WALL STREET JOURNAL TECH ARTICLES & OTHERS
Over the years, I have written for numerous publications: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Republic and Slate in the United States; The Guardian, the Sunday Telegraph, The Financial Times and Prospect in the United Kingdom. I also worked for the global news agency Agence France-Presse in Asia, notably in Vietnam, where I was based for four years. More recently, I was a contributing editor at The Mekong Review.
MORE ARTICLES
-
According to Ms. Borsook, all this libertarianism means the techies have little interest in their impact on communities, families and relationships, all of which can be pushed aside in the name of technological progress. But most of the early heroes of the Net that Ms. Borsook writes about have long passed from the scene, and it seems their libertarianism has faded, too. Nowadays, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and other Internet moguls have quite a taste for regulation. Indeed Amazon is an aggressive filer of patents -- a system of intellectual property protection that relies on the government. Silicon Valley also pushed hard for bills limiting Y2K liability and shareholder lawsuits. When the antitrust verdict came in against Microsoft Corp., the cheering could be heard across northern California. Like any other industry, technology companies are perfectly happy to have the government intervene when it suits them. The libertarianism is mostly a pose, the political equivalent of driving a huge off-road vehicle to pick up groceries.
-
According to Ms. Borsook, all this libertarianism means the techies have little interest in their impact on communities, families and relationships, all of which can be pushed aside in the name of technological progress. But most of the early heroes of the Net that Ms. Borsook writes about have long passed from the scene, and it seems their libertarianism has faded, too. Nowadays, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and other Internet moguls have quite a taste for regulation. Indeed Amazon is an aggressive filer of patents -- a system of intellectual property protection that relies on the government. Silicon Valley also pushed hard for bills limiting Y2K liability and shareholder lawsuits. When the antitrust verdict came in against Microsoft Corp., the cheering could be heard across northern California. Like any other industry, technology companies are perfectly happy to have the government intervene when it suits them. The libertarianism is mostly a pose, the political equivalent of driving a huge off-road vehicle to pick up groceries.
-
The title of this book filled me with dread. Had [Dinesh D'Souza], Reaganite wunderkind turned think-tank inmate, jumped on the bandwagon of William Bennett, the professional scold who mysteriously entranced an audience of millions with the tiresome claptrap of his Book of Virtues? Was this "Chicken Soup for the Techno-Billionaire's Soul?" It does look as though Mr. D'Souza might have been trying to hitch a ride on Mr. Bennett's success but fortunately this book is better than the title suggests. It is a reasonably serious, albeit derivative, discussion of whether technological change and the wealth it can create does society more harm than good.
-
"Tell us, exactly how rich are you?" is the sort of question that plagues Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and man of modest means but extraordinary achievement. In a world of dizzying dot-com wealth, money often seems like the only measure of success on the Internet, the way in which boy billionaires keep score. Not for Mr. Berners-Lee, 44, whose work developing the Web while a computer scientist at CERN, the international particle physics lab in Switzerland, has led to one of the greatest explosions of wealth in history.
Below, Our Guide to Internet Magazines -- the Must-Read and the Must-Toss
The August edition of Wired had a distinctly retro feel about it. Ex-Netscaper Marc Andreesson on the cover and inside there is a seemingly endless, heartslowingly dull, 14-page story on superblimp air ships, a technology that makes a doomed comeback every few decades until one blows up. Another 10 pages were devoted to quite astoundingly bad snapshots of the Indian ship-breaking industry, another industry that doesn't immediately strike one as mapping the lonely frontiers of the New Economy. September's magazine was a little better in that it managed articles on robotics that were at least forward-looking.
-
Of all the venture-capital companies that have their offices on Sand Hill Road, Silicon Valley's answer to Wall Street, Benchmark has had the biggest impact in recent years, financing some of the most prominent names on the Web. It also has changed the way venture-capital firms operate. Most have been led by one dominant figure, but Benchmark's six backers have had an equal partnership. Benchmark also has put more emphasis on matching entrepreneurs, such as eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, with serious managers, such as Meg Whitman, who now runs the online auctioneer.
While U.S. Travelers Often Find Themselves Treated More Like Commodities Than Valued Guests, a Small Laotian Hotel Still Gets It
Right
My favorite hotel in Asia is a small place in the Laotian city of Luang Prabang called the Villa Santi. This charming old house has almost no facilities and only one restaurant of moderate repute. The Spartan rooms have no telephones or televisions. One is awakened at dawn by cocks crowing and children arriving at the neighboring grade school. But the Villa Santi offers the best service I've ever had at any hotel.