was kicking back somewhere in a posh part of Southern California, living the high life that came his way from starting Gateway. I wonder what he thought about the news that his old company no longer would be selling computers directly to the public.

Along with Dell, Gateway was one of the two companies most responsible for popularizing the idea of buying computers over the phone. But this week's about-face only put a long-expected coda on the final chapter of this story.

Now owned by Acer, Gateway lost its way years ago. Despite frequent … Read more

A prayer for Microsoft

Sunday morning, and I couldn't help but ponder Michael Tiemann's excellent note on Microsoft's revised (and improved) Open Specification Promise and "what Microsoft can do for open source."

Michael rightly notes that Microsoft's Promise, while certainly improved, still leaves much to be desired. No surprise there, which leads Michael to a thoughtful, probing analysis of what Microsoft could do to fully engage with open-source communities:

Let's think big. The open-source community already has more than a billion lines of source code at its disposal, and it's doubling every 12.5 months, so I think it's fair to say "we don't really need your code." And we also know that money alone is no substitute for the freedom to innovate that we so crave. So what big thing could we do with Microsoft's cooperation?

There are really four things on my list, but if they did only the first, it would be a meaningful start. The list is:

Pursue the abolition of software patents with the same zeal they showed in their efforts to get OOXML approved as a standard. Unilaterally promise to not use the DMCA to maintain control of their Trusted Computing Platform. Transition to 100 percent open standards (as defined by the OSI, IETF, W3C, or the Digistan). Stop trying to maintain their monopolies by illegal, anticompetitive means.

These sound more like an ultimatum than a request for mutual action, but you get that in Michael's detailed discussion of these four items. In so doing, I think that Michael does an excellent job of demonstrating how to work with Microsoft:… Read more

Gates and Bloomberg to announce $500 million anti-tobacco donation

Update 10:33 a.m. PST: It appears the planned announcement was in fact made around the time this item was first posted.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are expected to announce Wednesday morning a $500 million donation to fight tobacco use in developing countries, according to a CNBC report.

Gates is expected to announce his contribution of $125 million over the next five years toward the project, which will address tobacco-related problems in such countries as China, India and Africa.

Global health is one of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's … Read more

Motorola sues iPhone sales executive over trade secrets

Motorola is suing a former executive now employed by Apple's iPhone sales division, charging him with the theft of trade secrets.

Bloomberg found the suit, which was filed by Motorola on Thursday in Illinois state court. Michael Fenger is the defendant, and according to the complaint he is now vice president for global iPhone sales after joining Apple in March.

Prior to joining Apple, Fenger was an executive for Motorola in that amorphous MBA-created part of the world known as EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). As such, he was in a position to know almost everything about Motorola'… Read more

Founder makes largest Dell insider purchase

Dell shares rose as high as 4.5 percent Wednesday, following reports that founder Michael Dell acquired nearly $100 million in shares in the computer maker.

Dell climbed as high as $23.18 a share in intraday trading, before closing out the session at $22.70 a share, up 2.34 percent.

Dell's founder, according to a report in MarketWatch, purchased 4.5 million shares between June 27 and July 1 at an average price of $22.14 a share.

Dell's buying spree comes after the company reported respectable first-quarter results, which came off a challenging 2007 when … Read more

News.com Daily Podcast: So clean tech's another bubble? Not so fast

More new investment money is going into clean technology than any other sector of high tech. And while that's exciting a lot of investors, it's also raising questions about whether we're about to repeat history. CNET News.com's Martin LaMonica, who recently heard a number of experts debate the question, offers some comparative context to that question.

New York Post reporter Michael Kane followed two of professional gaming's best-known teams, Team 3D and CompLexity, as they fought for the coveted No. 1 spot in gaming. The result--Kane's book, out today, called Game Boys: Professional … Read more

Michael Eisner not doubting Veoh despite report

LOS ANGELES--Michael Eisner wasn't miffed enough at Veoh to stop him from investing in the company once again.

Last week, the former Disney chairman took the stage at Digitas' "Newfront," a showcase of Web video for potential advertisers held in New York. Joining him was Veoh's founder Dmitry Shapiro.

According to Silicon Alley Insider, Eisner used the opportunity to chide Shapiro about when Veoh, a company that bills itself as a Web TV network, is going to pay off. Silicon Alley Insider called the exchange between the two men "uncomfortable."

On Tuesday, Shapiro was … Read more