WIRED quotes

I am an avid reader of WIRED magazine.
I must admit that I read every single page from cover to cover. There sometimes are some pretty nice sentences or passages, which I believe to be trandescending of our society. A couple of simple words form sentences that can express how our ideals have changed (or are changing) in our ever more technified world.

Here are some quotes:

[A] computer professional […] is leading us through a labyrith that was once a royal palace in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It's hot, and we're hurrying along corridors lined with books. Lots of books. Lots of books in the way Keanu Reeves says "lots of guns."

Oliver Morton: Tales From the Crypt
(WIRED • 11.05|2003)

In Japan, where they dish out the future like candy,…

Brian Ashcraft: The Code That Ate Tokyo
(WIRED • 12.12|2004)

It's no surprise that the Dutch, a people renowned for social experimentation in practically every facet of life,…

Tom McNichol: Roads Gone Wild
(WIRED • 12.12|2004)

Delicious Library is now a cataloging program, appealing to those with an obsessive, Nick Hornby-esque desire to catalog every song, book and movie on their living room shelves.

Leander Kahney: Monster Fueled by Caffeine
(WIRED News • 10:11 AM Jan. 14, 2005 PT)

"Come on up here next to the screen," he beckons, then suddenly maxes out the volume when I'm just 10 inches from the ViewPoint speaker affixed to the wall. I believe he tries to tell me something about how there isn't any "reflection" of the sound, but I can't say for sure. All I hear are the death screams of orcs, even hours later.

Brendan I. Koerner: The Big Show
(WIRED Home - special section • 13.01|2005)

Consider that each day 35 billion emails are sent, 1 billion SMS messages traverse the ether, and 2 billion instant messages are dilivered by AOL alone. Does any of this take almost three-quarters of a million workers [as the USPS needs to get similarly impressive numbers]? Nah, just a few latte sippers in data centers to reboot the servers a couple of times a day.

Andy Kessler: Stop the US Mail!
(WIRED • 13.02|2005)

Which Web powerhouse was started by two Stanford geeks as a simple search page with a silly name and became the biggest thing on the Internet? Nope, not them. Try again. [Yahoo! rather than Google]

Michael S. Malone: The UnGoogle (Yes, Yahoo!)
(WIRED • 13.03|2005)

Forget meeting your soul mate on a crosstown bus — you won't be making eye contact of any kind once you get your mitts on this contraption. [About the PSP]
[...]
Craptacular game selection. [About the Gizmondo]

Todd Zuniga: Unplug and Play
(WIRED • 13.07|2005)

This is the same crowd [that Fantastic Four targets], after all, that camped in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood for weeks before Revenge of the Sith — even though the movie wasn't going to open at that particular theater.

Jonathan Bing: The Doom-Defying, Two-Fisted Marketing of Fantastic Four
(WIRED • 13.07|2005)

"It's amusing to tell people that I jack off in an fMRI for science," says Vicky, quickly adding that the process is more like work than sex.

Annalee Newitz: The Coming Boom
(WIRED • 13.07|2005)

American executives in New York will mentor Chinese executives as they run a largely Chinese company that wants to model itself on a Japanese corporation in order to challenge two American competitors, with the ultimate mission of helping China achieve its patriotic goal of kicking butt in international business.
If that's not globalization, what is?

Kevin Maney: The New Face of IBM
(WIRED • 13.07|2005)

Sigur Ròs dispenses a dose of neuron-tickling Elysium. The Icelandic quartet eschews rock's conventional verse-chorus-break structure for a minimalist, linear dynamic that ebbs and flows like an all-consuming train of thought.

Jon J. Eilenberg: It's a Beautiful Noise
(WIRED • 13.10|2005)

As part of its association with the university [UCSD], the [Early Childhood Education C]enter is the site of several studies in childhood development and psychology. And, of course, it is the host of such perennial research projects as Relative Absorption Rates of a Bovine Mammary Secretion on Synthetic Versus Phytogenic Textiles and Exploration of the Nasal Canal as an Alternative Vector for Cheerio Assimilation.

Larry Gallagher: R is for Robot
(WIRED • 13.10|2005)

Like Homeric gods, the JOC [Joint Operating Center] staffers created this world, see everything happening in it, and have the power to alter the course of events — but only indirectly. They can set an event into motion, but they rarely know exactly when it will take place and never how it will play out. Says Dan Kirk, an angular major with an amused expression: "We are the keepers of the Matrix."

Vince Beiser: Baghdad, USA
(WIRED • 14.06|2006)

Physicists and mathematicians today mainly communicate via a Web site called arXiv. (The X is supposed to be the Greek letter chi; it's pronounced "archive." If you were a physicist, you'd find that hilarious.)

Adam Rogers: Get Wiki With It
(WIRED • 14.06|2006)

Flash floods of data thundered into one network port, stopped inexplicably, then reappeared to overwhelm another. […] [The] servers had been inundated with so many requests that the machines couldn't possibly process them all. It was the digital equivalent of filling a fish tank with a fire hose.

Scott Berinato: Attack of the Bots
(WIRED • 14.11|2006)

The Galaxy[, the ship on which the Karaoke World Championship is being held,] has other attractions, including gambling machines and a few Atlantic City-like stage shows, but because karaoke is so popular in Finland — where they like to brag that per capita karaoke participation is second only to Japan — just about everyone seems to be singing. Walk from bow to stern at any hour and you'll hear voices echoing out of every corner, songs overlapping with one another. At times, the ship seems as though it's filled with ghosts — ghosts who hapen to be big fans of '80s Finnish heavy metal.

Brian Raftery: Karaoke Dreams
(WIRED • 14.12|2006)

So the artist modified his palette to include only colors with a suitably archaic cast. Because it's fine for a church window to look like it's been designed by a computer, as long as it's a computer with a gothic sensibility.

Carolyn Rauch: Windows Update
(WIRED • 15.08|2007)

Second Life: It's so popular, no one goes there anymore.

Frank Rose: Lonely Planet
(WIRED • 15.08|2007)

Language is one of the best data-compression mechanisms we have. The information contained in literature, or even email, encodes our identity as human beings. The entire literary canon may be smaler than what comes out of particle accelerators or models of the human brain, but the meaning coded into words can't be measured in bytes. It's deeply compressed. Twelve words from Voltaire can hold a lifetime of experience.

Martin Wattenberg in Mark Horowitz: The Petabyte Age
(WIRED • 16.07|2008)

[H]e sets down a single cup of custom-made coffee that's Jessica Alba hot, Bill Gates rich, and as unique as a snowflake.

Mathew Honan: The Coffee Fix
(WIRED • 16.08|2008)

[Jannards] desk is in an open workspace that he shares with six staffers and his puppy. Next to his computer there's a box of the Montecristos he favors and a pinewood crate from Napa Valley Reserve, the world's most exclusive wine club. Members reportedly pay up to $145,000 to join, in exchange for which they can partake in grape harvests and create their own blends. There's something oddly honorable about a billionair with insanely expensive taste in wine but no office.

Michael Behar: A Star Is Born
(WIRED • 16.09|2008)

In 1993, Cano worked with Poinar and others to remove DNA from a 125 million-year-old Lebanese weevil entombed in amebr. They were able to sequence segments of the bug's genome. But even if they had the full genome, science couldn't—and still can't—clonee it back into existence. Just as well—it's hard to imagine Steven Spielberg creating a blockbuster f/x extravaganza about reanimated weevils. Unless he made them 30 feet tall. With a taste for human blood.)

Erin Biba: Second Life
(WIRED • 17.08|2009)

Last modified: 15:28 02/Sep/09 |
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