They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

This picture was taken on the morning of November 3, 2009 at the corner of 8th and Market in San Francisco, California. The infamous Department of Parking and Traffic (DPT) is responsible for ticketing and towing vehicles that it considers...

Running a company in Silicon Valley, you hear a lot of advice. It is sometimes offered by those esteemed individuals who are invited to speak on panels at conferences, by professors, by family members, by friends, by enemies, by the wealthy, by the not-as-wealthy, by the invested, and by the...

I reported previously that I had encountered some trouble with my Comcast Internet connection. After three months I couldn't stand it anymore and I switched to AT&T u-Verse. (No, contrary to some people's beliefs, I am not being paid by anyone to write this. I'm sure I'll have something...

This is the second article in a two-part series.

In early March, I documented a minor victory in a lawsuit that my company brought against internet juggernaut Google, Inc. in small claims court. The core of the dispute focused on whether or not Google had the right to...

I was in Philadelphia recently visiting a friend, and we had the opportunity to eat lunch downtown. On the way to the restaurant, we took a detour to one of the city's newest attractions: the amazing Comcast Center.

As it turns out, the towering skyscraper that is the Comcast Center,...

This is the first article in a two-part series.

Like most Americans, I use Google's search engine several times a day without so much as a second thought. It was only in 2007 that my company's relationship with Google, Inc. temporarily escalated to that of a full-fledged customer, when...

Over the past year I've frequently written about the daily challenges of existing in corporate America. The business world can oftentimes be a frustrating place, with the unyielding need for profit pressuring posh executives, middle managers and low-level workers alike into positions they do not necessarily relish. Customer service in...

I am no stranger to issues of data security. My personal information has been exposed on the internet in several instances in the past, by my (former) payroll provider, by the Federal Government, even by a prominent hospital--and those are merely the institutions whose poor programming practices I discovered inadvertently,...

Now that the identity of the President-Elect is no longer an uncertainty looming over the nation, the biggest issue the new administration faces is that of prioritization. The Obama agenda is so (necessarily) vast and there is so much that urgently needs to be done that it is nearly impossible...

On October 23rd, the world was presented with a single admission. It was remarkable both for the magnitude of the error to which it corresponded, and for the fact that it was being uttered at all during a time when political and business leaders know "fault" as "a word that...

Years before many of the investment bankers responsible for the financial crisis now gripping our nation were even born, an unprecedented event shook the world. On October 6, 1973, Egypt launched a surprise attack on the State of Israel.

Far from a coincidence, the date had been chosen to inflict...

Current economic conditions are nothing if not complex. Investment banks are disappearing and merging; massive insurance companies are floundering, trillions of dollars of mortgage debt is in question (and it's not even held by American companies). It's tempting to think that economics is just an inherently complicated discipline, and that...

A giant data brokerage firm exposes the records of more than 145,000 individuals, and 750 of those are confirmed victims of identity theft. A cell phone conglomerate admits that its system, used by Secret Service agents among millions of other people, was recently broken into. A respected senator discovers that...

Four years ago, in the summer of 2004, I decided to start writing a book. I knew it would take a while, and sure enough, it did. I was thrilled when I finally could hold a real copy in my hands a few weeks ago. The respective Battles of Spellcheck,...

It is certainly a depressing endeavor to read the business section of the newspaper these days. With the economy in truly serious trouble and so many other problems globally, it's hard to imagine how we'll ever get out of the hole we're in. Sitting in the heart of Silicon Valley,...

If I were an average American today, I might be worrying about the stock market reaching frightening lows. I might be worrying about the wildfires burning all across Northern California where I live. I might be worrying about the fact that I'll soon be without health insurance once more. I...

I learned recently that a book is being written. Rumor has it that the book will be a tell-all account of the origins of the company that TIME recently placed head-to-head with Google and Apple as one of the possible rulers of what it dubs "the new internet." The company...

As far as I'm concerned, the Government owes me a tax refund. It's not because I overpaid my taxes this year. It's because for the second time in my life, I've been forced to hand over money for something that wasn't my fault at all. In the process, I've learned...

A response to Glenn Beck's "Tax-free hypocrisy from higher education" on CNN.com

There's an industry out there, and it's making money hand over fist while you're barely able to cover your mounting credit card debt.

It's an industry where it's not uncommon for companies to make upwards of four...

I've watched a number of the debates now, both Democratic and Republican. As with so many things, the quality has gone down as the quantity has gone up. The notion of a real debate taking place on national television seems about as realistic as the prospect of all of the...