David Coursey

Is computing not making the progress it used to, or did I just read a story about Microsofts Internet Explorer losing a tiny bit of its overwhelming market share? I thought wed gotten this browser thing down several years ago and had moved on. Apparently, I was mistaken. So here I am doing something I […]

Just because you have technology to throw at a process or problem doesnt mean it will actually help. There are many places where pushing the technological envelope has no place at all. And next week, a record number of Americans are expected to visit one of them: Its their local polling place. Here in California […]

Do people really want to see streaming video pop-ups from their instant messaging clients? Or more to the point as this election season winds down, do users want to see a political ad from a group or candidate they do not support, or worse, may actually despise? Thats the question the ad sales think-tank at […]

When was the last time Microsoft released an upgrade that got you really excited? An upgrade you wanted because it did something new that you actually needed done? Im not talking about a security fix or a patch necessary to make something work properly (which would seem to include Windows XP SP2), but something that […]

What is Microsofts biggest failure? Some say its the security crisis that has surrounded the company for the past few years, while others cite Microsofts slow adoption of Internet technology. Some believe its the gelding of Longhorn into Shorthorn; a few still remember good ol Microsoft Bob. While all of these made news and some […]

The criticism of human RFID tagging that Ive been seeing sometimes misses the point, with potentially deadly results. This is not simply a human version of the chips Ive had injected into the scruffs of both of my cats necks. I did this after a third cat lost its collar and ran away, never to […]

Tell me that Microsoft is building server versions of what until now have been desktop applications, and the first thing that comes to my mind is Web services. That may not be what Microsoft is planning to ship with Office 12, but the rumors were hearing are nevertheless exciting. Its also possible, even if people […]

After three-and-a-half years, Microsofts Software Assurance program hasnt brought customers the 200 percent to 300 percent increases in software cost that many predicted when it was announced in May 2001. My friend Laura DiDio, a well-known Yankee Group analyst, recently completed a survey that found that most customers on Software Assurance have seen the cost […]

The newest thing in the RSS universe is something called “Podcasting,” which is, when you think about it, just what it sounds like: distributing audio programming to peoples iPods (and other devices) for on-demand playback. At one level, this is blogging for people with even larger egos, folks who think they need to be heard […]

You know what they say about things that sound too good to be true. You also know that where technology is concerned, very occasionally it turns out “they” are wrong. WiMax, with the potential to make high-speed broadband available anywhere in a metropolitan area, could be one of those instances. WiMax, which is based on […]