Scot Petersen

eBay.com has made its mark in the online world by bringing buyers and sellers together in virtual auction house. Now those same buyers and sellers can meet each other in the flesh at eBays first user conference scheduled for this summer. The eBay Live 2002 Community Conference, set for June 21-23 at the Anaheim Convention […]

Out of the blue, a friend of mine, who works for a pack rat whos been in the computer business forever, told me she has a copy of PC Week dated Nov. 29, 1983 (for those of you who still dont know, PC Week changed its name to eWeek in May 2000). “Impossible,” I said. […]

The announcement this month by Sun regarding its intentions to sell Linux-based servers and other products seemed pretty shocking at the time, given that to Sun and many of its followers, the only Unix worth its weight is Solaris. But looking back over the past weeks and months, its clear that the writing was on […]

In case you missed it—and many of you did—here are some product highlights from LinuxWorld in New York earlier this month. I wont make any more claims about the future of Linux on the desktop, other than to say there are many more users who believe it can supplant Windows than there are vendors. Red […]

Fellow columnist Peter Coffee commiserated with us recently on how hard it is to form any opinion these days that doesnt involve Microsoft. Hes right. Whether we are taking the company to task or, less often, praising it, the fact is that Microsofts reach is so extensive that its difficult to find substantive IT issues […]

This is what has become of the biggest corporate failure of all time: An eBay member named “laydoff” sold an Enron Code of Ethics book for $300 this month. An Enron Risk Management manual was selling for $1,025 as of press time. Personally, I had my eye on the sleeve of Enron-logo Titleist golf balls, […]

A lot of ink has been spilled about innovation in the computer industry the past few years, especially by Microsoft. But the Redmondites arent the only ones with a patent on the term. Next in line is Apple Computer, which actually has some right to use the term, because Steve Jobs means what he says […]

By now, you may have seen the latest leaked memo from Microsoft Vice President Brian Valentine. The memo outlines the companys anti-Linux strategy. Though the memo addresses the problem of confidential information leaking, dont mistake the real story here: Microsoft is still very worried about Linux and is doing and saying anything to discredit the […]

Napster was founded in May 1999. I reckon that the smart minds in the music business have been trying to figure out since at least then what kind of business they can run on the Internet. The latest result is not exactly a study in evolution. Pressplay, the creation of music giants Vivendi and Sony […]

As we head into 2002, theres much to worry about regarding American business. We experienced the biggest bankruptcy ever as energy trader Enron filed for Chapter 11 early in December, while during last year, we saw millions laid off from the largest corporations in the country. Thats the bad news. The good news is that […]