Coop's Corner

If Gates is right, how much longer for keyboards & mice?

Charles Cooper — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:03:00 GMT

It wasn't exactly Minority Report but Bill Gates' technology demonstration at the company's CEO Summit earlier Wednesday may be remembered years from now as a harbinger of the end for the keyboard and mouse era. Not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon enough. (Cue Winston Churchill here about ...

Adios, Amateur Hour. The Big Dog marks his turf

Charles Cooper — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:25:00 GMT

Jerry Yang was able to rope-a-dope Steve Ballmer. But he's never had to square off against a royal pain in the ass like Carl Icahn.

This afternoon, Icahn, a billionaire with a God complex--or is that repetitive?--wrote a new chapter in this deliciously goofy Microhoo saga when he ...

Loren Feldman becomes test case for paying for Web content

Charles Cooper — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

1938 Media impressario Loren Feldman admittedly is an acquired taste. If you're on the receiving end of one of his skewering rants, I doubt you'll judge his monologue to be gut-busting hilarious. But the guy's fresh, and I confess to being a fan boy.

But would you ...

Nationalize Twitter? Hmm, not so fast

Charles Cooper — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Consider me second to none in embracing Twitter for all that it's worth. But the service's publicized brown-outs naturally raise questions about backup plans in case of further outages. The Gillmor Gang, in particular, has into this question, but the most searching critique I've come across comes ...

If Apple can go home again, why not Dell?

Charles Cooper — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:26:00 GMT

An unexpected bump in the head landed yours truly in the emergency ward recently, and when they wheeled me up to the CAT scan, I handed over my cell phone.

"Oh, we don't need that," the attendant told me. "We only take iPhones."

Wow, I thought. Of all places ...

Why Uncle Sam must stop subsidizing inefficient companies

Charles Cooper — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:57:00 GMT

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 ...

Slouching toward telecommuting: IT's newest challenge

Charles Cooper — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:39:00 GMT

It was simply happenstance but this headline crossed the wire just as I was boring a colleague with another doom-and-gloom update on the skyrocketing price of energy.

"Fortune 500 Visionaries Speak at Woodside Private Home Theatre for Discussion on Smart Energy & Grids."

Telecommuting's best argument

(Credit: CNET

...

The founder's dilemma: How to play the final sale

Charles Cooper — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT

You're sitting in a conference room negotiating the sale of your company, still haggling at the 11th hour over a price. But wait: Should you even be there to begin with?

Jerry Yang and David Filo apparently thought so. They flew up to Seattle last weekend to meet Steve ...

Decider 1, RIAA 0

Charles Cooper — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:58:00 GMT

Hand it to "The Decider" for nailing it.

"The model of the future is what Trent Reznor is doing today. What that means for the RIAA and its members is that it renders them obsolete."

His is the second TalkBack post commenting on our story about an executive from the ...

Why Intel's betting its chips on 4G

Charles Cooper — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:01:00 GMT

At first blush, it sounds as if Intel's throwing good money after bad. After all, why pay $1 billion to join a consortium which has "squabble-fest" written all over it?

4G has been a slow train coming and the latest attempt by Sprint and Clearwire to speed the transition ...