Rants & Raves
101 Ways to Save the Internet
"101 Ways to Save the Internet" brought the wonks out of the woodwork. Some slammed the idea of simplified URLs, others the notion of "President Schwarzenegger" (ask Orrin Hatch about his amendment to Ah-ticle II). One infuriated fella found 101 ways to use the f-word, for instance: "How the f___ do you know what the DOD needs to do its job? You want God to quit hogging all the DNA too?" (Actually, that was another number story, "Seven Days of Creation," about the making of a human clone. But WTF, we digress.)
"How the Internet Invented Howard Dean" also ignited an inbox storm. The few who knocked the Doctor were overwhelmed by card-carrying conservatives for Dean, average Joes for Dean, friends of Paul O'Neill for Dean, fans of Sun Tzu for Dean even Canadians for Dean. (Two requests: Do you mind filling a few million prescriptions? And how do you say "Yee-haw!" in Qu�becois?)
Saving Lives
Regarding "Seven Days of Creation" (Wired 12.01): In 1903, the Wright brothers ushered in a new era for mankind. Flight has done much to improve the human experience, while at the same time it has dramatically increased the ability to wage war and spread infectious diseases. Yet no one is suggesting governments attempt to ban human flight.
So too therapeutic cloning has the potential to solve the vexing problems of transplants - the scarcity of organs and the debilitating effects of antirejection drugs. However, some believe that this science will lead to reproductive cloning, and that this is evil. Can't we give priority to the development of lifesaving treatments for the sick and dying over succumbing to vague fears?
(PS: My wife is waiting for a new set of lungs as she suffers from alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, an often fatal adult onset genetic disease.)
Ken Irvine
Greenwich, Connecticut
If Robert Lanza and Young Chung were as interested in "treating everything from Alzheimer's to diabetes to Parkinson's" as they claim, they would abandon embryonic stem cells and move into the field of adult stem cell research. Current clinical uses of adult stem cells, which are helping to treat countless individuals with cancer, autoimmune diseases, anemias, and strokes, are light-years ahead of what Lanza admits is early-stage research. As such, embryonic stem cell research is a tragic waste of precious funds, talent, and lives.
Janet Smith
Kettleby, Ontario
The Howard Dean Machine
Regarding "How the Internet Invented Howard Dean" (Wired 12.01): I am a lifelong Democrat, but I never did anything except vote. I have gone to six Dean Meetups, donated money, and written letters to Iowa and New Hampshire voters. The other people at the meetups have been from all walks of life from college students to retired ministers; men and women; white, black, Hispanic, et cetera. Most of us have never been active in politics, but Dean has shown us our numbers matter and we can take our country back.
Kathleen Donnelly
Valrico, Florida
There could not have been a better tagline for the Dean campaign than "If I give a speech and the blog people don't like it, next time I change the speech." Groucho Marx once noted, "These are my principles, but if you don't like them, I've got others." Dean is no better than any other check-the-direction-of-the-wind politician so anxious to get elected he'll say anything to anyone. He may be confusing love of the Internet for love of his positions. Dean has yet to prove he believes in anything except the poll of the day.
Joe Estey
Vancouver, Washington
Net Profits
Your "101 Ways to Save the Internet" (Wired 12.01) had some good ideas. But while number 2 ("Slash song prices") comes close, you missed one big idea that would break the Internet wide open: The obstacle to cheap downloads isn't music industry greed; it's credit card companies' and PayPal's insistence on charging transaction fees. Apple isn't getting rich off 99-cent songs; banks are!
I can think of thousands of business models for selling downloadable files for pennies or less. But when a minimum of 25 cents per transaction goes to banks, none of these work. Someone needs to invent a peer-to-peer money exchange system.
Rob Bostick
Gardena, California
"101 Ways to Save the Internet" had a few good ones, and a whole lot of crap.
Number 2, "Slash song prices," is awesome.
Number 5, "Create the all-in-one inbox": Say it with me now single point of failure. Not to mention utter lack of choice - who's going to produce the all-in-one app, Microsoft?
Number 33, "Create a P2P email program": It's called "instant message."
Number 77, "Create an email address directory": an excellent idea. Wouldn't want spammers to have to keep trawling the Net for valid email addresses. Let's give them one-stop harvesting.
Number 92, "Turn off your HTML email": the most intelligent one on this entire list. It's rude to assume people's mailers support HTML.
Andy Harrison
Gorham, Maine
Hollywood's Invisible Hand
Your "Memo to the New Head of the MPAA" (Wired 12.01) contains some useful advice, but it misses the most important point. The MPAA isn't going to suffer the fate of the RIAA, ever. The pricing models of the two industries are fundamentally different, and it's the RIAA's model that has been utterly destroyed by digital distribution, not the MPAA's.
The RIAA model is based on packaging a dozen songs into a long-playing bundle. Only one or two of the songs account for 80 percent of the total production and marketing costs. Sold as a single, one of those hit songs can earn only a few dollars in revenue at most. But that CD can be sold at a price that effectively implies that every song on it is just as valuable as the hit.
Movies aren't sold in bundles. Unit prices may fall, but the pricing model itself won't shatter. In a digital world, the RIAA can't make the kind of money it used to, even if losses from illegal downloads drop to zero. But the MPAA can.
Richard Hunter
Vice president and research director, Gartner
Stamford, Connecticut
It would be a tragedy if the movie industry were to act on Chris Anderson's recommendations. Asking Hollywood to compete by slashing prices and switching to less-profitable business models is unreasonable - pirates don't pay for production costs. It would be appalling if shoplifting forced Rolex to lower prices until it was more convenient to buy their watches than to steal them. The prices of both watches and movies should be decided by legitimate market forces, not crime.
Paul Kocher
San Francisco, California
Just One Guitar, Slung Way Down Low
After playing guitar for 17 years and going through God only knows how many digital effect pedals and amps, I can assure you that Henry Juszkiewicz is nuts ("The 100-Megabit Guitar," Wired 12.01)! I haven't used digital amps because I like the way they sound; I've used them because they're cheap.
All Juszkiewicz has invented is an expensive guitar cord that will complicate my rig. If someone comes up with a digital amp with the same rich tone of tube amps, count me in. But don't hold your breath. True innovation is an instrument with the same workmanship and sonic properties as those of the past. In this industry, vintage rules!
Mark Sours
Pekin, Illinois
There's No Place Like Home
Never mind all those cool gadgets we'll have (well, at least the rich folks) - the best news I learned from Wired Home (Wired 12.01) is that women will be lounging around, with legs spread, wearing thigh-high black leather boots and skimpy, tight, black mini-dresses! And here I was feeling pessimistic about the future. Sign me up!
Peter Minor
Franklin, Massachusetts
By now you've probably received dozens of letters objecting to the girl in leather in Wired Home. This is not one of them.
Bob Cracker
Huntsville, Alabama
UNDO
Don't Touch That Dial: UHF channel 83 is reserved for mobile communications ("101 Ways to Save the Internet," Wired 12.01).
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