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Quick review of ratings: Five Stars: Means Must Have. Worth killing for. Four Stars: Very close to being worth killing for, but is somehow flawed, Three Stars: Take it or leave it. Professional, but without passion or feeling. Two Stars: Should only be read for free at Borders or Barnes and Noble. One Star: Not worth reading for free at Borders or Barnes and Noble.
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Jorn Barger's relentless and cruel criticism has forced me to put links to the magazines on my review pages. Keep in mind however that the stories I'm reviewing haven't necessarily been placed online yet. So you will have to go to the store and buy the magazine. You must be strong.
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Upside September
1999
4.0 stars out of 5
A few months back when Upside ran
that hideously sexist cover with the bare female torso on the cover I have to admit I kind
of turned the magazine off. And the thing about it is that I read and enjoy the website,
especially Daily Tish. It's just that the cover was kind of, well, dumb. I mean, it wasn't
related to the usual suspects such as the business end of sex on the internet so to speak,
but hot net companies. Then you were supposed to make the connection between the hot piece
of a__ on the cover and, say, your hot shares of Cisco…Well I didn't.
September's letters section is
replete with other folks who agree with me that the cover was shameful. Here's a few
excerpts: "shocked to see such an offensive and tasteless picture" sez Marian
Lim, or "Folks I can't tell you how dispiriting it is to work so hard for so many
years to get respect, only to have a bunch of…male editors gleefully rub your nose in
the fact that, after all, deep down, women are just pussy in this life and pussy is
suitable for selling product." sez L.A. Grabow, who's female I presume.
Almost as bad as that cover in
question is the fact that the editor defended the cover as some kind of celebration of sex
and sexuality. His exact words: "Sex is actually a good thing--so there!" Hey,
look Dave Bunnell, you made a bad call. Be a man and admit it.
Now, all that said, and in the
tradition of forgiveness of sexual impropriety that is now associated with our Commander
and Chief, the September issue of Upside was a great issue full of highlights and
generally cool ideas. In fact, it was so good I'm going to consider Upside must reading
from now on.
>First, there was everything you wanted to know about Linux but
were afraid to ask. It includes a very long interview with Linux originator Linus Torvalds
that approaches the classic Playboy for its depth and breadth. The only question that
wasn't answered was why does the creator of Linux work, at least in part, for Microsoft
co-owner Paul Allen, who owns Transmeta where Linus now works. But he is allowed to use
Linux on the premises I guess. He also couldn't talk about what it is that Transmeta is
trying to do. So I guess nobody still knows.
There were also a quartet of other
stories about Linux, which involved a rundown on which companies were doing what with
Linux, what their strategies are, what their investors are and so on. It's very level
headed stuff. Feels a lot like those Red Herring reports. It's not a flat out endorsement
of Linux and it you don't wind up thinking that Microsoft is down and out. Struck me as
being fair and impartial.
>Speaking of the opponents of Microsoft , there was also an
interesting profile and review of the book "The Plot To Get Bill Gates". I
learned all kinds of interesting stuff about the World's Richest Man Bill Gates (Please
don't have me killed).
One, he has real enemies. In fact,
one of the prescient things about the book and this article is that it pinpointed Sun's
CEO John McNealy as one of his biggest enemies. This was before Sun started giving away
Star Office for free, literally. If it works, then it would take a huge chunk out of
Microsoft Office, one of Redmond's most profitable products, not to mention overpriced.
You also got an interview with the
author Gary Rivlin who tells me more stuff about Bill that I didn't know. Bill, according
to Gary, was a bit of a cad before he got married and settled down. Then again, I'm a cad
and I don't have any money. You couldn't imagine the torture I'd put women through if I
had a billion dollars. You really couldn't.
Rivlin is tough on everybody and
he certainly doesn't coddle Gates. Rivlin believes that he's not a self made guy but was
born on Third Base so to speak. He also believes that Gates is not a great technologist
but more of a ruthless businessmen. Hey, you be the judge.
>There were also many
interesting smaller pieces and columns throughout. Ones that caught my eye were reviews
about virtual reality development and Homer Hickham's sci fi novel about renewed
exploration to the moon. What I didn't know is that its premise--nuclear fusion using
seawater and a helium isotope found on the moon--is actually true. He criticized NASA's
approach by saying "Right now NASA is acting like Amtrak, shuttling people in and out
of orbit. but what it really ought to be is an exploratory outfit, creating new kinds of
technology, then turning it over to commercial organizations and saying 'you make money
out of it.'"
I have to admit I'm kind of
curious why Homer doesn't just dump NASA and join the several private space ventures out
there. One of Jeff Bezos interests is planetary exploration why not give him a call before
his Amazon stock falls through the floor, literally.
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