The King of Pointland

Unwired!

I bought a copy of WIRED magazine the other day because I was interested in a couple of stories about the future of radio (HD, Satellite, etc.) As I scanned the cover my eye was immediately drawn to a seemingly minor detail, a single mark of punctuation, in fact. There, at the end of a list of teased stories, was the word "MORE," and at the end of that word, an exclamation point:

BURT RUTAN * THE INCREDIBLES * DANGER MOUSE * MARS ROVERS * HALO 2 * MORE!

And with that, whatever hint of coolness the magazine had left was gone. The old WIRED would never, ever, have resorted to a "MORE!". Now the publication is revealed for what it is: nothing more and nothing less than Condé Nast's technology monthly.

I know, I know, WIRED stopped being cool seventy years ago, and aren't you proud of how cutting-edge you are, and I'm sure you would never deign to buy a magazine at the supermarket, and you think Adbusters has sold out, so why won't you leave me alone, I'll never be as cool as you want me to be, Mom.

The magazine still has a few things to recommend it, though. The recent WIRED CD roCCked. Lawrence Lessig and Bruce Sterling are both noteworthy contributers. The removal of the extra pound and a half of advertising is praiseworthy. And if you look at the lower outside corner of most pages, you will find they are conveniently numbered in sequential order — something the old WIRED never quite figured out how to do.

Still, it was much better.