Chris O’Brien

O’Brien: Silicon Valley style romance blooms in World of Warcraft

Is World of Warcraft the next Match.com? For at least one San Jose couple, it turned out the perfect place to meet, court, and start a friendship that blossomed into a real world romance.

O’Brien: The mysterious circumstances of Hurd’s departure

After listening to the vague explanations of why Mark Hurd resigned, I’m still left wondering:Did he really have to go?

Interim CEO expected to keep HP on course

Source: Hurd paid accuser to settle claim

More Hewlett-Packard news | Track HP stock

How Google fails at failing

Since the announcement that it was killing Google Wave, Google has turned on the spin by proclaiming how they “celebrate our failures.” There is a lot to admire about Google, and one of those things is its ability to experiment and, as CEO Eric Schmidt said, “try things.” It’s not just hard for many organizations [...]

O’Brien: Globalstar leaves for Louisiana without a fight

With unemployment at 12.3 percent, I have to wonder how a company like Globalstar moves its headquarters without so much as a peep from state officials?

BitTorrent and the case against cloud computing

With everyone talking breathlessly about cloud computing, it seems I rarely hear this mega-trend being called into question. The advantages of moving your computing onto the Internet seem clear: Lower costs, more efficient management of resources. What’s not to like?
According to BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker, the answer is: Plenty.
I had a fascinating conversation with Klinker [...]

BitTorrent and the case against cloud computing

With everyone talking breathlessly about cloud computing, it seems I rarely hear this mega-trend being called into question. The advantages of moving your computing onto the Internet seem clear: Lower costs, more efficient management of resources. What’s not to like?
According to BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker, the answer is: Plenty.
I had a fascinating conversation with Klinker [...]

Dispatch from Oakland

Clearly, my intention to blog here on a more regular basis has not happened. In part, that’s because I made a personal decision to scale way back on all my extra projects and blogging outside of writing my twice weekly column for the San Jose Mercury N…

O’Brien: BitTorrent and the reason things are changing slower than you think

We still watch almost 99 percent of all video on our televisions. Despite the hoopla about the online video revolution, our viewing habits remain stubbornly resistant to change.

O’Brien: Silicon Valley giving boost to Middle East startups

The region has lagged much of the world when it comes to startups. There are some signs that’s changing. And Silicon Valley is playing a big role.

O’Brien: Jerry Kaplan and the iPad of the ’80s

Back in the late 1980s, Go tried to build a keyboard-less computer that foreshadowed in many ways the iPad. I caught up with co-founder Jerry Kaplan to get his take on the era of table computing and how innovation in Silicon Valley can be about evolution and timing.