When 21st-century historians look back at the breakdown of the United States patent system, they will see a turning point in the case of Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com and their special invention: “The patented One Click® feature."
[grey_box]First published in the New York Times Magazine, July 9, 1995[/grey_box] WHERE HUMAN ANATOMY meets data processing, there are just two important devices: the brain and the wristwatch. The brain is nice, but it doesn’t tell time very well. So, creatures of habit that we are, we strap on that extra thing—a machine worn every day by most adults in the industrialized world to display a...
[grey_box] First published in the New Republic, May 24, 1994. [/grey_box] [dropcap]In the world of professional wrestling, fans fall into two categories, known as the Smarts and the Marks. The Marks believe that they are watching spontaneous contests of strength and skill. The Smarts know that they are watching a fascinating, highly plotted, roughly scripted form of dramatic entertainment–a...
How the internet looked to a possibly naïve journalist and entrepreneur in 1994.
[grey_box]This article was first published in the New York Times Magazine on 4 August 1992. How long ago was that? You will see that I needed to explain the following technical terms: CompuServe, icons, Wysiwyg, and smilies. There was (as far as most of the world knew) no Internet. Software was new. So were bugs.[/grey_box] I couldn’t wait to buy Microsoft Word for Windows — rumored to be...