Techsploitation
Techsploitation is the name of my nationally-syndicated (and award-winning!) weekly column, which basically consists of pissed-off, romantic, weird rants about high tech media and everyday life. It started the week after Burning Man in September 1999, thanks in part to the efforts of Dan Pulcrano, editor of Metro, Silicon Valley’s free weekly. My column also runs weekly in The San Francisco Bay Guardian and on AlterNet, as well as semi-regularly in papers throughout North America and (occasionally) the world. It ended in 2008, after nine great years – it was time for me to move on, and I was happy to end on a high note.
Back columns from Techsploitation are still syndicated through the excellent Featurewell, and can be yours for a pretty reasonable price.
Here is a complete collection of my columns, starting with the most recent ones. Read ‘em but don’t weep.
2008
- 07.02 / My Last Column
- 06.20 / Three Myths About the Internet that Refuse to Die
- 06.05 / Using Scifi to Change the World
- 05.22 / How Do We Fight Corporate Control of the Internet?
- 05.15 / Is the Creative Internet Dead?
- 05.07 / Who’s Afraid of Grand Theft Auto?
- 04.30 / User-Generated Censorship
- 04.23 / Writing Online: The Key to Literary Immortality
- 04.16 / Does the Microsoft-Yahoo! Merger Threaten Google?
- 04.08 / Pregnant Men
- 04.03 / The Queen’s English Is Dead
- 03.25 / The Color Wars on Twitter
- 03.19 / Spitzer Did Nothing Wrong
- 03.12 / Online Protests Grow Up
- 02.27 / The Bush Administration’s War On Science
- 02.19 / You Cannot Afford Mars
- 02.12 / Three Reasons To Hate Facebook
- 02.06 / The Fragility of the Information Age
- 01.29 / A Polite Message from the Surveillance State
- 01.22 / Why We Shouldn’t Fear Cloned Meat
- 01.17 / What Happens When Blogs Go Mainstream?
- 01.08 / A New Version of Moore’s Law
- 01.03 / Technology In Wartime
2007
- 12.27 / A Story of International Intrigue
- 12.19 / Humans Are Much Smarter than Dogs
- 12.12 / Why Buying a Nintendo Wii Is Worth It
- 12.05 / Comcast’s War On Filesharing
- 11.29 / Are Home Genome Tests a Step Away from Eugenics?
- 11.22 / Access Denied: Mapping Global Censorship
- 11.13 / Who To Vote For When the Top Candidate Stinks
- 11.05 / Carbon Indulgences
- 11.01 / Consumer Biotech
- 10.23 / When Science Attacks!
- 10.16 / Moaning Lisa: A Blow-Up Doll, Upgraded
- 10.10 / Always Away on IM
- 10.02 / Modern Bionic Woman, Retrograde Feminism
- 09.26 / To See Or Not See Violence
- 09.18 / The Death of “Green” Satellites
- 09.12 / The Secret Messages NASA Sent to Aliens
- 09.05 / Anti-Authoritarian Cities
- 08.28 / Mouse Politics: To Kill Or Not?
- 08.20 / The Trouble With Anonymity On the Web
- 08.16 / Should Archives Go Paperless?
- 08.07 / Kids Safer Online Than Ever Before
- 08.01 / Science Uncovers What Literary Critics Have Always Known: Scary Stories Are Fun
- 07.25 / Images of the Dead Future
- 07.18 / iPhone Politics
- 07.11 / Transformers is More Than Just a Truck Commercial
- 07.04 / Steampunk — An Old Aesthetic for New Technology
- 06.27 / The Future of Paper Without Journalism
- 06.20 / The Real Torrent Spies — Megacorp Columbia Forces Frightening Legal Precedent
- 06.13 / Google My Bedroom with Privacy-Invading “Street View”
- 06.06 / Wikipedia Activism
- 05.30 / Green Libertarianism — New Reformist Movement?
- 05.23 / 09 F9 — A Simple Way to Stand Up Against the Latest Assault on Digital Liberty
- 05.16 / Heroes: comic Book Edge and Political Bite
- 05.09 / Myth of the Universal Digital Library
- 05.02 / Stop Getting Things Done — The Dark Side of Productivity
- 04.25 / How to Control My Body — Abortion and the End of Menstruation
- 04.18 / The Trouble with Twitter
- 04.11 / Free Wifi and Digital Racial Profiling
- 04.04 / Smoking Yahoo’s Pipes
- 03.28 / Vote Mac?
- 03.21 / Exploiting the Code
- 03.14 / Web Trenz!
- 03.07 / Data Crash 2027
- 02.28 / Men Are Not Men
- 02.21 / Lisa Nowak, Astronaut
- 02.14 / Peeing By Design
- 02.07 / The Self-Appointed Censors of GoDaddy
- 01.31 / Bias on eBay
- 01.24 / The Anti-Christian Mythology of Phillip Pullman
- 01.17 / The Stop Online Expression Act
- 01.10 / Science Fiction Made Me Do It
2006
- 12.27 / New Year’s Resolutions for Geeks
- 12.20 / Wikipedia vs. Women
- 12.13 / The Meaning of Spam
- 12.06 / This is Not Progress
- 11.29 / Crap of the Future
- 11.22 / Happiness Science
- 11.15 / Microsoft Linux
- 11.08 / Why Sex Sucks
- 11.01 / Television is History
- 10.25 / Welcome to the C.S.A.
- 10.18 / GooTube is Dead
- 10.11 / Geowankers Anonymous
- 10.04 / Small Pieces Unjoined
- 09.27 / Dotster’s Computer Illiteracy Campaign
- 09.20 / Ahoy, Chumby!
- 09.13 / Death by Satire
- 09.06 / Weaponized Data
- 08.30 / You’ve Been Pwned
- 08.23 / Snakes in Vain
- 08.16 / Fun With the AOL Data Leak
- 08.09 / How Blog Software Threatens Free Speech
- 08.02 / The Nice Rats of Science Journalism
- 07.26 / Movie Monsters and Politics
- 07.19 / Harry Potter and the Microconspiracy of Doom
- 07.12 / Trucks, Tubes and Verizon’s Scary New Plan
- 07.05 / Does Updike’s Stance on E-books Make Him Obsolete?
- 06.28 / Nevermind Brookers — Here’s the Moldavian Pop Song Heard Around the World
- 06.21 / Personal Surveillance Etiquette
- 06.14 / Laptops for Dolphins
- 06.07 / Feminists Prefer Genetic Engineering
- 05.31 / Crisis on Infinite Earths, or the Antiwar Comics Surge
- 05.24 / Why Do So Few Americans Care that the NSA is Listening to their Phone Calls?
- 05.17 / Porn 2.0
- 05.10 / Without Net Neturality, the Web we Love is Endangered
- 05.03 / Going Low Tech in Manhattan
- 04.26 / The Great Email Debate — Should the Sender Pay to Eliminate Spam?
- 04.19 / The New ‘Mad’ Scientists Look at How Videogames Destroy Our Minds
- 04.12 / The Down Side of Slashdot — Sexist or Not?
- 04.05 / Arbitrary Anachronism — Swordfights and Smartphones at the SCA
- 03.29 / Feeling Everybody Up — MoodMapper charts the feelings of the masses online
- 03.22 / Spy on Yourself with Root Networks
- 03.15 / Roomba Cockfight!
- 03.08 / Remembering Octavia Butler
- 03.01 / Attention! New study shows attention overload leads to bad decisions
- 02.22 / China Syndrome — search engine censorship
- 02.15 / Interbreeders — early Homo Sapiens bred with other species after all
- 02.08 / Son of Dot-Com — Web 2.0, Oh No!
- 02.01 / Kings of Creepy — Why did Microsoft give search information the government?
- 01.25 / Veronica Mars — TV for social justice geeks
- 01.18 / JT Leroy vs. Woo-suk Hwang
- 01.11 / Like a Girl — new Pew Internet Life study shows disturbing gender bias
- 01.04 / Web Censorship for Dummies — CP80′s bizarre plan to block porn online
2005
- 12.28 / Europe Calling — In the EU, datamining replaces wiretaps
- 12.21 / Best. Monster. Ever. King Kong’s racial morality tale
- 12.14 / Maui Drowning? Eco-tourism and Hawaiian politics
- 12.07 / Music Companies Get Mean — the Sony “protected CD” debacle
- 11.30 / Man’s Place — Science proves male domination leads to an extinction vortex
- 11.23 / Marijuana is Good for You
- 11.16 / Won’t Somebody Think of the Pings?
- 11.09 / Hacking the Subway, Freeing the Maps
- 11.02 / Why Mice Sing
- 10.26 / Patents Kill
- 10.19 / Strike Blog
- 10.12 / Meme War
- 10.05 / A Bugged Game
- 09.28 / The Glamorous Disease
- 09.21 / Evolved Again
- 09.14 / Fanactivism
- 09.07 / Connect the Dots
- 08.31 / Can’t Kill P2P
- 08.24 / Invisible Earth
- 08.17 / What is Evil?
- 08.10 / Shut Up, Mike Lynn
- 08.03 / Machinima
- 07.27 / Cyber Heroes!
- 07.20 / Name Calling
- 07.13 / Top Genome
- 07.06 / Hot for Data
- 06.29 / No Roads for You
- 06.22 / On File
- 06.15 / Ika Resuraa
- 06.08 / Environmental Upgrade
- 06.01 / Everybody Loves Vader
- 05.25 / Fantasies of E3
- 05.18 / Burn Your License
- 05.11 / Merit Badge
- 05.04 / Jihad! Jihad!
- 04.27 / Software Purity
- 04.20 / Free the Cameras
- 04.13 / Open Maps
- 04.06 / Court Camp
- 03.30 / Mother’s Little Sniffer
- 03.23 / Aggregate! Iterate! Reciprocate!
- 03.15 / Help Tech — Jail the Poor
- 03.09 / B-List Blogs
- 03.02 / Larry’s Taste
- 02.23 / Who Moved My Data?
- 02.16 / Pig-Based Technologies
- 02.09 / Henry Darger’s Internet
- 02.02 / Cultural Emergency
- 01.19 / Sad Mac
- 01.12 / Wear It, Bitch
- 01.05 / Destroy All Planets
2004
- 12.29 / Brand X
- 12.21 / Fake Future
- 12.15 / Oh Joss! My Joss!
- 12.08 / Teach Greed
- 12.01 / Your Brain on Porn
- 11.24 / We’re Sorry
- 11.17 / Heavy Traffic
- 11.10 / Suck My Left One
- 11.03 / The Great Unknown
- 10.27 / Flu Panic
- 10.20 / Wiretap This!
- 10.13 / Hunting Kids
- 10.06 / Crimes of Anonymity
- 09.28 / Just Listen
- 09.22 / Blog TV
- 09.15 / Hacker Hinterhofe
- 09.08 / Extropian Trash
- 09.01 / Republican Porno
- 08.25 / Forget Grokster
- 08.18 / Internet Voting
- 08.11 / Fear is Good
- 08.04 / Sex, Drugs and Stupidity
- 07.28 / Bad Art
- 07.21 / Your Phone is Phun
- 07.14 / Free Lunch
- 07.07 / Mashups as Protest Music
- 06.30 / Induc’d
- 06.23 / Fuck God
- 06.16 / My Favorite Wiretappers
- 06.09 / Disasters!!!
- 06.02 / When Nature Votes
- 05.26 / What Alan Heard
- 05.19 / Gimme My Radio
- 05.12 / Masturbate Online!
- 05.05 / Security Fad
- 04.28 / Spam is Sublime
- 04.21 / He was a Dragon
- 04.14 / Not so Super
- 04.07 / All the Evil Machines
- 03.31 / Planning to be Dead
- 03.24 / We Don’t Need No Education
- 03.17 / Breeding the Future
- 03.10 / Not Your Activism
- 03.03 / HaX0r Pr0n
- 02.25 / Placebo
- 02.18 / Pipette Bitch Blues
- 02.11 / Wil Wheaton is a Dick
- 02.04 / Martian Robot Superstars!
- 01.28 / Finding Arisia
- 01.21 / Staying Alive
- 01.14 / My Service Bot
- 01.07 / Full Disclosure
2003
- 12.31 / Reverse Social Engineering
- 12.24 / Lost Machines
- 12.17 / A History of War
- 12.10 / Untrue Names
- 12.03 / The Analog Urge
- 11.26 / The Good Worm
- 11.19 / Multimedia Undead
- 11.12 / Die, Diebold, Die!
- 11.05 / Anti-geniuses
- 10.29 / Eat My Stem Cell
- 10.22 / Reality RPG
- 10.15 / Hoarders of Thought
- 10.08 / Subpoena me, too!
- 10.01 / High-Entropy Time
- 09.24 / Boob Toggle
- 09.17 / Mods Rule
- 09.10 / Liberating the Xbox
- 08.27 / Arnie Online
- 08.20 / Nanophobia
- 08.13 / Remote Control
- 08.06 / Up Your Nose
- 07.30 / Why I Infringe
- 07.23 / The Damned
- 07.16 / The Curry Menace
- 07.09 / The Mysteries of Theo
- 07.02 / Sex in the Library
- 06.25 / What is the Internet?
- 06.18 / Science for Everybody
- 06.11 / FCC and Anti-FCC
- 06.04 / Sex in the Matrix
- 05.21 / Buffy Spoilers
- 05.14 / Ripper is a Gangster!!!
- 05.07 / Wearing a Wire
- 04.23 / Cleaning Up Paypal
- 04.16 / Dissident Devices
- 04.09 / Surveillance 101
- 04.02 / Nuclear Trip
- 03.26 / Wartime Luddite
- 03.19 / Sex Crime
- 03.12 / I’m Searching
- 03.05 / Law of Error
- 02.26 / WarGames
- 02.19 / You Are Fat
- 02.12 / Embargo
- 02.05 / High-Tech Cuba
- 01.22 / Free Copy
- 01.15 / Enjoy Your Disease!
- 01.08 / Psychedelic S.F.
- 01.01 / Baby Makers
2002
- 12.25 / WiFi Peril
- 12.18 / I Was Wrong
- 12.11 / Social Experiments
- 12.04 / Harry Potter Gets Laid
- 11.27 / Totalitarian Information Awareness
- 11.20 / Mother Cyborg
- 11.13 / Right-Wing Darwinism
- 11.06 / The Lego Mystique
- 10.30 / The Usual Suspects
- 10.23 / The Thousand-Dollar Genome
- 10.16 / Laugh While You Can: The IgNobels
- 10.09 / Assimilated by LiveJournal!
- 09.25 / Galileo’s Ghost
- 09.18 / Public Domain
- 09.11 / The Ultimate Boolean
- 09.04 / Blocklisted
- 08.28 / Fear of Necco
- 08.21 / Alien Fuckfest
- 08.14 / Dark Net
- 08.07 / Abnormal Technology
- 07.31 / Women and Men
- 07.24 / Feeling TIPSy?
- 07.17 / Geek Zoo@MIT
- 07.10 / Reputation System
- 07.03 / Dot-com Sentimentality
- 06.26 / What is Brain?
- 06.19 / A New Hope, or Sony SUX
- 06.12 / Robots Who Cry
- 06.05 / Fanfic of the Damned
- 05.29 / Empire of Verisign
- 05.22 / Revenge of the Wonks
- 05.15 / Digital murder
- 05.08 / Biohazards: Clones and Robotrats
- 05.01 / Fascists
- 04.24 / Are you being logged?
- 04.17 / No futurism
- 04.10 / Learning from AOL
- 04.03 / JavaOne proves the days of tech swag are gone
- 03.27 / grep, awk, ps
- 03.20 / New, new wave
- 03.13 / Human Copyrights
- 03.06 / I Hate Everything
- 02.27 / Blog anxiety
- 02.20 / The Protein and Marilyn
- 02.13 / A Most Unusual Cyberscam
- 02.06 / Genome Hackers
- 01.30 / Robots Are Everywhere
- 01.23 / Plug and Play People
- 01.16 / The Erotic Web Offensive
- 01.09 / Science Voyeur
- 01.02 / geeks.ca
2001
- 12.26 / Surveillance Superstars!
- 12.19 / Welcome to the Machine, or Meet the Xbox
- 12.12 / Sex Studies at MIT
- 12.05 / Nymity Rules
- 11.28 / State of Emergency
- 11.21 / Network Admin Blues
- 11.14 / Linux Apocalypse
- 11.07 / Personal to anyone
- 10.31 / One more terrorist
- 10.24 / Censorship can be fun
- 10.17 / Night on the town
- 10.10 / What’s left to do
- 10.03 / Every click a lie
- 09.26 / Utopia — Talking with Ursula Le Guin
- 09.19 / There is no innocence
- 09.12 / Summer vacation
- 09.05 / Dot-sex — Such a deal!
- 08.29 / Talk to me
- 08.22 / Secrets of Ms. Gorf
- 08.15 / Geek underworld
- 08.08 / Biopunk
- 08.01 / Book Threat: On the Sklyarov case
- 07.25 / High Voltage
- 07.18 / Cult of Jamie
- 07.11 / Sharing the Data
- 07.04 / That’s So 1998!
- 06.27 / Out of the Past
- 06.20 / It’s Our Party
- 06.13 / Carnage Update
- 06.06 / Scandalous Code: Thoughts on the Apache Hack
- 05.30 / The Other Economy: Talking with Barbara Ehrenreich
- 05.23 / Hackers, R.I.P.
- 05.16 / Intelligent Life?
- 05.09 / Free Porn
- 05.02 / Yahoo’s Secret War
- 04.25 / Manifest Jeffstiny
- 04.18 / co.uk
- 04.11 / Craig’s dead, baby
- 04.04 / Kill your Internet
- 03.28 / The other Valley
- 03.21 / Semiotic whatever
- 03.14 / They stole my brain
- 03.07 / The good Doctor
- 02.28 / Move “zig”!
- 02.21 / All the alien babies
- 02.14 / Orgasm implants
- 02.07 / Core memory
- 01.31 / My darling, my Darwin
- 01.24 / Revolution 99999
- 01.17 / The final killer app
- 01.10 / M
- 01.03 / D&D
2000
- 12.27 / What geeks want
- 12.20 / Coders unite!
- 12.13 / Retire?
- 12.06 / Sick out
- 11.29 / Sock puppeting
- 11.22 / Thanks for nothing
- 11.15 / Sex torture
- 11.08 / Logan runs again
- 11.01 / Mad doctors
- 10.25 / Live work
- 10.18 / Video retro
- 10.11 / My religion
- 10.04 / Fire your boss!
- 09.20 / Information suicide
- 09.13 / Youth slaves
- 09.06 / Alone online
- 08.30 / E-mail envy
- 08.23 / Godzilla 2000 versus Windows 2000
- 08.16 / Icons from another dimension!
- 08.09 / Your life as anime
- 08.02 / Job go boom: How to tell when your .com is dying
- 07.19 / Of computers and cars
- 07.12 / Celluphony
- 07.05 / Extreme personalization
- 06.28 / Bedtime for Bobo
- 06.21 / Die, dot-com, die!: Fuckedcompany.com plays the game of life
- 06.14 / Craigslust: Partying with the .org set
- 06.07 / Privacy fetish: Who cares if you can find out everything about me?
- 05.31 / Her name is Rio: Why I suck at MP3 downloads
- 05.24 / Decode these books
- 05.17 / Penance at the Webbys with Richard Stallman
- 05.10 / Fuck the FDA
- 05.03 / Trek memories
- 04.26 / Are you bored? Internet debris piles up
- 04.19 / Too much freedom
- 04.12 / Wealth! Poverty! Baths!
- 04.05 / Women like me exist
- 03.29 / The legend of BSD
- 03.22 / Beyond the Valley of Silicon
- 03.16 / Sysadmin Lust: Noncom and Nostalgia for E-mail
- 03.09 / Tormenting AskJeeves.com: dots entertainment
- 03.02 / Are You a Target?: Gen X invents Gen Y
- 02.24 / It’s Job Season! Deluge forces tough choices
- 02.17 / Vaporware: In today’s metastasizing IPO market, vaporware is everywhere
- 02.10 / Cthulhu and You: Deep inside a geek’s mind
- 02.03 / Linux Capitalist Sluts: What happens when open source sells out
- 01.27 / Media Hoards: Yet another global empire to subjugate you
- 01.13 / Job Gone: A Silicon Valley fairy tale
- 01.06 / Porn Again: A job for the twenty-first century
1999
- 12.30 / Y2K’s a Joke: If only, if only, computers were that important
- 12.23 / Under the Influence: Want some work with those drugs?
- 12.16 / Silicon Snobbery: Ten things I hate about the computer industry
- 12.09 / Furries of the Valley: Wild animals in a high-tech wilderness
- 12.02 / Stink Different: Can a Counter Culture Corporation survive?
- 11.24 / Information Trash: A glossary for those in and out of the loop
- 11.18 / True Nerd Tales: Or, why I occasionally get nostalgic for 1985
- 11.11 / Sili Screed: Ohio zine pokes Silicon Valley from the outside
- 11.04 / SGI Goes Bust, Part II: Insider talks about how NT killed the graphics star
- 10.28 / SGI Goes Bust, Part 1: An insider talks about the ‘Gee Was’ company
- 10.21 / Stupid Brand Tricks: Companies boost name recognition with logo-laden giveaways — some useful, some just plain dumb
- 10.14 / ‘Meat’ the Truth: The start-up work ethic is killing us
- 10.07 / Sex and Spies: Fun with kiddie porn conspiracy theories
- 09.30 / Crunch Time: There’s no such thing as a free launch
- 09.23 / Corpcult: Linus is a manager and Dilbert is dead
- 09.16 / Burning Man: When geeks run free, how do they celebrate?