Shredded *
Photo: James Touhey * Re: Made for Each Other
Hey, it turns out you think things suck, too! Hearing aids, subscription cards, traffic. You hate 'em. Sarah Silverman? Uh-oh, her as well: "It's rare enough that you put a woman on the cover," Martha in New York wrote. "How does Sarah Silverman reflect Wired?" And you hated our lack of love for presidential candidate Ron Paul. (All those Paulist letters explaining how the Matrix controls the media did not change our minds, sorry.) You also thought the suicides of two artificial intelligence pioneers sucked, and you shared some pretty personal stories. Thanks. Note to kindred spirit Gary the IT Help Desk Officer: You made a passionate case that call centers don't suck and that you give your customers 100 percent of your attention. Gary, you obviously don't suck — but can you tell us why we keep getting kicked off our VPN?
Fax Checker
Your excellent "Why Things Suck" feature (issue 16.02) somehow overlooked the king of unkillable, ossified, analog technologies: the fax machine. This pervasive relic somehow survives all the changes that long-ago eliminated its niche.
When I tell callers that my business has junked its fax number, the typical response is long, uncomprehending silence. Explaining that we don't want indecipherable, non-machine-readable, printed documents — 90 percent of which are rubbish anyway — helps only a little.
Steve Duff
Orange, California
The Future Sucks
I can see the year 2035 Wired article now ("Why Things Suck"): Why personal space travel sucks, why cloned organ transplants suck, why psychotic androids suck, why cars that get 50 miles per liter suck.
Mike Cunningham
Kansas City, Missouri
Can You Hear Me Now?
"Why Things Suck: Hearing Aids" is absolutely correct. The hearing aid sellers just don't get it. Makers of all other electronic devices first develop things that work, then see how small the products can be made. Hearing aid manufacturers concentrate on making "hide in the ear" junk because they think their customers want to pretend they're not hard of hearing. Nonsense. It's obvious we have hearing problems. I don't care if a hearing aid is the size of a laptop and I have to wear it in a backpack. I want something that works!
__ Lynn Ellsworth
Phoenix, Arizona__
Sound Judgment
When it came to explaining DVD sound suckage, Wired blamed the wide dynamic range of theatrical film audio ("Why Things Suck: DVD Sound"). This is backward. Sound, in nearly every popular medium, sucks. Every CD, MP3, broadcast and cable television station, videogame, and YouTube video is too loud.
And you, gentle consumer, are to blame. Take any piece of music, reduce its dynamic range, and boost the average signal level that results (this is known as dynamic range compression, and it has the effect of making audio seem "louder"). Compare it with the original and you're most likely to choose the compressed version as "better."
Broadcasters know this. That's why TV commercials are so loud — you, the consumer, confuse "louder" with "better" while channel surfing. Radio stations do the same thing, for the same reason.
Scott Burton
Los Angeles, California
Your Layout Sucked!
To your list of things that suck, please add "garish typography and layout." Just because fonts are digital does not mean your layout should look like an explosion of a typesetting drawer and cans of Day-Glo spray paint.
__ Max Bliss
Portland, Oregon__
Your Joke Rocks!
Kudos on your hilarious Tibor Kalman-esque cover. As an ex-magazine production manager, my heart sank when I saw the CMYK bars on the spine and the wired logo inching off the page. I can only imagine the late-night press checks and frantic phone calls to explain these intentional mistakes.
__ Justin McDonald
San Francisco, California__
Death to Killjoys
What is more pathetic: the person who wastes their life online but derives some modicum of pleasure from it, or the person who wastes their life depriving other people of virtual amusement ("Griefer Madness," issue 16.02)? Griefers are parasites on the virtual world and derive satisfaction from pretending to be superior to the virtual hosts they feed on.
Excerpted from comment posted on Wired.com by Ragnar_Donaschold
Ancient History
Nice selections (Start, "10 Best: Extinct Animals," issue 16.02), but let's not forget Ceratodus, the 40-foot-long dinosaur-eating lungfish. Or Smilodonichthys, the saber-toothed salmon. Or Microraptor, a dinosaur-bird with four wings!
Excerpted from comment posted on Wired.com by michaelgarfield
iPhone Lockdown
The iPhone is a step in the wrong direction in almost every way ("Weapon of Mass Disruption," issue 16.02): carrier lock-in, iTunes lock-in (if you buy anything from the iTunes store), no user-accessible file system, and no VoIP.
Excerpted from comment posted on Metafilter by finite
String Theory
Rather than "running extra cables for future gear" (Start, "How to ... Hang a Flatscreen," issue 16.01), it's easier and less expensive to run a pull string in the wall. When you're ready to add that additional component video or HDMI cable, just tie the string to the new cable and pull it through. Remember to tie a new pull string to the old one so you can add even more cables later!
Mike Smith
Shreveport, Louisiana
Cat Flight
In "The Most Dangerous Object in the Office This Month" (Start, issue 16.02), the writer suggests loading the Twister 325, a compressed carbon-dioxide-powered cannon, with kittens. I would never have expected to see this kind of sophomoric humor in wired. It's not funny, and worse, it's irresponsible.
Carolina Lozano
Bisbee, Arizona
Whomp Rat
As the product of a nurse and a liability attorney, and as a new attorney myself, I am appalled at the unreasonable risk presented by the Twister 325 (Start, "The Most Dangerous Object in the Office This Month").
As a dude, a MythBusters fan, and therefore a gadget buff ... that's freakin' awesome! I want to load one with a pigeon. Wait. No, a pigeon and then a cat. Or a pirate, and then a ninja.
Loading that thing up with ... well, anything would be sweet. You need your lawn reseeded? No problem, ma'am. Hang on. Whomp! There you go.
Excerpted from comment posted on Wired.com by Gifftor
Brave New Worlds
Perhaps one reason science fiction as a genre has been largely dismissed is that it has been conflated too readily with its rose-tinted twin: fantasy (Start, Clive Thompson, issue 16.02). They share shelf space in bookshops and tags online. But science fiction, particularly at its best (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or William Gibson's novels), tends toward ethical complexities, sophisticated worldviews, and urban and transnational/trans-planetary environments. Fantasy, meanwhile, tends toward ethical simplicity with more overtly delineated heroes and villains, as well as celebrations of nostalgic rural settings.
Andrew Hageman
Davis, California
Rx for Humanity
A standing ovation to Charles Barber for taking on the real drug pushers on this planet (Play, Print, issue 16.02). The psychiatrists and their bogus "diseases" fool no one. There is nothing wrong with feeling anger, jealousy, or even deep anguish. It's an integral part of being human.
Why would we want to blunt something so innate and inextricably woven into our being? Likewise, when the incredible and beautiful moments of life occur, do you want to be slammed on Prozac? I think not.
Screw the psychopharma leviathan and the zombie world it wants for us.
Kevin Dale
Los Angeles, California
RANTS Letters should include writer's name, address, and daytime phone number and be sent to rants@wired.com. Submissions may be edited and may be published or used in any medium. They become the property of Wired and will not be returned.
