Deborah Gage

For several years, Judy Estrin has been an outspoken critic of what she calls the “Band-Aid” approach to strengthening the infrastructure of the Internet. The former Cisco CTO and her husband, Bill Carrico, also from Cisco, launched PacketDesign last June as their latest contribution to making the Internet work better. The company has raised $24 […]

Hewlett-Packard has passed on to its employees a fan letter from the chairman and CEO of OfficeMax in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Michael Feuer writes that he was the first person ever pulled from a car by the Chester Township Fire Rescue Department, while operating a PC—an HP Jornada Pocket PC. Feuer also may be the […]

Is the Internet at risk? Not according to Fritz Mueller, senior director of product marketing of Keynote, an Internet performance monitoring firm. Mueller uses this analogy: “If you take out an automated teller machine [ATM], does this mean that the entire banking system is gone? No, it just means that the people who want to […]

The future of every business is, or will be, tied to the Internet in one way or another. Its the best medium for nearly instant and universal communication that the world has ever known, and its an essential means of connecting businesses to their suppliers, their customers and to the world at large. But underneath […]

The Nasdaq continues to slide, and the mood at last weeks Network Outlook conference was somber. VCs and investment bankers clustered anxiously around CNBC to watch the numbers drop, while concurring that the downturn is the most severe in 10 years. So what are those companies that are still getting funded doing (or not doing)? […]

At the end of my last column, I promised Id tell you why iRobot—a company co-founded by two MIT grads and an MIT professor—gave its remote-controlled robot human characteristics. One premise of the column was that the Internet does not change human behavior, and I thought about that as I watched iRobots co-founders show off […]

Journalists may hate this product, but a San Mateo, Calif.-based startup claims to have found a way to measure buzz—that intangible force that can make or break a product, company or even an entire country. Biz360 offers software that tracks the number of times a company or product is mentioned in the press. The software […]

Once again, I am closeted in a fancy hotel at a conference for startups and venture capitalists. This time, however, I am sort of enjoying it. The silliness and arrogance of the past couple of years are fading away, and I am surrounded by people who talk intensely about technology, self-discipline and five-year business plans. […]

Learning from experience seemed to be the theme at this years Demo conference, with startups vying to show off their technology and eager to acknowledge the fact that they have business plans. Especially prominent among the 76 companies selected to attend the show, held in Phoenix, were those demonstrating software that solves technical and business […]

Upside Magazines showcase for startups was rather somber this year. With fewer attendees, the auditorium was nearly empty by the second day. Still, the New Economy has left its mark. In honor of the Internet bubble, moderator Jesse Berst listed some ways the New Economy has changed the way we talk. They say: What would […]