Anyway.....
So tonight I read this article, then I read this article, then I went back and read the rest of this article, and oddly enough, despite my better judgement, I disagree with both authors....granted, far more with the secondary than the primary or the tertiary. Anyway.....some preface:
Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about a)energy and b)the "new economy". I'll get back to (a) in a second, but as for (b), well, a lot of blame for this problem can be layed at the feet of His Fraudulency. There was actually a fairly well written article on Salon (suprising for an economist) that made the claim that we can indeed feel free to lay a lot of blame on the current economy on Dubya. As someone who worked in financial advising, specifically ven cap investing (hey, I was quoted in the WSJ, so pbbbbbt) during the heady days of 1996....when venture cap involved net companies that turned a profit, biotech and microbrews, as someone who has always been optimistic about the "new economy" since the first calls to a market crash first started way back in '97, as someone who has only claimed the president had a damn bit to do with the US economy only in jest, I'll say the author is right.....we're all fux0red. All our base are belong to George Bush. Basically, if you work for a dot.com right now....if you're a tech professional of any kind, hold tight because we're in for a ride. If the layoffs don't get you then the resulting depression will. And, yeah, I'll stand by that prediction depression, not repression. Unemployment here in Oregon is already on the rise, the trade deficit is a mess.
Anyway, about energy.....I've been thinking alot recently that there's some damn thing going on here. We can currently manufacture and mass produce 1.2 GHz microchips, but we can't currently manufacture an economically feasable solar cell? Something's wrong there. I refuse to believe that all of our energy woes are going to be solved by IT's sterling engine....a nice step, but, warming my apartment? C'mon......There's some shit going down that we're not seeing.....let's all go back a step and watch the movie Tucker again.
Anyway........... to get back to the point at hand. The line I most disagree with in the previous articles is the following: "A seminal promise of the Computer Revolution -- for many, the point -- was to bring information to everybody and make lives easier. But is this the revolution? Does this really change life for the better, or even change it much at all?"
Yes, Messr. Katz, this is the revolution. The revolution is here, it is at hand, it is for the taking. Care to take it? No? Then sit your pussy-ass down because there are all too many people ready to take it. Picture this for a sec: you are a member of the Cuban revolutionary movement in '59.....sitting out in the jungle wondering where the fux0r this is all going and, hey, you know everyone around you is just, y'know, this guy....some former farmer, some Joe Shmoo that certainly is not the type to bring about The Revolution. Wake the fuck up.....the revolution has already happened.....its here. Oh, or I guess social conditions in the US haven't really changed all that much since we were playing Asteroids on our Commmodore 32. Um.....wake up.....we have the *option* of making a paperless and non-commuting society....that we haven't done it to any large scale is our own fault. Hello, the "little people" have been busy demanding that their cable and telecom companies get in line and bring them some product now!! Remember back when Ma Bell used to sit around the water cooler laughing at the stoopid amerkan consumer? No? Then you're obviously far younger than me. What's my point? Is tech going to die over the next 4 years? No, because as we've seen time and time again, tech will continue to be built on the backs of independents like Hotmail (we remember the name "Bell"), Napster (we remember the name "Marconi"), Microsoft (~23 years since they came out with their BASIC interpreter), Apple (~23 years since they came out with their first home computer)....get a sense of historical relevance. The revolution is here, the revolution is now....you can bitch about how it hasn't achieved utopia yet or you can go home, code, design, and be a part of it. Take your choice Katz, because the way things are shaping up, lame-ass commentators are going to be the first ones up against the wall.

In other words: Bullshit.