__ Rants & Raves __
__ Eau de Toilette __
I have never been so frightened by a magazine cover (Wired 7.11). I recognized John K's hand immediately. I didn't even dare try the scratch-and-sniff! This is the most disgusting, vile thing I have ever seen grace the cover of your publication. Keep up the good work.
__ Peter Isaacson
penfold@artnet.net __
Concerning the "Nose Candy" cover, I have to wonder whether there is any difference between the readership of Wired and, say, Mad magazine. Ironically, the back cover, usually visible through the magazine's clear plastic wrapper, was blocked by an ad inviting me to subscribe to The New Yorker.
Difficult to peg Wired's readership, indeed. That's a good thing - I think.
__ Tina Koyama
tina.k@juno.com __
Perhaps your November cover was timely, considering the recent rants about what was and wasn't appropriate art in NYC. However, the cover, in all its Limburgeresque glory, was too outré for me. Eeeewww.
The thing is, I like to run around my company shoving Wired under people's noses, saying, "See, I told you there would be a way to take Web pages into the bathroom someday" ("Page Makers," page 70), or "What moron would try to sell the Internet as a useful tool for an orphanage in Cambodia, when we can't even get past Web snarl in Paramus, New Jersey?" ("Operation Phnom.com," page 230). But in order to drag Wired around the Strategic Management Suite, I had to resort to the cover-hiding strategies I once used with copies of Playboy.
__ Ernest Lilley
elilley@synapticcorp.com __
I read with horror about the imminent ability of computers to emit scents ("You've Got Smell," Wired 7.11, page 256). This technology will not be confined to homes, but will be used in many places. The ranks of people with asthma, allergies, and chemical sensitivities are growing in leaps and bounds, and some of us are already becoming excluded from society as stores and other public places become ever more polluted with synthetic fragrances. Do we really need more?
__ Steen Hansen
steen@dds.dent.ohio-state.edu __
__ God Is in the Details __
Jack Hitt's "This Is Your Brain on God" (Wired 7.11, page 308) was amazingly objective, considering its controversial topic - finding God. The article was well written and descriptive, and it addressed the inherent issues from both scientific and theological standpoints. But why should there be a difference?
Why shouldn't God be found in the electromagnetic stimulation of our brains? We see beauty, but that's really just the brain's processing of electromagnetic impulses in the visible spectrum received by the retina. We hear melody, but that's just the brain's processing of various frequencies of air vibration impacting the eardrum. God is omnipresent, and so is electromagnetism. God is omnipotent, and so is electromagnetism (along with E = mc²).
The fact that we can now simulate the experience of God does not disprove God's existence. It may, however, give us more insight into how God works his mysterious ways.
__ Rick Fowler
rbfowler@aol.com __
I'm not the intellectual equal of Michael Persinger, but given how he's applied his talents, I'm glad I'm not. I'd rather be worshiping my "shabby old God," as Hitt writes, than seeking to discover some true divinity by wearing a yellow motorcycle helmet with a couple of halved Ping-Pong balls strapped to my eyelids, waiting for a brain tracker to see where I'm going with my enlightened sense of emotion.
__ Darlene Crawford-Griffin
darlene.crawford-griffin.b@bayer.com __
__ Fast History __
I was glad to see your article on the Computer Museum History Center ("Modern Art," Wired 7.11, page 276). Given the rapid advancements in computers and applications, it's good to know that someone is trying to preserve and display some of the equipment and ideas that have led to the development of modern computer systems, and to recognize the individuals and organizations that have contributed so much to that brief history.
I was particularly pleased to see the Johnniac - a computer that did not receive a lot of publicity during its lifetime - listed as a historically important development.
__ Ray Clewett
ray_clewett@yahoo.com __
Seeing the SAGE marginal-checking control panel brought back memories. Probability calculations suggested the SAGE computer wouldn't run more than 30 seconds without breaking down. MIT developed a voltage marginal-checking system that could "predict" failures during maintenance time and allow replacement of marginally defective or aging components before they failed during active air defense.
We have grown so accustomed to the reliability of modern circuitry and components, we often don't realize how far technology has come in 40 years.
__ Vic Beltz
vic@wedgewoodinn.com __
__ Phnomenon __
I'm a 19-year-old Cambodian male living in Philadelphia and a computer science major at a local university. Before reading Jacques Leslie's article ("Operation Phnom.com," Wired 7.11, page 230), I admit I didn't care one bit about what was happening in my country. I was born in Thailand and came to the US when I was 1, so I had no idea what Cambodia was like.
The story inspired me to learn and do more. It's a shame that many kids in Cambodia don't have access to computers. They have to share among their peers, and yet I have five computers in my house. I have always dreamed of opening a business to help people, and what Bill Herod has done in Cambodia is exceptional. It looks like a lot of people are putting considerable time and effort into making it a wired country.
__ Sam Sen
lilcam@coolmail.net __
__ 20-Ton Parallels __
I would suggest expanding Stewart Taggart's analogy between containerized sea transportation and IP ("The 20-Ton Packet," Wired 7.10, page 246). The challenge of scaling international trade is not limited to strengthening infrastructure (bigger ships, bigger ports). Shippers worry more about moving containers from ports to warehouses, and goods from warehouses to distributors and end customers - this is where the inefficiencies and costs lie, just as the cost of IP networking is in moving email from the ISP server to the desktop.
In the end, though, the philosophies behind the 20-ton packet and the IP network are very different. Rather than breaking up data into chunks that can be reassembled, containerized shipping is a point-to-point, reserved-bandwidth protocol - all the goods are in one box. And there ain't another 20-ton packet coming to take the place of the first one if it gets lost.
__ Julien Ninio
julien@lifeinprovence.com __
__ Undo __
Executive Exchange: Sony Design Center senior GM Mitsuru Inaba ("Sony's Plan for World Recreation," Wired 7.11, page 264) is pictured far right on page 266; Information Technology group leader Keiji Kimura can be found on page 271. ... Past-Forward: John Gingerich quit selling hybrid computers for Electronic Associates in 1970 ("Modern Art," Wired 7.11, page 276). ... It's ASCI Blue, ASCI Blue - ASCI Red by a Nose!: The complete Top 500 Supercomputers list ("The Biggest Big Iron," Wired 7.12, page 126) can be found at www.top500.org; the next list will be announced in Mannheim, Germany, in June. ... Profit Report: eToys and GoTo.com ("What's the Big Idea?" Wired 7.09, page 122) have yet to turn a profit, as of press time.
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