Things people say

Blogging for dollars: Church-state line still valid?

When Ted Murphy started PayPerPost (now called Izea) in 2007, he immediately raised hackles by proposing that companies pay bloggers to post items about their businesses.

ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick described Izea as a "Search Engine Optimization scam that threatens to torpedo the reputation of the already widely questioned blogosphere. It may also be a perfectly fair way for small time bloggers to make a living, depending on who you ask."

"None of us are pure and there are few firm lines established regarding what is and is not acceptable when you're trying to make money … Read more

Imagining the end of high-cost computing?

For more than two decades, personal computing has been anything but inexpensive. To be sure, prices for the average computer have dropped substantially since the 1980s. But with the exception of the occasional bargain or bare-bones configuration, the price of a good computer system still takes quite a bite out of the family budget.

That iron calculation no longer applies and shoppers can now find low-end systems in the $300 range running Celeron or Sempron processors. But the more intriguing development is the emergence of Intel's Atom chip and what it might suggest about the Netbook's ability to … Read more

Note to NBC's boss: Dude, try watching your own channel sometime

On a day when IBM's reportedly mulling a buyout of Sun Microsystems, Uncle Ben Bernanke decides to print another $300 billion or so, and Congress gets a chance to throw spitballs at the weasels at AIG, there are better things to do than mock NBC's Jeff Zucker as an empty suit.

But after reading the synopsis of Zucker's remarks Wednesday criticizing Jon Stewart for eviscerating the goofs who predominate on CNBC, it's not even fair. How can one resist?

I don't want to prejudice you (just yet) so here's how BusinessWeek reported the story:… Read more

Freedom on the global Internet still a pipe dream

"The Internet represents freedom, but not everywhere."

So begins the annual "Internet Enemies" report by Reporters Without Borders--and that's probably the cheeriest line in the entire 39-page document. It goes down from there.

For the uninitiated, Reporters Without Borders is an anti-censorship watchdog organization. As blogs and news Web sites have grown in popularity, the group's focus has similarly migrated to the Internet. Unfortunately, the report again paints a grim picture of Internet freedoms in parts of the world where it says the authorities regularly chuck bloggers in jail for online posts that displease … Read more

Q&A: Tiversa co-founder talks about P2P leak

Updated at 3 p.m. PST: An earlier version of this report misidentified Sam Hopkins' position at the company. He is chief technology officer and a co-founder.

Earlier this weekend, I pointed to a report that a Pittsburgh area Internet security firm had discovered a file containing government blueprints and avionics for President Obama's helicopter on an IP address in Tehran.

During a traffic analysis, the company, Tiversa, headquartered in Cranberry Township, found that one particular file was actively being shared via a P2P protocol. On Sunday, I spoke by phone with the company's co-founder and chief technology … Read more

Sun, HP: High fives for Solaris on ProLiant

Hewlett Packard and Sun did their best to put everyone on Wednesday's conference call to sleep. (Do these guys try to sound like Lurch from the Addams Family when they run through their prepared remarks? Just asking.) Still, the news will be of especial interest if you are either a Solaris or ProLiant customer.

The deal gives HP the right to distribute software for Sun's Solaris 10 Operating System on the HP ProLiant server and blade system platforms. HP also will shoulder responsibility for technical support. It's a one-stop shop arrangement that the companies hope will help … Read more

WiMax in the balance? Not yet but it's getting dicey

Until now, Craig McCaw was most famous for starting the eponymous cellular company that he sold to AT&T in 1994 for $12.6 billion.

This serial entrepreneur wasn't as fortunate with his next venture: the construction of a satellite-based broadband communications system. Before it flopped, though, McCaw received financial backing from Bill Gates and a bunch of other well-heeled backers, who invested more than $292 million into the venture.

After the dot-com bust, McCaw set out to offer portable wireless high-speed Internet service. His company, Clearwire, clearly qualified as one of those BIG IDEAS: WiMax is said … Read more

IBM on 2009: Yes we can

As earnings reports roll in, it's clear that 2008 will go down in the record books as a miserable year for most companies. But IBM bucked the trend, putting a coda on the year with a strong fourth quarter.

The question now is whether the company can manage itself successfully past what the wags now commonly refer to as the "econolypse." For the time being, at least, IBM's response is a measured yes.

The slump in corporate technology spending has pressured companies throughout the IT world, and IBM is no exception. The company anticipates hardware revenue … Read more

Carol Bartz is no Jerry Yang. Thankfully

Corporate fixes are notoriously hard. Parachuting into the equivalent of a war zone, with potential landmines at every turn, requires a special gene. And no small amount of brass.

So it is that after a year of corporate upheaval and a slumping stock price, Yahoo announced a brilliant appointment. I don't know if Carol Bartz will turn out to be the messiah-like figure the Yahoo crowd has been praying for. This company is up against the wall. But the new CEO is an old-school technology executive who has thrived in crises that would have overwhelmed most of the good … Read more