Rants + Raves
You know what journalists call publishing a list like the Wired 40? Letterbait. And hoo, boy, did y'all bite. "What has Apple done this year that was innovative?" one reader wrote. "The iPod is still around only because of public ignorance of everything electronic." Well, that and Shuffle Songs mode. Another reader wondered how we could write about Rupert Murdoch without "an in-depth description of the abomination that is Fox News." Hey, we report – you decide.
But then again, sometimes we are gobsmacked by what does get a response. Our enthusiastic little item about the online crafts community Etsy garnered a wildfire's worth of flames. "The author's comment that the penguin sculpture was too expensive is the sort of undervaluation of handcrafted work that Etsy is trying to counter," wrote one maker-of-things. Disagreeing with our ranking of Wired companies is all well and good, but suggesting that we would ever deliberately piss off the knickknack crowd? That's just not fair. Or balanced.
MySpace Invaders
As a fad for the young, MySpace will fizzle out within two years, just as a new nightclub burns brightly with all the cool people until the mundanes discover it ("His Space," issue 14.07). If old media wants to keep the young dazzled with its online clubs, it'll need a virtual velvet rope to keep out the unhip, including parents, teachers, and those over-the-hill 35-year-olds fishing for 18-year-olds. Don't want to believe an old Gen X-er like me? Just ask my undergraduate students, who are already looking to move on to the next digital hot spot.
William McCarthy
New Rochelle, New York
The Hits Keep Coming
It would be nice to believe that MTV and major record labels are no longer the power players in determining public opinion ("The Rise and Fall of the Hit," issue 14.07). But one has only to flip on the television to see that's not the case. The same mass-produced, vacuous music and movies are being eaten up with the same, if not greater, enthusiasm as in the late '90s. Big Media has also been surprisingly quick to create attractive online video interfaces of its own to rival P2P services (MTV Overdrive, for example, allows viewing of music videos online, but prefaced by tedious, high-profile TV ads). This means the new cultural "niche" being created seems like yet another market for big business to get its hands on.
Tara Fickle
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Engineering Destruction
I am still amazed when the thrill of an engineering accomplishment is perceived as a marvel regardless of the human and environmental costs ("Train to the Roof of the World," issue 14.07). "This railroad could, and likely will, have negative effects on traditional Tibetan culture," David Wolman writes. Yeah, it will … leveling a deadly blow to one of the last untouched areas on the planet – and for what? To "bring desperately needed economic development – especially tourism – to the hinterlands." Tibetans don't want or need "development" that will destroy the natural environment or bring in another 6 million Han Chinese for cultural absorption. The rail line to Tibet was important to Mao because it would deliver one of the final nails in the coffin of an entire race and culture.
Some places need to remain remote and less accessible in order to avoid harmful development. Just ask the National Park Service.
Patrick Mahoney
Marietta, Georgia
Fashion Police
Thank you for addressing the fashion crime that is utility belts (Start, "Do's and Don'ts for the Tech Set," issue 14.07). The reason those gadgets are small is so they'll fit in a pocket. Do not let this issue lie – together we can stamp it out.
Ciaran Wills
San Francisco, California
The Parent Trap
I know of several teenagers who have surreptitiously installed monitoring software on their parents' computers (Start, Mr. Know-It-All, issue 14.07). This allows the teenagers to track their parents' "bad habits" and use the information as a weapon to defend (and justify) their own misdeeds. The scary thing about this democratic world is that whoever controls the information wields the authority – even in families.
So, parents: Lead by example, not by right-to-spy authority.
John Borgquist
Charlottesville, Virginia
Environmental Review
Regarding Lawrence Lessig's column "Where the Truth Lies" (issue 14.07):
WIRED: Acceptance of the fact that while global warming is happening, nobody really knows for sure if it is occurring naturally or is directly due to mankind's influence on the environment.
TIRED: Esteemed law professors (read: Lawrence Lessig) who get their scientific facts from politicians who have made their living publishing doomsday books on how horrendous mankind has been to the environment.
Reed Van Rozeboom
Long Beach, California
Agent of Change
Harold Varmus' desire to shift away from expensive and exclusive subscription-based scientific journals to more online and egalitarian media ("Free Radical," issue 14.06) is similar to the battle within the Uz intelligence community to produce intel using wiki pages and share info via social bookmarking services like del.icio.us. I'm a member of a group called the Intellipedians (a classified version of Wikipedia), which advocates the use of social software to produce and share intelligence.
The opposition Varmus faces from the scientific status quo pales in comparison to the opposition we Intellipedians face from middle management and old school analysts (senior leaders seem to get it more often).
Take the most obstinate opponent of Varmus' PLoS, multiply that by 100, sprinkle with the aggregate bureaucratic inertia and disparate architecture of 16 intelligence agencies, then throw in a splash of justification for the old way of doing business, and you have a brew that cripples most – but good Intellipedians will wash it off and keep on trooping.
Chris Rasmussen
Washington, DC
