Playing The Biotech Boom Picking biotech stocks is not a game for novices Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, December 31, 2001 URL: sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/12/31/biotch.DTL The year 2002 is expected to be a banner one for the biotech sector, with more innovative research under way and more new drugs set to reach the market...
The Westly Factor Why a usually obscure state election might matter most for tech firms Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, December 17, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/technology/beat/ Next year's hotly contested race for governor is already beginning to grab the media spotlight. But many Silicon Valley tech leaders are already much more deeply involved...
The "Last Mile" Problem ADCOs could finally bust open the local phone market Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, December 6, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/12/06/adcosbust.DTL At long last, a promising new group of firms with a sound business model might finally be about to crack open local monopoly phone and Internet-access markets to real...
The End Of Hewlett-Packard As We Knew It? Revered company is between a rock and a hard place Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Monday, November 19, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/11/19/hpmerge.DTL The brewing battle over whether Hewlett-Packard should merge with ailing rival Compaq signals a major turning point for the legendary Silicon Valley company. History has...
War Boom More Pentagon spending could actually hurt Silicon Valley Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, October 23, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/10/23/techwar.DTL Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress approved President Bush's request to boost the Pentagon budget roughly 65 percent by 2005 to more than $500 billion. Judging from the recovery...
Energy Independence Now We Need A New Energy Revolution Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, October 4, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/10/04/newenergy.DTL Amid this week's latest batch of unbearably sad stories about the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, one of the most important stories is the one we haven't read. It's the story about...
No Silver Bullets Giving Up Privacy for Security Will Leave Us With Neither Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, September 18, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/09/18/nosilvbullet.DTL The terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center has led to feverish calls for increased government use of electronic-identification technologies that will further weaken privacy rights and undermine longstanding...
Kick 'Em When They're Down Silicon Valley's Usual CEO Excuses Don't Tell the Real Story Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, August 23, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/08/23/ceos.DTL You might think we've heard enough about what's gone wrong in our tattered high-tech economy. After all, hardly a day goes by without fresh reports of corporate...
Slap the PUC It May Be the Last Chance to Protect Independent ISPs From Extinction Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, July 31, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/07/31/pucdsl.DTL The state Public Utilities Commission is expected to rule shortly on a complaint filed last week by independent Internet service providers. The ruling will help determine whether...
The New Napster The Record Industry Has Met its Match Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, July 10, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/07/10/gnucleus.DTL If the recording industry thought Napster was a headache, it's going to get a genuine migraine from the latest version of Gnucleus, a free Windows-based open source software program released last month...
The Next Frontier The Tech Sector Needs A Nanotechnology Target Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, June 21, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/06/21/nanotech.DTL The sputtering technology community sorely needs a major new catalyst to get growth back on track. Nothing would be better than establishing the national goal of developing a practical, working, cost-efficient nanovehicle within...
Cisco's Slide Tech Bellwether Must Find A New Path To Success Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, June 5, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/06/05/cisco.DTL "Are you ready?" As you may recall, industry bellwether Cisco Systems Inc. practically beat that catchy little phrase into our heads last year as part of its since-scaled-back multimillion-dollar TV advertising campaign. One...
Free Higher Education MIT's OpenCourseWare Plan Fires the First Real Shot Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, May 10, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/05/10/mit.DTL In news that went largely overlooked a few weeks ago, MIT President Charles Vest announced that the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to make the materials for nearly all of...
Desktop Linux Eazel Inc. Could Change the World Or Go Broke Trying Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, April 19, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/04/19/eazel.DTL Those wondering when the technology sector will get off its knees should pay close attention to what happens to tiny startup Eazel Inc. over the next few weeks. The company is...
Timing The Tech Stock Recovery Investors Should Trust Themselves, Not The Analysts Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Wednesday, April 4, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2001/04/04/techstocks.DTL Given the sharp decline in tech stock prices over the past few months, many of Wall Street's best-known securities analysts are trying to coax wary investors back into the market. Just...
Buying The Grid Gov. Davis' Plan Puts Taxpayers on the Wrong Side of Future Technologies Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, March 13, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/2001/03/13/electric.dtl Gov. Gray Davis' plan to exploit the current energy crisis by having state taxpayers buy and maintain approximately 24,000 miles of obsolescence-bound electrical transmission lines will hobble...
ReplayTV vs. TiVo TiVo vs. ReplayTV How One Little Button Could Wipe Out Commercial Television Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, February 27, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/2001/02/27/replay.dtl When I went shopping for a digital video recorder (DVR) late last year, the clerk at my local Fry's electronics store told me that the identically priced TiVo...
Where's The Competition? How California's Leaders Helped Create the Energy Crisis Hal Plotkin, Special to SF Gate Thursday, January 25, 2001 URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/technology/archive/2001/01/25/ctc.dtl We all know that when California's Legislature passed the ill-conceived energy deregulation bill in 1996, the stated goal was to reduce electricity prices over time by increasing competition among suppliers. Obviously, it...