company

Why Uncle Sam must stop subsidizing inefficient companies

From time to time, I'm going to open up this space to guest writers with an interesting point of view. This week, Gregory L. Rosston is taking a turn in the spotlight. Rosston is the deputy director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and of the Public Policy program at Stanford University. He served as the deputy chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission from 1994 to 1997.

The Federal Communications Commission is about to continue its anticompetitive policy of protecting incumbent telecommunications providers at the expense of consumers. The FCC has one focus--making consumers better off … Read more

Netflix glitch to delay deliveries

Update at 6:15 p.m. PDT to add areas that may likely see delays in delivery.

Update at 7:55 p.m. to reflect that the site has since come back online.

Netflix customers expecting a little red package soon may be disappointed.

The largest online video-rental service has suffered a technical glitch that has knocked out its Web site as well as its logistics and delivery systems, according to a Steve Swasey, a company spokesman.

The malfunction, the source of which the company won't reveal, began at about 7 a.m. PDT. The site came back online … Read more

Netflix down for at least five hours

Updated at 4:00 p.m. PDT: We have posted a completely new story here that details how Netflix will be forced to delay deliveries.

Internet movie rental company Netflix suffered a site outage beginning at 7 a.m. PDT Monday, and the company doesn't know when it will have the problem fixed, a Netflix spokesman said.

Customer service personnel told CNET News.com that they were told the site was undergoing routine maintenance when something went wrong, information they then passed on to customers. That is incorrect, according to Steve Swasey, the company's director of corporate communications. … Read more

LinkedIn's business directory goes live

Professional networking site LinkedIn has launched the beta version of its business directory, called LinkedIn Company Profiles, with data provided by BusinessWeek and Capital IQ supplementing LinkedIn's member information. Over 150,000 companies and organizations are indexed in the directory, working it into a Hoovers-esque database that ties into LinkedIn's social features.

A LinkedIn Company Profiles page includes a number of basic statistics pulled from BusinessWeek's database, such as company size and history. But for the most part, the rest of the business' page consists of information from employees of that company who have LinkedIn profiles, like … Read more

Taliban: Nix nighttime cell phone service

Hang up, or else. That's the Taliban's message to cell phone companies operating in Afghanistan, whom it suspects of collaborating with NATO to track down its forces.

The displaced theocrats have given the four mobile phone operators in Afghanistan three days to shut down at night--roughly 14 hours a day--or face attacks against their offices and towers, according to Reuters.

The Taliban is convinced the Americans are using mobile phone signals to track down its remaining troops. "Since the occupying forces stationed in Afghanistan usually at night use mobile phones for espionage to track down the mujahideen, … Read more

Open source leech rails against open source companies

I'm sure these geniuses at PacketTrap posted this manifesto about why commercial open source is no good as part a misguided marketing attempt, but I feel it necessary to comment on just how stupid this is and why this kind of thing leads to a company's failure.

The CEO's argument essentially says commercial open source isn't fair because he can't take all the code (he highlights GPL products) and recast it as his own.

PacketTrap believes that the commercialization of open source by the POSS vendors such as Hyperic and GroundWork Open, however, skillfully undermines … Read more

Tech to the rescue

I was working on this when I read this CNET News.com post. Apparently, Bill Gates believes that a strong technology sector will help keep America's economy healthy. I couldn't agree more. But I have a somewhat different take on the role tech has played in the U.S. economy.

Over the past few decades, the U.S. technology industry has had a number of "the sky is falling" moments, and every time we've managed to work through it and come out stronger than before.

For example, when I entered the job market in 1980, … Read more

In between years: Trends and snippets

Soccer and innovation: I blogged about " what Ronaldinho and FC Barcelona can teach you about innovation" before "el cl?sico" on Sunday, and, well, there was a certain risk that my bold claim would backfire. Madrid slammed Barca in its own backyard 1-0, and while I'm flattered that my favorite Fox soccer analyst Bobby McMahon is linking to my post, his comment still stings a little...

Monarchy 2.0: Queen Elizabeth has launched a new channel on YouTube--the Royal Channel--that will broadcast her traditional Christmas address, at 7 a.m. PST Tuesday. According to … Read more

Damn you to hell, John Gruber!

John Gruber finds a glorious nut of stupidity before the Macalope and gives it the appropriate treatment.

Google's shares pass $700 mark

Google's shares kissed the $700 mark in early morning trading Wednesday, marking a new first for the Internet giant and its soaring stock price.

Google's stock rose to more than $701 a share, following reports that it is pitching its "Gphone" to Verizon Wireless. The stock was up $4.95, or less than 1 percent, in morning trading, from its close of $694.77 on Tuesday.

Just a little more than three weeks ago, Google shares passed the $600 mark and analysts were speculating its shares could climb as high as $700 within the next year. … Read more