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This week, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced that his mouse brain-mapping project has finally been completed. This major undertaking arrives in tandem with other advances in medical technologies that will soon force political leaders to face difficult policy questions ...

A decade ago, Microsoft thought it could ignore bureaucratic rumblings with little or no fallout. That attitude led to the historic Microsoft antitrust trial and the realization that bureaucrats can indeed wield bigtime impact. Google is now learning a similar lesson, albeit in a different way ...

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is touring the United States this week. Her visit comes during a nasty spat between the commission and Microsoft that could seriously hurt technology businesses and consumers ...

Hold on to your hats -- California lawmakers have finally done something even the most jaded critic will appreciate. It's called cable franchise reform, and it will have a positive impact on California and the entire nation ...

This week, a key federal official cautioned against calls for net neutrality, the effort to expand government reach in the Internet marketplace. It's a wise move to keep the Internet free of red tape. So why are lobbyists pushing for new rules? ...

A recent hacker demonstration in which an RFID-enabled passport was scanned from a distance was cited by some as proof the new passportscould be privacy risks, said Sonia Arrison, director of technology studies at the Pacific Research Institute Still, she said, it's far more l...

This week, the U.S. State Department began rolling out "e-passports," new high-tech documents that bolster border security through identity safeguards. In a dangerous world, upgrading passports is prudent policy that serves the interests of Americans at home and abroad, but not everyone is happy with them ...

On Tuesday, government officials in India rejected an offer to participate in a much-hyped project to distribute laptops costing US$100 each to the world's impoverished children. A closer look reveals this scheme to be little more thanopen source evangelism in the Third World ...

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) released a key draft decision that redraws telecom laws in a forward-thinking way. If commissioners can hear above the cawing of activist groups, consumers will benefit greatly ...

Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the end of the ancient federal excise tax (FET) on long-distance telephone bills. Consumers should be wary of this seemingly positive development, as cash-strapped bureaucrats now press forward with plans for new technology taxes, threatening innovation ...

As the country gears up for the November elections and online communities start to buzz, it's instructive to look back at the way image myths were created, even with the openness of the Internet. The Howard Dean campaign is one example ...

This week, European Commission (EC) regulators fined Microsoft 280.5 million euros (US$356 million), adding to the 497 million euros ($630.7 million) the company has already been forced to pay ...

This week, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved the Communications, Consumer Choice and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006, sponsored by Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). If passed by the full Congress, this massive telecom bill will bring consumers significant benefits, especially long overdue cable franchise reform ...

As Congress draws closer to passing significant telecommunications reforms, it's clear that a larger issue serves as a backdrop to the hot topics of net neutrality, cable franchise reform, and municipal WiFi. That is, will the Internet be treated like telecommunications, or the other way around? ...

In an unfortunate turn of events, Adobe has threatened an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in Europe. That two American companies may have their fate decided by European bureaucrats is bad enough, but the underlying assumptions make it even worse ...

Broadband adoption in American homes grew by 40 percent in the last year, twice the growth rate of the year before, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. That's good news that should be followed by more good news if technology is allowed to move forward, unfettered by heavy government regulations ...

At least six bills before Congress deal with an issue that leaves many confused and involves a lot of money, constant spin doctoring, and now Hillary Clinton. No, we're not talking about HillaryCare redux or Whitewater, but "net neutrality," a concept being used to trick Americans into accepting regulation of the Internet ...

Social networking Web sites like MySpace, Friendster and Facebook are becoming increasingly popular with the nation's youth, prompting attempts to control the medium. However, though protecting children is the goal, the outcome is too often the opposite ...

"As it stands now, in using paper to vote, all one has to do to tamper with an election is toss a bag of ballots in the ocean," said Sonia Arrison, director of Technology Studies at the California-based Pacific Research Institute. "E-voting machines are a good solution, as average poll workers are unlikely to know how to hack into or re-code the voting machines."

Getting cheaper and better cable services to consumers has been difficult because the laws governing the sector have proved tough to change. This week, officials in two states announced key decisions that may significantly change the terms of the debate. Both announcements involve cable franchise reform ...