Our Wacky Patent System And its perilous, toothless reform Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, December 23, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/12/23/patents.dtl Back in 1912, a New York inventor named Arnold Zucker won a patent for a new device designed to prevent people from sleeping through the sound of a burglar alarm. Zucker's invention, described in...
Click Here To Buy Online shopping tips from someone who hates to shop Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, December 8, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/12/08/eshopping.dtl I hate shopping. Don't get me wrong. I love buying things. And having things. It's just the getting of things I can't stand. It's annoying, for example, that most stores don't...
Readers' Beat SF Gate column readers respond Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, November 24, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/11/24/readers.dtl When I started writing for SF Gate about a year ago, I promised myself I would respond to all emails generated by this column. It was, I thought, a matter of principle. What could be...
Going Once, Going Twice, Gone! eBay is shooting itself in the foot Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, November 11, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/11/11/ebay.dtl The very popular San Jose-based online auction company eBay recently touched off a Silicon Valley range war by blocking online inquires from AuctionWatch.com, a much smaller rival based in San...
Big Idiot on Campus UC should broadcast class lectures online Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, October 28, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/10/27/lecturenotes.dtl Earlier this month, a lawyer representing the University of California system demanded that several Internet companies, such as Study24-7.com, Versity.com, and StudentU.com, pull lecture notes covering UC classes from their websites. UC's lawyer...
Open Sesame How Collab.net takes open-source to the next level Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, October 14, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/10/14/collabnet.dtl Wall Street hasn't caught on to it yet, but Collab.net, Inc., a San Francisco-based open source software start-up, is about to revolutionize the multi-billion-dollar global software industry. The four-month-old company is giving open-source...
The Great Tech Showdown I'm rooting for Bill Gates Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, September 30, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/09/30/gates.dtl I hope Microsoft founder Bill Gates wins his fight with the Justice Department. Before you fire up your flame-throwers, let me explain. I don't want to see Gates get off entirely scot-free. But I do...
The Kids Are Not Alright Why Johnny can't compute Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, September 15, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/09/15/schoolreform.dtl The school reform movement is badly in need of reform. Right now, our nation's most prominent school reformers are almost totally ignoring one item that could go a long way toward improving our failing...
Masters of Our Domain RealNames means just what the name says Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, August 31, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/08/31/domainname.dtl Clint Reilly's attempt to steal San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown's online thunder is beginning to backfire. Reilly, a real estate mogul and ex-political consultant running against Brown, recently tried to flummox the...
Beta This Cleaning up the software industry's bug-infested nest Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, August 17, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/08/17/beta.dtl How is it the multibillion dollar software industry gets away with knowingly and repeatedly selling defective products without penalty? Cars are subject to costly and embarrassing recalls at company expense. Canned goods and toys...
Running Lame Most presidential candidates stumble online Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, August 4, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/08/04/lame.dtl The Internet has the potential to transform national politics. Unfortunately, that probably won't happen this year thanks to the way most presidential candidates are using it (with the possible exception of former New Jersey...
Killing Uncle Sam The taxman meets his match online Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, July 20, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/07/20/taxes.dtl Many say the Internet is the biggest thing to hit humanity since the splitting of the atom. Unfortunately, that analogy may be painfully on target. Like the early days of atomic power when...
Wanna Make a Bet? How the 'Net can improve your odds Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, July 6, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/07/06/gambling.dtl Did you hear the news that the National Gambling Impact Study Commission recently recommended a moratorium on new gambling establishments? The commission cited all the familiar, valid concerns: the toll gambling takes...
We're Flying Blind Time for New Economic Metrics Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, June 22, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/06/22/metrics.dtl Garbage in, garbage out. The familiar dictum from the computer industry, known as GIGO, says that if your initial data is faulty, your final conclusions will also come up short, no matter how mighty your...
Tech Stocks Has the boom gone bust? Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, June 9, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/06/09/techstocks.dtl So, which way do you think tech stocks are heading? It's one of the questions I'm asked most frequently. The topic is particularly hot right now, as many formerly high-flying Internet stocks are taking a group...
Must See TV Get paid to watch Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, May 25, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/05/25/alladvantage.dtl You may not have heard about AllAdvantage.com yet. But if the Palo Alto-based start-up succeeds, it could mean big changes for the media. And for you. By advancing an unprecedented form of advertising, AllAdvantage's business model...
The War Against Cold Fusion What's really behind it? Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, May 17, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/1999/05/17/coldfusion2.DTL Two months ago, I reported that Dr. Michael McKubre, an electrochemist at Menlo Park-based SRI, was, like other researchers, generating unaccounted-for heat in a carefully-controlled cold fusion experiment. McKubre presented his findings at the...
Oh Holy Net Does the Hand of God Know HTML? Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, April 28, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/04/28/holynet.dtl Recently, while driving through downtown Cairo, our tour guide, Mohammed, turned to me in surprise. "You're Jewish?" he asked, "I've always wondered something: do Jewish people think Jesus was a God, or...
Love Bytes Will the Net flatten Maslow's pyramid? Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, April 12, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/04/12/love.dtl You remember Maslow. He was the noted psychologist who suggested in 1954 that people develop in a predictable way: serving our physiological requirements first, like food and shelter, before concentrating on higher order needs like...
Killing the Rainmakers The dying art of high-tech public relations Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, March 29, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/03/29/pr.dtl Faced with shrinking profit margins and more competition despite strong sales, high-tech executives are cutting costs. And often, that means decimating corporate PR budgets. The problem is these cost-cutting high-tech executives are eating...
Power To The People The return of cold fusion Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, March 15, 1999 Read the original article here. Cold fusion is back. On Friday, March 26, 1999, the director of Menlo Park-based SRI International's Energy Research Center, Dr. Michael McKubre, will present the results of SRI's 10-year, $6 million-dollar...
Biotech Rules Part II: Science, Serendipity, and The Web Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, March 2, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/03/02/biotech2.dtl Thanks to a deluge of recent optimistic press reports, expectations for the biotech industry have reached a fever pitch. But will we, in our lifetime, really see the kinds of revolutionary biotech advances...
Biotech Rules Part I: Anyone Wanna Buy a Cure for Cancer? Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, February 16, 1999 URL: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Biotech-Rules-Part-I-Anyone-Wanna-Buy-a-Cure-2946789.php I've got my fingers crossed for Dr. Judah Folkman, the Boston researcher who captured world attention in 1997 when his anti-cancer drugs made tumors shrink in mice. To his credit, Dr. Folkman...
Online Government Bringing the Public Sector up to Speed Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, February 1, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/02/01/govsites.dtl Recently, I visited the FCC website to look for a public document filed late last year by Telmex, Mexico's telecommunications monopoly. At the site, I found nice pictures of the FCC's chairman and...
Speed Kills How PacBell's New DSL Service Trips Up the Competition Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, January 18, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/01/18/dsl.dtl Pacific Bell's recent announcement that it is increasing the availability and slashing the price of its DSL service is both great and horrible news. First, the good stuff: in exchange for a...
Net Unemployment Will the Internet Put You Out of Work? Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, January 4, 1999 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/1999/01/04/unemployment.dtl In March, Palo Alto's landmark bookstore, Printers, Inc. will shut its doors for good. The owners cite competition from online vendors like Amazon.com as a primary reason for the store's demise. Similar closures...