I have a gripe with the way Caller ID works -- or in fact, increasingly doesn't work -- on wireless phones. I've noticed that most very stinking time I get a call on my wireless phone, the Caller ID information is wrong. Sometimes the number is correct, but the city is wrong. When Caller ID was introduced a few decades ago, it was great. It started on the landline phone, either providing a name or number to give you a heads up as to who was calling. Fast-forward to the present. Today, when a call comes into our wireless phone, the information that appears on the screen is accurate only some of the time. [More...]

I've followed several female CEOs over the years. Most of them failed, largely because they were both unqualified for the job and their boards didn't back them up. In several cases, the board and the CEO seemed to be in conflict, or the board simply didn't do anything. Those failures have created the impression that female CEOs are a bad bet. However, I believe the real problem is that boards haven't been doing their jobs. I think women would make better CEOs than men if they were trained and supported as well. [More...]

Linux and the open source business model are far different today than many of the early developers might have hoped. Neither can claim a rags-to-riches story. Rather, their growth cycles have been a series of hit-or-miss milestones. The Linux desktop has yet to find a home on the majority of consumer and enterprise computers. However, Linux-powered technology has long ruled the Internet and conquered the cloud and Internet of Things deployments. Both Linux and free open source licensing have dominated in other ways. [More...]

With less than a week to go, Dreamforce continues to bear down on the world like a hurricane slowly approaching from across the ocean -- in a good way, if that makes any sense. Salesforce has pumped new products into the market that will serve as the focus of at least part of the discussion in San Francisco. Over the late summer, the company introduced improvements or whole new products for the small and mid-sized business market, philanthropy and financial services. There is a theme in this, but it might be hard to suss out. [More...]