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McLuhan Puzzle Pieces by Eric Tully and Todd Howard RE: Loss & Translation
How to make your readers seem like jabbering crazies to the Chinese: Publish a mistranslation of the Mandarin for "Does anyone here speak English?" Eagle-eyed polyglot helpsters wrote in pronto to correct the error. Crowdsourcing at work! True, there are other, more inspiring examples of large groups pitching in for a cause. Like the tale of Jim Gray, the tech visionary who vanished at sea only to be sought by thousands of volunteers scanning satellite images and crunching radio data. One reader wrote that our coverage of this massive, distributed rescue attempt revealed a "pulsing, breathing world." We get the fuzzies just thinking about it. Too bad a few of you got the pricklies over the use of DIY doyenne Martha Stewart to introduce our How To package. For some readers, even hawking a Wii cake, she will always be more glue gun than gamer.
Living With Machines
Martha, please don't blame your Walkman or BlackBerry for your family's not wanting to listen to you ("How to Make Everything Better," issue 15.08). We love to personify technology so we can project our human problems onto it. Devices are neither great nor terrible — nor rude — they just are. It's what we choose to use them for that matters.
Nathan Grahek
St. Paul, Minnesota
Devil's Food
What's the point of baking a Wii cake if you can't eat it ("How To")? A cake that "will taste like old Atari cartridges" is no cake in my world.
__Sara Ryckebosch
Portland, Oregon __
The Aristocrat!
Bob Saget? The authority on how to tell a dirty joke ("How To")? Of all the alleged comedians, you look to him as an expert? Gawd, what planet am I living on?
Drew Abas
Loveland, Ohio
Better Shredding
Here's another good way to rock at Guitar Hero: Don't focus on the bottom of the screen to try to hit the notes as they cross the "action" line ("How To"). Instead, focus on matching your actions to the music.
"Hit detection," if you want to call it that, is precisely locked to the song. Once you get a feel for how Guitar Hero breaks up the notes for a particular tune, you'll be able to look ahead a few notes and hit the right one at the right time based purely on rhythm.
Kevin Howard
Sacramento, California
Dressing Down
I couldn't help but notice that many of your tips in the August How To package seemed geared toward male readers. Fashion guru Tim Gunn's advice for acceptable workplace attire, for instance, seemed written entirely for clueless male IT professionals who apparently dress in the dark. While the majority of Wired's audience may in fact be male, it seems worth mentioning that women do indeed account for some of your readership and that we may appreciate having our interests addressed as well.
Kate Fried
Washington, DC
Going Once, Going Twice
If you mean "fast" fast, then hire an auctioneer ("How to Run a Fast Meeting"). If you want it to be "short" in duration, forget all of the artificial suggestions. Pass out water, in 1- or 2-liter bottles, to all entering the meeting. Everyone chug. The longer the meeting, the more uncomfortable the attendees become.
The person conducting the meeting should have to chug, too.
Phil Paxton
Indianapolis, Indiana
Collision Coverage
Wayne Gerdes' techniques for maximizing your miles per gallon work great provided you don't mind paying higher premiums on your auto insurance, or worse ("How to Get 50 mpg in a Buick"). Not-so-car-savvy readers definitely could have used a warning: Most vehicles will lose pressure in their power steering and power brakes when you turn off the engine and coast in neutral. Drafting behind an 18-wheeler with limited ability to stop or turn is a great way to save the environment from overpopulation, not excess carbon dioxide.
Doug McFarland
Beavercreek, Ohio
Your Ass Is Glass
Great advice on using a Slim Jim ("How To"). I see steps 1 3, describing how to slip the tool down and catch the lock, as a bridge to the inevitable step 4 — breaking the window. But take it from a guy who's been there: Better to smash the rear passenger window than the driver window, as you depict. That way you don't have to drive off sitting on glass and leaving incriminating blood stains.
Navin K. Singh
Chevy Chase, Maryland
Second Thoughts
This article is dead-on ("Lonely Planet," issue 15.08). I love Second Life, and I, like others, am enthralled by its potential. But the bottom line is, despite the fact that Second Life should have been the metaverse, it isn't, so the metaverse may never come into being. The virtual-environment market will fragment as multiple companies enter the fray to build what Second Life wasn't. Second Life was launched at the right moment; it just wasn't the right product. And it's too bad, as it's so close that it's hard to let go of. But we must be honest with ourselves: Second Life has too many holes to become the backbone of a global virtual world.
*Excerpted from comment posted on wired.com by *infocyde
What a complete display of impatience in this article. I remember 10 years ago the dozens of similar posts deriding the Internet as a den of just a few people seeking nothing but porn and gambling. The Net also had millions being shoveled into it from overzealous corporations that were chastised for their ignorance when the bubble burst. What Mr. Rose forgets is that the porn and gambling industries are usually the earliest adopters of new technical breakthroughs.
*Excerpted from comment posted on wired.com by *sar
On the Wrong Track
In "Life in the Bot Lane" (Start, issue 15.08), you describe an automated path running on the interstate — packed with cars carrying cargo and passengers and easing transportation pains. You may recall a similar system that many countries (and some parts of the US) employ to great success. It's called a railroad. It's high time developers and governments realize that trains offer a fast, convenient, and sustainable way to move travelers and goods.
Logan Nash
Knoxville, Tennessee
Man on the Street
Excellent article about Gannett's "hyperlocal" efforts to thwart the decline that the entire news world is experiencing (" Breaking the News," issue 15.08).
People really do want to know about the stuff that's just down the street, and the voice of the masses is definitely getting heard. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues or if we'll eventually tire of the barrage of average talent and rely on the professionals for the information that matters most.
Phil Freund
Excerpted from the blog eneighbors.com
Newspapers Cut Costs, Publish Propaganda
Your story on Gannett's revenue-enhancing Web site development was the ultimate tribute to a newscorp that panders to advertisers and subsists on PR releases and self-serving right-wing propaganda at the expense of real news ("Breaking the News"). The company's cost-cutting measures have eliminated anything resembling investigative journalism. And those idiots wonder why circulation declines!
Pat Keane
Reno, Nevada
Pane Killer
Gerhard Richter's stained glass window for the Cologne Cathedral may be pretty to look at and beautiful when the sun shines, but I found the whole idea of multicolored squares simplistic (Play, Arts, issue 15.08). Will it inspire? Tell stories? Make you think? Challenge your belief? Promote your belief? No. Church glass art for the 21st century should be taken to a higher level of thought and not just be random squares of color. This window is less like inspired art and more like a nice, big glass screensaver.
Sandra A. Mulligan
Waterford, Michigan
