Rants & Raves
__Down With the Whole AOL Thing __
"Reminder to Steve Case: Confiscate the Long Knives" (Wired 8.09, page 156) is a fabulous piece of writing. I have been following the AOL-Time Warner saga, but knew very little of the background. It was fascinating to learn about the "corporate version of the Holy Roman Empire" and why AOL may be about to "swallow a porcupine." Frank Rose's racy, witty style conveys key information so sweetly that it slides down like an oyster. He seems as fair as he is funny about the characters involved. As a highly picky user of the Internet and other mass media, I can't see how this supposed synergy between AOL and Time Warner is going to give me anything I need in life.
__Beverly Anderson
bpanderson@earthlink.net __
__Razor's Edge __
Your article depicting the life and times of the Razorfishes ("Brattitude Adjustment," Wired 8.09, page 132) was alternately funny and troubling. It's only fair to say that Dachis and Kanarick were able to build a better mousetrap and get ahead of the curve. Their success is well deserved - it's the American way. So, thank you, Wired, and thank you, Razorfish. At our company, we are now "recontextualized" rather than new and improved.
__Peter Rosten
prosten@bertberdisandco.com __
Craig Kanarick and Jeff Dachis are the kind of guys I want to work with someday! They're the reason I got into computers in the first place.
This is a new era in which stuffy boardrooms and uptight suits have simply become obsolete. Dachis and Kanarick's refusal to be anything short of true to themselves is an inspiration and, perhaps, a sign of things to come. It's the result that counts, not the behind-the-scenes player's ability to do/say/wear what's "proper." At a time when businesses are transforming themselves at a rate inconceivable even 10 years ago, Razorfish seems to be 10 steps ahead.
__Melinda Schleyer
jerrymelem@aol.com __
__Throwing Up Web Pages and Beyond __
To ask Razorfish exactly what it does is a fair question. But is what it does - make "better-looking rooms" for companies online - relevant? Absolutely. There is a perception that the Web is just another medium, that a corporate Web site is just a page, like a print ad. This is false. It's not enough for a company to just throw up a Web page. It takes a keen awareness of how an organization's politics, vision, and resources interact.
Razorfish provides a necessary service to companies not yet equipped to fashion an online face for themselves and retool their guts. But will Dachis and Kanarick's type of service be relevant in five years? Probably not.
__Elizabeth A. Hostetter
ziv123@hotmail.com __
__Remembering the Victims __
I am one of the founders of the SGSCAM forum on Delphi.com, started so that the real victims of StockGeneration could come together and discuss how to stop scams like the one SG is accused of being ("Money for Nothing," Wired 8.09, page 112).
Hundreds of emails have come across my desk from people explaining what happened to them, both psychologically and financially. As a true victim of StockGeneration, I don't think you even came close to the truth of the matter. Many of the individuals you interviewed were involved with a pro-SG forum, and as such, honestly believe they would have profited if only government officials hadn't intervened. Many got so caught up in the game's potential payoff that they failed to notice the extent of their losses. What's more, numerous forum members who played the game seemed to regard SG as if it were a business merely suffering from startup problems.
There are many people who feel thoroughly victimized by StockGeneration, but Wired failed to get their story. Perhaps you should contact a few of the true victims, so you can get an idea of the damage that was really caused.
__Rana Adamchick
angel98@an-egift.com __
After reading the unbelievable article about StockGeneration, my only observation is this: Although the Internet has brought about much change, it has had little power to thin the ranks of the exceedingly greedy and stupid. For people like those who believed StockGeneration could make them millionaires overnight, all the Internet does is shorten the time it takes for a fool and his money to be parted. I have a modest proposal: Let the game resume, and let only those who have lost money go back to playing. This is one of the most obvious cases of financial Darwinism I've ever seen.
__Greg Danford
gdanford@together.net __
__Dean's List __
I would like to thank you for writing the single best article on First founder and Deka head Dean Kamen that I have ever read ("Breakout Artist," Wired 8.09, page 176). Members of more than 400 robot-building teams rushed out to buy the magazine for that one article.
I've been a participant in First robotics for nearly four years, as both a student captain and team leader, and I have seen the press butcher our competition with inaccuracies and poor writing. But your article restores my faith that someone out there can get it right! I hope Wired readers will attend one of next year's competitions and see us all in action once the new game is unveiled.
__Lora Knepper
lknepper@first-a-holics.com __
__No Place Like Home __
I just ran across "Uncommon Edifices" (Wired 8.09, page 280) and loved it. It's great to see more visually stimulating architecture stories in the magazine. There are so many groundbreaking ideas out there: Mine involves a 180-degree glass house set into a cliff hundreds of feet above the Arizona desert ... with slate floors in the showers.
__Gretchen Groff
gretchgrof@aol.com __
__On Cue __
I want to personally thank you for the :CueCat. Now I have something to use on my grandfather's old 486. But where is the USB connection and the cutting-edge industrial design? I'm not even going to mention its incompatibility with Mac and Linux drivers. I guess I can turn it into a Christmas ornament.
__Heagan Bayles
heagan@earthlink.net __
__Undo __
X Files: QNX is a Unix-like operating system for portable devices made by QNX Software Systems (Just Outta Beta, Wired 8.10, page 290). ... Shell Game: IceSphere is a shell replacement for the Litestep shell for Windows ("GUIs Just Want to Have Fun," Wired 8.10, page 156). ... Safe and Warm: Nobuya Unno is the creator of the artificial womb (Just Outta Beta, Wired 8.09, page 312). ... Range Rover: The scales on the New Money graph showing the software and infrastructure divide (Wired 8.09, page 320) should have been marked with power function, not linear, values. All plotted coordinates for revenue and cash/securities were calculated based on a quad root of the actual value.
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Email: rants@wiredmag.com
Snail mail: Wired, PO Box 78470 San Francisco, CA 94107-8470
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Editorial correspondence: editor@wiredmag.com
