"Avalanche!" | March, 2003 | View Scanned Pages (900 K) | View Archived Webpages (40 KB)
My feature on Switzerland's SLF center for avalanche research in Davos, a global leader where the projects range
from studying snow crystals to setting off avalanches. Best Quote goes to Bob Brown: "When I worked on the Apollo
Space program, I thought rocket science was the hardest form of physics, but snow science is even harder."

"Eye of the Storm" | February 1999 | View PDF (27 KB)
A piece on IBM's Deep Thunder project, which promised pinpoint-precise weather forecasts, i.e. "West Siders,
get your convertible roofs shut by 5.35, because it's gonna rain there." Sounds great. But we're still waiting....

"Calamity Gene" | May 1998 | View PDF (24 KB)
A shortish article detailing the biotech hoax that Joey Skaggs pulled on media the world over. Very funny.

"Hype No Wheel"  | August 1995 | View PDF (22 KB)
A very short piece, mocking MCI's marketing gurus for taking the info-highway metaphor a tad too literally.

"Long Range Attraction" | November 1995 | View PDF (23 KB)
A story on Washington, DC software developer Magnet Interactive, a firm run by two egotists with
too much money. This basically upbeat piece was followed a few months later with an Updata
article (not online), in which half the staff was taken to a hotel meeting and fired on the spot.

"Glocalization: Easier Said Than Done" | October 2000 | View Archived Web Pages (101 KB)
A business feature on London-based lastminute.com's travails in going pan-European. They faced almost
every expansion problem imaginable, making it a textbook case. Then again, they're still standing
and the Industry Standard's six feet under, with former editors fighting publicly over the autopsy results.

"Put the 'E' Back in Euro" | June 2001 | View Archived Web Page (11 KB)
Were Wim Duisenberg and the New Economy's hype merchants in cahoots to boost
the Euro's image? Just kidding, but then again it was a humor piece.

"Europe's ISPs Fill Their War Chests"| April 2000 | View text-only PDF (31 KB)
In which many European telecoms go public, preparing for what would prove to be harsh consolidation.

"Life, Liberty and Broadband"| July 21, 2002 | View PDF (78 KB)
Examining Sweden's policy decision to treat high-speed Internet access as a civil right. Sounds right to me.

"Getting a Lift From the Government" | November 2000 | View PDF (21 KB)
A piece which explains the role that Germany's Technologiebeteiligungsgesellschaft had in pushing the
country's startups. That didn't stop their tech economy from tanking, but it's an interesting model.

"They fought the law and the law won" | March 2001 | View Large PDF (4.3 MB) | View text-only PDF (48 KB)
A dual profile of two Internet visionaries who briefly revolutionized Swedish society: Jonas
Birgersson, AKA "Broadband Jesus," and Johan Stael von Holstein, who made the mistake
of trying to be Gordon Gekko in an essentially socialist state.

"Behold the Power of the Videophone" | December 2000 | View PDF (70 KB)
A semi-authorized look at a Finnish prototype project that simulated 3G services. Downside: 3G took a few
more years to arrive. Upside: I got my boots shined in the Sonera Research Lab lobby by sending an SMS.

"Gallic Symbol" | October 2000 | View Large PDF (541 KB) | View text-only PDF (18 KB)
In which I examine the persistence of France's Minitel system. Stunningly, despite its crude graphics and
text-only interfaces, it has long thrived in the Internet era.

"Goosing the Internet: How one businessman helped Silicon Valley
replace Wall Street as the world’s economic epicenter" 
November 1999 | View PDF (150 KB)
A fairly critical review of "The New New Thing," the Michael Lewis biography of Netscape founder
Jim Clark, godfather of Silicon Valley's IPO-or-bust (or, with hindsight, IPO-and-bust) culture.

"Justified and Ancient" | June 2001 | Link
A preview for a Bern show on old-school computers. Something weird happened when I scanned it,
but the images of the old computers still look cool.

"Le «P-To-P» Peut-Il Devenir Un Nouveau «Business Model»?" | February 2001 | View PDF (18 KB)
An analysis of peer-to-peer networking as a business model. If you don't read French, here's the synopsis:
P2P will be huge, but it's not going to generate a lot of profits. And Napster's doomed. (So far, I'm right on all counts.)

"La Localisation: Nouveau Cheval De Bataille Des Opérateurs" | June 2001 | View PDF (19 KB)
A look at cell-phone localization technologies and their possibilities. If you don't read French, here's the synopsis:
Localization is nowhere near being able to pinpoint where users are, so forget receiving an SMS coupon
for a Filet-O-Fish as you pass McDonald's. But you definitely can count on your privacy being invaded.