While August cover boy Craig Venter kept his sights set on screening microbes, channel-surfing readers tore their eyes from their small screens long enough to flip through Frank Rose's article "The Lost Boys." Some were rhapsodic in bashing television commercials: "I don't know how I watched TV before TiVo!" Others waxed metaphoric: "Television is the water faucet left on in your kitchen, full blast, waiting for you to come by when thirsty and have a drink. By comparison the Web is the perfect beverage fountain, always waiting patiently to give you exactly what you want in the measure you want it." (Hm, got any more Kool-Aid?) Then there were those waiting for the maturation of the new generation, "Gen-i: Internet-driven, immediate gratification, iconoclastic, idiographic " And impatient, dude. Where's my iPod?
Finding the Lost Boys
Regarding "The Lost Boys" (Wired 12.08), I'm a 22-year-old male and grew up watching TV. But at age 14, I was introduced to the Internet and saw my interest in television deteriorate. First and foremost, I remember my porn addiction. Then Napster hooked me on music. And now as a college student, I use the Internet more than ever. Whether it be for entertainment or research for college, the Internet consumes more of my waking hours than my TV could ever dream of.
Michael Ford
Crossett, Arkansas
I was born in 1980 and gladly use SMS while watching satellite and surfing for games or music on my Wi-Fi network. If my generation is both too skeptical and too smart to fall for most advertising, maybe we'll see the dawn of a new era: one where we won't be forced to even glimpse the ads we TiVo past anyway and where companies will instead use advertising revenue to actually make products better. Products that are great will thrive, and those that suck will die off, as they deserve to.
Gerrit Theule
Toronto, Ontario
Mars Mystery
I don't know what the anomalies on Mars are, but one reason for serious inquiry is that certain forms and lines simply do not occur in nature ("Mars Gone Wild," Wired 12.08). Erik Davis did not touch on the salient reasons these "amateurs" and "armchair astronomers" (Arthur C. Clarke!) wonder about such features. What astronomer isn't an armchair astronomer?
After years of reading about the subject and talking with former NASA scientists, I am absolutely convinced that information is not being disseminated honestly. The amateurs and scientists who work on their own will be the ones to make the discoveries.
Mary J. Gavin
Takoma Park, Maryland
It's All Geek to Us
Regarding "The Geek Power Grid" (Start, Wired 12.08), what were you smoking? Prince is geekier than William Gibson? The unhackable computer in Hackers was named after Gibson, for Pete's sake! Ever seen an unhackable computer named after Prince? And let's get this straight - Steve Jobs is cooler than Prince as well as Beck, Andre 3000, and Tina Fey? Are we just talking about some sort of air-conditioning mishap here? The Woz is markedly cooler than Jobs. Robert Crumb is exponentially cooler than Jobs. Hell, I'm a third-string screenwriter, yet even I am cooler than Steve Jobs. Poorer, but cooler.
Peter Aaron
New York, New York
Pinning heads on the "Geek Power Grid" could be a great drinking game. But there were some curious omissions. Ahnold but not Gray Davis? Colin and Condi, but not Perle and Wolfowitz? The most glaring omission is Dubya, but for him you need a third axis: Jocks versus Sensitive Types, or Alphas versus Betas. This would broaden the grid's utility as a descriptor of the behavior of influential yet not necessarily nerdy or geeky public figures. Damn it, a 3-D version of the grid could be the foundation for Asimov's imagined science of psychohistory. I eagerly await version 2.0.
K. Hagen
Bolton Landing, New York
Debugging the Electoral College
In "Why You're Still Voting on Paper" (Start, Wired 12.08), Paul O'Donnell writes, "If the 2000 election taught us anything, it's that balky voting equipment can make the difference between a president and a loser." Actually, if the 2000 election taught us anything, it is that balky voting equipment can make you president and a loser.
Stephen Howe
Jersey City, New Jersey
Just Shoot Me
The US Army's new zeppelin (Start, "Lighter-Than-Air Force," Wired 12.08) strikes me as a helluva big target.
Simon Rubenstein
Los Angeles, California
Vox Populi
It's heartening to know that Lawrence Lessig is keeping an eye on the power of media (View, "Copyrighting the President," Wired 12.08). When you have powerful and influential media claiming to be the "voice of the people," one can only wish for a public that asks, "Whose voice and what people?"
Robert Rees
New York, New York
Thank you for the fascinating column. Without writers like Lawrence Lessig, news media "neutrality" would effectively be censorship.
John Scott
Denver, Colorado
Lessig's argument would be strengthened by concentrating on the antitrust implications of NBC's behavior. How is it that the White House is even in a position to play to such a narrow field of TV networks and to grant NBC such exclusive material?
Our mass media has become an unwieldy oligopoly that has devastating consequences for how the public obtains - or doesn't obtain - news. That's the obvious and easy part, but the analysis as to why and how this alarming state of affairs has emerged is where his inquiry would be best directed. Where are the DOJ and FCC, and how is it that successive US governments have allowed for such staggering media consolidation? Clearly these media conglomerates are the robber barons of our era.
Thomas Dallal
New York, New York
Can You Hear Me Now? Good-Bye.
Though I applaud your tough questions to Jim Ryan of Cingular, his responses were just doublespeak (View, "Holding Your Mobile Hostage," Wired 12.08). I expected more from the company that started rollover minutes. I just want a phone that works at my house and on my way to the office. Only one carrier in my area can do that, and it's not his company. Sure, throw in a color screen, camera, PDA, games, MP3s, and GPS - that way I'll have lots to keep me busy while I wait for coverage.
Kevin Thomas
Kent, Washington
Undo
Sorry, Seth: That's M-A-C-F-A-R-L-A-N-E (Start, "The Geek Power Grid," Wired 12.08).
