RANTS & RAVES
Old Ideas
"Our old ideas about space have exploded," wrote June's guest editor, Rem Koolhaas. So has our inbox. Fans hailed Kool and the gang as provocative and probing; critics called the whole thing a pain in the ass. Rem's less than delirious view of New York was most reviled, vilified as everything from "confused" and "mired in nostalgia" to "transparent sour grapes." Next in the line of fire: Mark Leonard, for "spilling out Europropaganda like so much French wine." (Gar�on!)
Outside the Atlas, the troops turned out for Donald Rumsfeld and DRM (targeted by Bruce Sterling and David Weinberger in View). Some defended the defense secretary, others compared his swarm tactics with Napol�on's mouvement sur le derri�re. Meanwhile, the protectors of copy protection carried the day (best rhetorical salvo: P2P is "like looting in postwar Iraq"). Before you burn your CD burner, recall what Rummy says: "Victory is never final." Copy that.
Mapping New Territory
What graphics demand in space, they return in time and impact ("The New World," Wired 11.06). Seeing information directly conveys ideas immediately and memorably, showing relative scale in creative ways. The beautiful illustrations in the Ultimate Atlas present fact as art, but they are no less relevant for that. If anything, they make the understanding of complex concepts more widely accessible, creating a new form of literacy. These are flowers, evolved to attract worker bees to knowledge. Go forth, learn, and pollinate others.
Kevin McLeod
Mount Dora, Florida
The Star-Spangled Banner Yet Waves
Mark Leonard ignores the fact that Europe is only now arriving - about a century late - at the federalist system that has allowed 50 states to coexist effectively (if not always happily) on a large landmass ("Combine and Conquer," Wired 11.06). Europe remains intensely xenophobic, and this reduces its prestige, effectiveness, and status. Despite statistics that show the near-desperate need to encourage immigration to replace an aging workforce, Europe avoids the real issues by promoting from within.
It is a cynical utopia of the nod-and-wink type, with a philosophy of incorporation that extends to Serbia but not Bosnia, Spain but not Morocco. America remains the only Western country that can (and does) admit diverse immigrants on a large scale.
It is a real, roiling social experiment - deeply flawed and damaged but dynamic and in flux.
Paul Schlapobersky
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Rebuilding New York
"Delirious No More" is a breathless, dizzying thumbnail history of New York City's architectural, social, and political evolution (Wired 11.06). I would like to see how Mr. Koolhaas grappled with the vast scar that continues to wound the landscape and psyche of the city. I thought it a bit over the top to satirize the unnamed "Master Design Architect" as an "immigrant" who "movingly recounts his first encounter with liberty." The guy just won the lottery. As far as a new direction for New York, no one seems to have visualized relocating part of the financial center to Harlem, with its wide boulevards, railroad terminals, river, and unimpeded proximity to suburbs in Westchester, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
Adrian Panaro
Corrales, New Mexico
Regarding Rem Koolhaas' "Delirious No More," I think I speak on behalf of all New Yorkers when I say: We don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
Lorne Loggia
New York, New York
You're in My Space
I'll give you credit for trying something new, which I expect from Wired, but I've been a reader since issue 1.1, so I can say with some basis that 11.06 was the worst issue ever. The maps were often vague and a waste of space, and the verbiage was bafflingly obfuscated, self-absorbed, and meaningless. How an "architect and iconoclast" qualifies to be an editor for a magazine is beyond me. Who's the next guest editor? Dennis Rodman? Joey Buttafuoco?
Paul Kensler
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Leader of the Pack
By focusing on the mindshare for specific ads, Steve Hayden misses the bigger picture ("Tastes Great, Less Filling," Wired 11.06). As ad saturation rises, campaigns for competing products reinforce each other, forming the equivalent of leks (a behavioral phenomenon in which adolescent males band together to gain the attention of females): The success of each individual is augmented by being part of the group. Whether it's sport shoes, fast food, cars, cameras, or porno, being bombarded by ads heightens my awareness of a category. The real story is the way ubiquitous advertising builds a culture of desire, in which no consumer feels he or she has enough.
David Lemon
San Jose, California
Bravo on "Tastes Great, Less Filling." I live in Los Angeles, and as a resident there, I am constantly bombarded by advertising. The fact that I am in high school makes matters worse. The kids are walking billboards.
Michael Koger
San Pedro, California
Thanks for Sharing
Enough blanket criticisms of DRM (View, "Copy Protection Is a Crime," Wired 11.06). Let's talk about competing ideas and constructive alternatives. I love free music, but it won't last. I really like the new Apple Music Store, and I've bought about 40 bucks' worth of stuff. It seems fair to me, and I like being able to listen to 30 seconds of any cut. Apple's service isn't perfect, but it's the best thing yet. For that reason alone, it deserves support.
Jeff Jay
Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan
Pound Sterling
Aristotle said that facts lead to wisdom and opinions lead to foolishness. I've never seen a better example of this than in Bruce Sterling's "There's Something About Rummy" (View, Wired 11.06). I'd give almost every article I've read in Wired (and I'm a loyal subscriber) between an 8 and a 10. I love them! But this one is, in my book, a -13. It's a great big stream-of-consciousness Vesuvius of opinion that definitely leads to foolishness and is not worthy of Wired.
Mitzi Perdue
Salisbury, Maryland
Bruce Sterling says, "'Operation Iraqi Freedom' is about preemptive defense, UN credibility, worldwide unilateralism, and Arab democracy - four oxymorons." Might as well make that five.
Joel Knispel
Reisterstown, Maryland
Wiring the War
Networking in the Army is like nothing I have ever seen ("If We Run Out of Batteries, This War Is Screwed," Wired 11.06). Within the first couple of months at my first duty assignment, I was literally handed a satellite communications system capable of T1, dual band speeds. It amounted to an air-conditioned box set on the back of a humvee, with a satellite dish mounted on a trailer. They gave it to me and said, "Make it work."
I carried a holster, but instead of a pistol, I carried Cat-5 crimpers, with my shirt pocket full of RJ-45 heads. I've set up networks in conditions that would make any respectable cable jockey cringe. I've wrapped Ciscos in garbage bags to keep the rain off and had to string fiber-optic cables through trees to keep tanks from running over them. Today's Army would fall apart without the folks keeping the electronics up. When the data begins to flow, you can pat yourself on the back. Just don't pat too long, because someone is bound to kick over a server or accidentally butt-stroke a laptop and you're back on the job again, with a fire lit under your ass.
Sergeant Jake Meyer
Yongsan, South Korea
High tech war is just so cool. I especially love when those smart rounds pierce the armor on a tank and convert all of the humans inside to cytoplasmic charcoal. Thanks for jumping on the badass, death-dealin' bandwagon, guys. Your moms would be proud.
Walt Smith
Richmond, Virginia
UNDO
Cyber Liberties: Columbia University changed its Internet use policy in February to allow students to upload 100 Mbytes of data per hour (Start, Wired 11.06).
China Turns On: 15.6 billion books are sold in China each year ("The New Middle Kingdom," Wired 11.06).
__Next Generation:__The MPEG-4 compression standard was based on work done at the MIT Media Lab ("The Lab that Fell to Earth," Wired 11.05).
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