Rants & Raves
The Lone Malone John Malone is full of shit! (“Big Bad John,” Wired 2.07, page 86.) TCI isn’t powerful because it’s a great company or because Malone’s a great CEO. It’s powerful because it doesn’t compete! It doesn’t give one damn about its customer base and makes no effort to serve it. Here in Seattle, the city is divided into two cable areas: live in one part of town, and you get cable from Viacom; live in the other, and you get it from TCI. They have a lock on the areas they serve. TCI employees have a we-don’t-care-we-don’t-have-to attitude which, I’m convinced, trickles down from Denver. TCI wouldn’t last six months in a competitive environment. Malone’s whining about the RBOCs and claiming political naivete was laughable. Wired‘s cover portrayal of Malone as road warrior was, I trust, parody. In another situation, the guy would be considered a racketeer, plain and simple. James Eaton JEaton@aol.com
One of the most incredible interviews I’ve ever read! Your “man on the scene,” David Kline, deserves tremendous kudos for having either (a) prepared so well, or (b) known so much about the biz, because he was on Malone’s wavelength. Kline wasted no time with fluff. It’s rare (indeed, incredible!) to get such blunt talk about strategy among I-way warriors, or any corporate mucky-mucks. Forbes or Business Week should do so well with their coverage. Thanks for the mind food. Matt Van Ryn IthacaMatt@aol.com
Clipping Along It’s easy to see why Stewart A. Baker is chief counsel for the NSA. His mastery of lawyerly craft is evident in his article apologizing for escrow encryption. You can tell he is good because the article is riddled with subtle circumlocution and obfuscation.
When a lawyer resorts to such an artful creation, it is clear that he has no solid foundation on which to base his arguments. If his arguments were valid, they would have been stated directly and clearly. Instead, he devilishly charms us with humor, then characterizes all PGP users as pedophiles by association. First the smoke, then the mirrors.
Some clever lawyer, perhaps Baker himself, will someday use the same wordy and misleading techniques to charm out loopholes that will allow “legal” privacy abuse. I find it odd that he asks us to place confidence in the scheme by depending on the “safeguards approved by the attorney general” given the recent questionable practices in that office by Ed Meese and Dick Thornburgh.
A modern-day J. Edgar Hoover merely need invoke the chant, “It’s in the best interest of national security,” and the cache of decryption keys will be laid open like the coat of a peddler selling knockoff Rolexes on 42nd Street. Who knows what pervasive access the NSA itself would have?
Baker was right about one thing. Encryption can’t protect me from data I surrender willingly, so please keep my identity confidential. Name and e-mail address withheld
Out-Raged The article by Mark Nollinger, “Rage,” in issue 2.06 (page 102) is the worst piece of journalistic trash I have yet seen in Wired. Trash, because it is bait-and-switch sensationalism at its sleaziest.
The article starts by painting the main character, Alan Winterbourne, as normal, letting that normality stand in stark contrast to his sudden, impossible-to-predict murder spree and ultimate death.
But by the end of the article, we see that he was never normal, that his violence was in fact entirely predictable, that, like other mass murderers, he went nuts long before he killed.
Had the author presented these facts in chronological order, there would have been no supposed mystery, no average guy gone nuts. No story hook.
In other words, the story hook that was presented was entirely artificial – the product of selective ordering and careful omission.
This is an essentially dishonest story, and one that does not deserve to run in the pages of Wired. It is almost enough to make me cancel my subscription. Thomas B. Cox tcox@netcom.com
Schoolhouse Rock In his article “Learning by Doing” (Wired 2.07, page 144), Nicholas Negroponte sounds like a man who had a rough time with – indeed a real hatred for – the social sciences when he was a kid. I do agree, for once, with him that learning involves passion and that a child’s intellect must be stretched with creative pursuits as much as possible. But he can’t be serious when he intimates that facts aren’t important for them to know.
He states, “Most American children do not know the difference between the Baltics and the Balkans. So what?” So what??! I found it ironic that he should pick those two regions, countries which largely disappeared as distinct entities from the world map for the better part of the 20th century and which are back today with a vengeance. It would certainly behoove a child to look at a map from 1905 as compared to a current one and see that for the price of two world wars (the first started in the Balkans and the second gobbled up the Baltics), a cold war, several smaller hot ones, several totalitarian regimes, and many tens of millions of dead in the intervening century, European boundaries haven’t changed very much. Considering recent events in Bosnia, Russia, and Germany, I think it safe to assume that neither have the people changed. But what does Negroponte see as the alternative to requiring children to remember names like Verdun, Stalingrad, Da Nang, Buchenwald, Selma, and their corresponding dates and geographical locations, to serve as a reference of what not to do when the next century is handed over to them? What will the coming generations do without being taught the facts to learn and live by? Repeat all our stupid mistakes because learning by doing was more fun and what went on before was deemed irrelevant or too much bother to learn? Perhaps they’ll simply get bored with society and create paradise on a computer with newly designed frogs to inhabit it.
The Visigoths are back, Nick. They’re just called Technocrats today. God help us if the batteries run out and the power goes off. Elizabeth Forrest 5778898@mcimail.com
Let me simply say, I went to high school in Europe, speak three languages, have a home in the Balkans, and am happy to challenge anybody to a geography bee. Also, as an aside: the truth is that remembering facts comes from personal meaningfulness. I did not like history in school, but I can date almost anything in European history from art and architecture, not politics and wars. – Nicholas Negroponte
Dear Mr. Negroponte,
Great article in the recent edition of Wired. The title alone, “Don’t Dissect the Frog, Build It” says it all … everything from an ethical biological perspective to the essence of your writing: constructivism.
Have you read The Myth of Educational Reform by Popkewitz et al? It’s a study of IGE schools and the classification of schools as constructivist, technical, and illusory. I am an area superintendent in a 23,000-student suburban district in Saint Louis, Missouri. Also, I am a student of reform, restructuring, change, kids, and professionals in general. Constructivism is truly a belief system that I accept and practice, though I avoid the label completely as it causes folks to line up either staunchly “for” or “against” it.
Your article hit home, and, I assure you, will be required reading for a set of principals with whom I work. Assuredly, they will construct their own meaning from it. (The piece just may cause me to subscribe to Wired.) Your words were refreshing and a welcomed sight to us educators who know that there are corporate types reading Wired too. Jere Hochman Clayton, Missouri
Dear Mr. Negroponte,
In your essay, you make the almost always neglected point that when our education system is criticized for not measuring up to, say, the Japanese or the French, what is being compared are test scores: education systems that produce students “whose brains have been stuffed with thousands of facts” are compared to a system that doesn’t “stuff” – one that is so decentralized, so porous, that facts and students fall through the cracks. The “stuffed” will always score higher.
We should exhalt our porosity, our crazy quilt of local education systems. While they must improve their service to the poor, they are much better equipped to teach the skills needed to use computers, logic machines – and to create innovative software for these machines – than are those centralized, rigid systems, European and Asian, that essentially teach obedience and produce students (workers) who will color inside the lines, always. The really bright people from these systems often leave their native countries to work in the US, where they might create the breakthroughs that earn them their Nobel prizes.
Manufacturing requires repetition and tight control. Managers love to measure, to quantify, to meet production goals. They don’t feel comfortable with ambiguity, with all the blind stabs it takes to “design the frog.” As one of those students who initially fell through the education system, which would have been a fatal fall in either France or Japan, I value the “disorder” of a system that doesn’t close itself to its clients, no matter their ages, their one-time test scores, or their ideas for strange frogs. Stay wired. Don Brunn d.brunn@genie.geis.com
You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out Thank you for your coverage of the Beeman/Feinwerkbau air guns in your June 1994 issue.
However, we were greatly disturbed by the fact that the author, Jef Raskin, suggested that it was acceptable to shoot these guns at an individual and do no more than “cause a welt.” As is well known, the first rule of safe gun handling is never to point a gun, any gun, at a person. Second, these guns do have the capacity to cause serious damage, and yes, they can be lethal.
According to guidelines published by the American Society for Testing and Materials, any air gun that shoots at a velocity in excess of 350 feet per second should carry a warning stating in part, “Not a toy…. Misuse or careless use may cause serious injury or death.” The Beeman/Feinwerkbau air guns all have velocities near or greater than 500 feet per second.
In closing, let me suggest that the information given your readers does nothing but perpetuate the misinformation surrounding guns. Air guns are extremely fun and addicting to shoot, but they are real guns and should always be handled as such. John Clark General Manager Beeman Precision Airguns
Pomo Should Go Far be it from me to suggest you seem to have it in for things French, but your guide to trendy French intellectuals (“Pomo to Go,” Wired 2.06, page 54) was exhausting – and took away valuable space from your advertisements. Lawrence D’Oliveiro LDO@waikato.ac.nz
Thanks for Your Support I drive a taxicab in San Francisco. Last week I had the pleasure of using one of your bits of new jargon. I picked up this yuppie … or should I say cuppie (straight laced computer nerd … i.e., no fun) in the Haight. We drove to North Beach, and on the way I asked him about his vocation. It turns out that he was an Apple employee working on the second version of the Newton. He was really “up” on telling me everything he knew about it. I started to feel like I was going to have to buy one just to get the guy out of my cab. It was a cross between an infomercial and a Ronco-Popeil Pocket Fisherman advertisement. What could I do? Then it hit me … so I asked: “Well, that’s all fine and good but does it have LRF support?”
Silence.
Thanks to “Jargon Watch” (Wired 2.06, page 31) I got to collect my fare and drive away while he was still baffled! As I drove off, I heard him say, “LRF?… LRF…? I’m sure we can look into it.” Kevin John Black cole@mercury.sfsu.edu
Into Africa I am not very pleased to see that the information superhypeway now goes right through Dakar, Senegal (“Wiring Africa,” Wired 2.06, page 60). Go ahead: praise the good work of Babacar Fall and Jeff Greenwald – despite the latter’s slightly colonial attitude – but hold on to your seats folks: there was intelligent life in the Third World before the Internet! Weirder still: there was even electronic communication! This was (and still is) the handiwork of various grassroots groups, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and socially committed individuals, supported – but not directed or initiated – by networks such as Greennet, Peacenet, etc.
When we organized the Galactic Hacker Party in Paradiso, Amsterdam, way back in 1989, one of the biggest sensations was to experience how active the Third World was in the electronic field, ahead of the Western European scene.
It is a good thing that the Internet has become the standard of (electronic) communication. But this is not a reason to put exaggerated faith in technological advances to foster development. The most important thing remains human commitment, which more often than not must translate to political will to provide services (to the people, old Maoists would add). Patrice Riemens Amsterdam
Kuwaiti Dishes This appeared in your June issue (Electric Word, page 32): “Following Kuwait, China, and Saudi Arabia’s lead, Iran has banned all satellite dishes. Next stop, France.”
Contrary to the implication here, satellite dishes have most certainly not been banned in Kuwait. Dish dealers here have been thriving. In fact, we bought one for our house a week after your issue hit the stands. Among the channels received are CNN, Sky TV, MTV Asia, and Israel TV, as well as many others.
Furthermore, companies are now selling descramblers, so that Kuwaitis have access to movie channels and other premium channels. I suspect this is still illegal in the United States.
If anything, the average Kuwaiti’s access to information has exploded beyond belief. With Kuwaiti Internet nodes and access to several commercial online services (such as AOL), along with fast-proliferating access to satellite feeds and the freest, liveliest media in the Arab world, Kuwaitis are closing in on Americans in terms of information overload. Anwar Mohammed Ghuloum anwar+@cs.cmu.edu
A Thief by Any Other Name I am compelled to comment on the very interesting Wall Street article in your July issue (“Cracking Wall Street,” Wired 2.07, page 92).
While other advanced countries place value on inventing stuff, building stuff and exporting stuff (a foreign concept to some theoretical physics grads, creating wealth), these rocket scientists spend their time learning to siphon off wealth while the transactional balls are juggled in the air. Clever fellas to be sure, but are they supposed to be neo-techno-folk heroes? I hope not. All in all, they’re just junior robber barons with pocket protectors, still pissed off because they were chosen last for the kickball team. This is the ’80s revisited, only with better computers. Mark P. Miller Tujunga, California
Via Snail Mail – from Sri Lanka I was fascinated by the piece on General Magic in the April Wired (“Bill and Andy’s Excellent Adventure II,” Wired 2.04, page 102). Please note that the correct version of my third law is: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Incidentally, I’ve now formulated another law: “Reading software manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software.”
Bruce Sterling’s dispatch from Moscow (“Compost of Empire,” Wired 2.04, page 73) is brilliant and scary. It recalled “The Third Man” – who would you cast to play Harry Lime?
All good wishes, Arthur C. Clarke Sri Lanka
P.S. For once, Wired is behind the times – Jef Raskin is right about the Sony SW1 (“World-Wired Without Wires,” Wired 2.04, page 120): it has been my faithful companion for years but is now retired. Has he seen the SW100? Wow!
“Spam Spam Spam Spam…” Did you guys catch that article in Time? Whatta riot!
This was my favorite bit (about “spamming” someone on the Net): “[It is a] colorful bit of Internet jargon meant to evoke the effect of dropping a can of Spam into a fan and filling the surrounding space with meat.”
What? What?
I laughed and laughed. OK, I could be wrong, but I thought that “spamming” derived its name from the Monty Python spam song, wherein the word “spam” is repeated incessantly until it drives someone crazy. Just like e-mailing people the same message until it drives them crazy!
However, I thought maybe Time was onto something, so I picked up some Spam at the nearby grocery store and dropped it onto my fan. I was sorely disappointed. Not only did the surrounding space not fill with meat, but I broke my fan. I think Time owes me big, don’t you? ****Steven Frank stevenf@europa.com <br>
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><b> Appropriate Appropriat<br> The answer to Lance Rose’s question is, Yes, I did create all the original elements for the photo composition t <i>New York New</i> appropriated without compensation or permission <a>A Sample Viola</a<em>W/em> 2.06, page 32). In fact, all my composite images are created entirely from my original elements, which are taken from my stock library or shot specifically for the intended purp
<ong>Curiously, I’ve noticed that proponents of free image-appropriation (Hayes Cohen, Bart Nagel) are people who don’t have any images. Perhaps if they spent 22 years of their lives making original photographs, they would feel differ
<ong>And if mass image-appropriation becomes the norm in the future and any published photograph is free for public use, you might find that artists who are making original images will keep most of their work out of the mass media. Imagine the ocean of mediocrity that would prev
<ong>I hope this lawsuit will set a public precedent that warns image thieves of the consequences of digital theft and protects those who have the ability to make original photogra <ong>James P <br> New
<ong>Peaceful Wong> Your articml">Digital Dh</a>” was gre<em>W/em> 2.08, page 54). I was a bit concerned, however, that the inclusion of the Tibetan government’s e-mail address might result in an overflow of e-mail that is expensive to process, because of connect/transmit charges and the distance bridged in dialing the e-mail ser
<<p>Some months ago, I sent e-mail to the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, offering to help with its online capabilities. I got a very nice response from the main monk running the Net connection. In my e-mail, I had raised the question of junk or gratuitous e-mail, and the response I got was, Yes, pulling down mail is expensive and time-consuming for them. So, perhaps communications should be limited for
<ong>Derek Ku <br> E-mail address with
<ong>Uong> In oml">The Americanization of </a>” artic<em>W/em> 2.06, page 94), we reported that Sony introduced the first successful transistor radio in 1955. In fact, the first transistor radio was produced by Regency (in collaboration with Texas Instruments) in 1954, in Indianapolis, Indiana: it was a pocket-sized radio and was a commercial succ
<ml">The Cosmology of K/em> CD-ROM (reviewed<em>W/em> 2.09, page 131) listed now-obsolete coordinates for ordering the product. If you’d like more information on this disc, please contact Stone Bridge Press at PO Box 8208, Berkeley, CA 94707; (800) 947 7271, fax +1 (510) 524 8
<<p>A quick note regarding the German V series rockets mentionedml">August’s Reality C</a> (page 34): they were actually self-guided, not tele-opera
<<p>And finally, to correct a minor mistake ng">King of the </a<em>W/em> 2.07, page 33), we listed the directory housing information on the Internet Hunt as pub/internet-hunt, when in actuality, it’s pub/h
<ong>Send your Rants & Raves
<ong>E-maom">rants@wiredmag<br> Snail mail: Wired, PO Box 19 <br> San Francisco, CA 94109-
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