This was the first piece I wrote for SFGate — indeed, the first thing I ever wrote for anyone for publication. And it's basically a bunch of pretentious nonsense. The premise of it, though, is the idea that the PC has now become so commonplace that I expect to see the market become less and less catered to hardcore computer geeks, and more toward the average consumer. The comparison I draw is to hardcore auto mechanic types, and how there's far less of a market for them than in decades past. I think that's become true since I wrote it. Back then, the latest fast new processor was still marketed like it was a really big deal for everyone. Now that's sort of taken second stage. Interestingly enough, I got a ton of hate mail for this one. It seems I'd threatened some folks' manhood, and they basically wanted me to drop dead.

Here's another one I wrote back when I was still approaching these as straight opinion pieces. These days I like to back them up with more factual information. I figure, who cares what I think, really? Anyway, this one's about whether or not your boss is/should be reading your email at work.

I can't remember if I'd signed a regular contract by the time this one came out or not. But I may have been a regular contributor to SFGate by then. This one was about "hacker warfare," something then-President Clinton was talking about at the time. I got a semi-angry letter from a member of the US Marine Corps about this one. He was incensed that I'd call Marines "nerds." When I explained that I didn't intend to be derogatory toward either the USMC nor nerds — and that I had close friends who were both — he wrote back offering his apologies and support.

My reaction to what I was seeing around dot-com infested San Francisco at the time — essentially, people clinging to their gee-whiz gadgets as though they were pacifiers. The only article I've written in which I slam one of my good friends. I don't think he minded too much.

A discussion of End User License Agreements as used in the software industry. This is becoming less of a problem these days — ironically, because instead of EULAs, software companies want to bill you as a service, rather than sell you products. This is the first instance where I tackled a "hardcore" computer industry issue, and the result was that this article got linked to by Slashdot. (This means crazy big ratings.)

Looking at the practice of "squatting" on domain names that sound similar to those of existing companies, institutions etc., and trying to use them for your own purposes. A little thin on substance, but I was new at this, still.

In the wake of the coverage of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, I started to feel like the anti-Microsoft coverage surrounding the anti-trust trial wasn't all completely justified, either. I also figured I could have a little fun writing this one by talking about monsters and monster movies a lot. This article seems to have disappeared from the "official" SFGate archives, so what you get here is the original draft from my Microsoft Word document. My editor may have made changes before it went live, though often she would run them as-is.

My first article on the subject of MP3s. At the time, the first handheld portable MP3 player device was about to hit the market, and the RIAA was lobbying to have it blocked. These days their ire has turned to other targets — like Napster — and MP3 players proliferate. But just remember, I was schooling folks about MP3 way back in '98. I was also keen on reaching people with subjects other than boring ol' computers — so you can learn a little bit about Johannes Gutenberg and the invention of movable type in this one, too. The writing's a little over-dramatic, though.

Riffing off my earlier article ("Die, Monster, Die!") I tackled AOL's purchase of the browser company, Netscape. That issue is small potatoes compared to AOL's more recent merger with Time-Warner. I didn't trust those guys even back then. Also, I was keen on working a monster-movie reference into every article I could.

This is the first place I let vent "on record" some of the feelings I was having about the treatment of young workers in the computer industry, IT and related fields. I've commented more on this later, in my Action Item comic strip and other places. This first article came at a time when I was feeling pretty bummed and had decided to quit my job, as a sort of Christmas present to myself.