Category Archives: Internet life

When a Country Goes Dark

Ministers’ homes at the new capital, Pyinmana Burma has shown us that we’re not as clever, or free, as we thought we are. It’s a sign of how the Burmese generals don’t really understand things that it took them so long to cut off the Internet: Reporters without Borders and the Burma Media Association reported… Read More »

Poisoning the Digital Well

I’m following events in Burma as closely as most, partly because I covered the last uprising 19 years ago. Back then plain clothes officers would spread rumors about poisoned water pots placed around the city for demonstrators to drink from. Now they’re apparently trying to poison the well of pooled information, if this excellent BBC… Read More »

Wikipedia: Important enough to whitewash

This is an edited version of my weekly column for Loose Wire Service, a service providing print publications with technology writing designed for the general reader. Email me if you’re interested in learning more. Wikipedia has gone through some interesting times, good and bad, but I think the last couple of weeks has proved just… Read More »

Journalists Should Bite the Bullet

  screenshot from CNN’s website It’s the one area where old-style journalism hasn’t really made the strides it could. I can understand why: Journalism is a very, very conservative profession. But The Journalism Iconoclast, written by Patrick Thornton, makes a telling point when he points to a nice new feature of CNN.com’s website — the… Read More »

Face it: Facebook is all about you

This is my weekly column for Loose Wire Service, a service providing print publications with technology writing designed for the general reader. Email me if you’re interested in learning more. I can hardly make my way to the drinks table at parties these days without someone accosting me, pinning me to the sideboard and impaling… Read More »