I, Cringingly

Marko Karppinen on Cringely’s latest column:

“I, Cringely” is a very popular technology blog/column on the PBS site. Here’s how it works. Mark Stevens, the author, writes a column about a hot technology topic every week. What makes it funny (and, I guess, popular) is that he almost never understands the topic or knows what he’s talking about.

What’s weird (or maybe sad?) is that Cringely used to be great. He’s always had a tendency to take his speculation a bit over the top, but that’s what made Cringely Cringely. But it used to be obvious that he knew what he was talking about fundamentally. More and more these days, it seems clear he’s completely out of touch with current technology.

Karppinen’s right: The problem with columns like this one isn’t that his speculation is wrong, but that his facts are wrong.

★ Saturday, 17 February 2007