Salon.com > Wired

Books aren’t dead yet

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Without a doubt, book publishing is an industry in a state of flux, but even the nature of the flux is up for grabs. Take a recent example of the traditional tech-journalism take on the situation, an article by Evan Hughes for Wired magazine, titled "Book Publishers Scramble to Rewrite Their Future." The facts in the story are indisputable, but the interpretation? Not so much.

The news peg is the success of a self-published series of post-apocalyptic science fiction novels, "Wool," by Hugh Howey. Available as e-books and print books from Amazon, the series became a hit, and Howey recently sold print-only rights to a New York publisher, Simon & Schuster. Print-only because Howey and his agent determined that they were making plenty of money selling the e-books on their own.

Wired characterizes this as a "huge concession" on the part of Simon & Schuster, and in one sense it is: The publisher won't receive any e-book revenue, and it is in e-book format that "Wool" has seen its success so far. On the other hand, "Wool" is not only already very popular among the genre fans who made it an e-book bestseller, it's also an object of curiosity for the many otherwise-uninterested people captivated by Howey's rags-to-riches story in the Wall Street Journal. (By far the best-selling e-book by self-publishing exemplar John Locke is not one of his thrillers, but "How I Sold One Million E-Books.")

Former Wired editor’s perverse defense for outsourcing jobs

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:46:00 +0000

The story of Chris Anderson's conversion from talented technology journalist to executive at a company that mass markets surveillance drones is cartoonish enough to be somewhat interesting (read: depressing) unto itself. It would, in fact, be a perfect hard-hitting exposé for Anderson's old magazine, Wired. But it is nothing compared to the story of him becoming a political activist echoing now-standard corporate talking points that call for more American jobs to be outsourced -- or in his sanitized, Tom Friedman-esque portmanteau, "quicksourced."

This is the subject of Anderson's New York Times Op-Ed this weekend about how his San Diego-based company is shifting its production production to Tijuana, Mexico.

Ex-CIA analyst spots mysterious Chinese grids via Google Earth

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:22:00 +0000

Former CIA analyst Allen Thompson is no stranger to Google Earth exploration. According to Wired's Noah Schachtman, Thompson "has made something of a second career finding odd stuff in public satellite imagery. He discovered... giant grids etched into the Chinese desert in 2011, and a suspected underground missile bunker in Iran in 2008." Last month, he made another discovery, but he's not quite sure of what.

An aerial view of the desert near the small city of Kashgar in southwestern China shows a strange, vast grid structure built into the arid ground. "I haven't the faintest clue what it might be -- but it's extensive, the structures are pretty big and funny-looking, and it went up in what I'd call an incredible hurry," Thompson said.

Guesses that the structure is some sort of underground missile bunker are wholly unconfirmed.

Two ways of looking at robots

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 19:47:00 +0000

Who welcomes our new robot overlords?

This week brings two radically different perspectives on how robots are changing the world. Marketplace quotes Jaan Tallinn, an Estonian programmer who helped develop Skype, on the dangers of self-replicating technology: "Once we have something that is no longer under control" says Tallinn, "once technological development is yanked out of our hands, it doesn't have to continue to be beneficial to humans."

Machines which we can't control, which sounds a lot like the grey goo problem, is just one of the topics that will be studied at Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, an organization co-founded by Tallinn to examine threats to the continuing existence of humanity.

Tallinn explains:

Humanity is seriously under-invested in them. For example, we're spending more money in lipstick research than we are in making sure that we survive this century as a species. Worrying about long-term issues is definitely something that very few people are doing. Therefore my time and my money can actually make a big difference in that area.

U.S. buys Yemen a fleet of spy planes

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:20:00 +0000

U.S. drones will soon be joined in Yemeni skies by spy planes operated by Yemen's forces. Wired's Spencer Ackerman reported that "the Pentagon wants to buy its Yemeni ally small, piloted spy planes."

According to Ackerman, "It’s a sign that the U.S. is upgrading the hardware it gives the Yemeni military, and digging in for a long shadow war." The few dozen Light Observation Aircraft will be flown by Yemenis trained by U.S. forces. "The planes have to be configured so the U.S. can teach Yemenis how to be their own eyes in the sky, and they need to be in Yemen in under 24 months," reported Ackerman, noting that the aircraft will be used in Yemen alongside, not instead of, remotely operated U.S. drones to fly over areas where al-Qaida is believed to be operating.

Ackerman added:

Internet providers to bring in six-strike plan

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 20:58:00 +0000

Major U.S. Internet service providers, including Comcast, AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Time Warner Cable and Verizon are implementing a plan to punish illicit file sharing. Wired reports that "providers by year’s end will institute a so-called six-strikes plan, the 'Copyright Alert System' initiative backed by the Obama administration and pushed by Hollywood and the major record labels to disrupt and possibly terminate Internet access for online copyright scofflaws."

The plan works by implementing "mitigation measures" on a user's IP address after offenses of file sharing are detected; the measures might include reducing Internet speeds and redirecting a user's service to a webpage about copyright infringement.

According to the group behind the initiative, the Center for Copyright Information, the aim of the program is to be more educational than simply punitive.

Wired detailed step-by-step how the new plan will work:

Youth and social networks are signs of radicalism

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:29:00 +0000

A U.S. Army list of warning signs for radicalization, obtained by Wired, gives the impression that it would be impossible to distinguish a normal U.S. solider from a budding young terror suspect.

Wired notes some particularly vague "Risk Factors for Radicalization" among soldiers:

“Youth,” which might be a difficult thing to mitigate against, unless the military wants to take former Pentagon official Rosa Brooks’ unorthodox recruitment advice. “Social Networks” is another, and it’s probably alarmingly coterminous with Youth. Still others: “Emotional Vulnerability,” “Personal Connection to a Grievance” and “Conflict at Work or at Home.”

Let me do sobriety my way

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I quit drinking in 2009 without the help of AA or rehab. There was no intervention, medical crisis or new low that finally spurred me to action. I got sober as I had gotten f-ed up—alone, under my own power. Three weeks into my sobriety, a survey I took at a public health clinic flagged me to an outreach program, Project Link, and they hooked me up with an addiction specialist at Weill Cornell Medical Center. I've attended counseling sessions there for the last couple of years and my relationship with my doctor has been a huge help to both my sobriety and my overall happiness but we've been clear the entire time that I own my sobriety—it is my creation and I define its parameters. I got myself sober and I alone am ultimately responsible for keeping myself sober. I feel good about my sobriety but I don't necessarily feel pride about it. As my parents pointed out to me when I was a little kid, you don't get extra points just because, for once, you did what you were supposed to do.