Gawker: valleywag, harry mccracken

How to Freak Out Susan Orlean

Ryan Tate — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:23:36 EDT

Susan Orlean was insecure about her relationship with her editors; Perez Hilton was insecure about his bodily fluids and Ezra Klein was tired of listening to his own interview. The Twitterati were anxious.

Susan Orlean is what you might call an extremely high-maintenance writer. Even by New Yorker standards.

Another day on Twitter means another uncomfortable revelation, for Perez Hilton.

Technologizer's Harry McCracken got sort of Zen about losing all his work. Except for the theism.

Politico's Ari Melber is way, way too busy to watch himself on national television, so he lives it to his many fans on Twitter.

The Washington Post's Ezra Klein got tired of hearing himself talk, to say nothing of the person he was interviewing.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

Lance Amrstrong Denied Chance to Slam Greg LeMond, Or Story Saying He Slams Greg LeMond

Ryan Tate — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:55:38 EDT

Lance Armstrong uncensored his Wall Street Journal letter saying everyone hates Greg LeMond, except Lance Armstrong; Daily Show people had a vicious fight about chairs and the Economist got snarked on. The Twitterati got it out of their systems.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber felt the swearing went without saying.

The Wall Street Journal gave interview-hating Lance Armstrong something to disintermediate, all right.

Miles Kahn of the Daily Show exposed a deep schism within the Church of Jon Stewart.

Casting aside any worries about access, Technologizer's Harry McCracken said Apple's acting CEO marketing VP is boring with boring sauce. (UPDATE: Corrected Schiller's title. What were we thinking?)

PBS' Mark Glaser was so over the Economist.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

The Twitterati Launder Their Woes

Owen Thomas — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:15:05 EST

Not a good day for the Twitterati! Dan Abrams found himself stalked by a coworker. Perma-perky PR person Brooke Hammerling got bummed out. And an underling of Tina Brown faced up to an unwelcome chore:

Daily Beast West Coast editor Tom Tapp did his laundry at 11 a.m.

Reporter-pimping rapscallion Dan Abrams felt vaguely annoyed at Rachel Sklar. (We've all been there, Dan. She's everywhere!)

Tech blogger Harry McCracken overthought Twitter.

Snacky tech superflack Brooke Hammerling let the weather get her down.

Farm and Dairy editor Susan Crowell had a cow over milking online users. Ba-dum-bum!

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us more Twitter usernames, please — or email us your favorite tweets.

OLPC repeats its mistakes with new "Give One, Get One" program

Paul Boutin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:00:03 EST

Once again, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation is offering two of its XO machines for $399. One goes to you, one goes to a third-world child. Technologizer editor Harry McCracken, the pathologically honest former head of PC World, bought into the program last year. This year, he says, he'll do it again, but he's not sure you should:

Should you Give One, Get One in order to get an XO to use as a netbook for serious adult-type productivity? I wouldn’t: The child-sized, rubbery keyboard wasn’t meant for grown-up touch typists. And while OLPC has introduced an XO that runs Windows XP, the G1G1 laptops are the original ones, running Linux and the decidedly kid-oriented “Sugar” user interface.

There's one big improvement this year. OLPC has arranged for Amazon to handle fulfillment.

Last year, the fulfillment firm chosen by OLPC proved incapable of getting laptops out to donors in an organized and timely fashion: When I made a donation I didn’t to the fact that I had to wait for weeks after the estimated arrival date had come and gone so much as that the fulfillment house lost my mailing address. Repeatedly.

Remember, if McCain wins we blame the machines

Paul Boutin — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:20:00 EST

A few years ago PC World's then-editor Harry McCracken had me look under the hood of the most popular voting machines. It came down to this: People trust ink-on-paper records more than anything stored in a computer. They only suspect tampering when they lose. Did you notice the lack of mainstream media stories about voting machine risks in 2006, when the Democrats took over Congress? There's your liberal media bias, right there. It's not that editors and producers killed stories questioning the vote, it's that they forgot to assign them after their side won. Today, Kim Zetter at Wired.com is the only reporter cranking out the e-voting fail. Ohio has some ESS iVotronics that will only vote for Nader. God help us all.

PC World steals ex-Infoworld editor

Paul Boutin — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:20:00 EDT

Further proof that the print world isn't like the Internet: Eighteen years after he first took a job at monthly service mag PC World, Steve Fox has been brought back by magazine publisher IDG to replace outgoing editor and Internet hero Harry McCracken, whose Technologizer site is nearing an official launch. The unapologetically nuts-and-bolts PC World, with covers like "72 Ways to Make Software Do More," is generally considered the largest-circulation tech magazine in the world. It outsells both Wired and Fast Company by a small margin.

No wonder the smarter-than-your-average-trade-journalist Fox returned from going-nowhere startup Affinity Labs, which he joined after helming fading star Infoworld, an IDG monthly for IT professionals that no longer publishes in print. How will Fox get modern computer enthusiasts, both excited and jaded by the Internet, to buy a magazine? Just a suggestion, Steve: "Summer Glau's 72 Ways to Terminate PC Problems"(Photo by Dealmaker Media)

Layoffs at PC World

Owen Thomas — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:40:00 EDT

A tipster writes: "PC World continued its slide into the trashcan of history yesterday; 6 more employees were laid off yesterday; a couple in art, a couple in editorial and a couple of support staff." The IDG-owned print monthly has held up better than its main rival, PC Magazine, but beloved editor Harry McCracken left in May to launch his startup, Technologizer. Anyone know more?

Former PC World chief: Macs no more expensive than PCs

Paul Boutin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:40:00 EDT

"A MacBook is in the same ballpark as a roughly similar Dell or HP, and less than a Sony." That's the conclusion of Technologizer editor Harry McCracken, after running the numbers several different ways on competing notebooks. The MacBook didn't win most hardware categories, but it came out well-rounded, with superior warranty service and media software. McCracken, until recently the editor in chief of PC World, was infamous among local tech journalists for toting Apple laptops to work.

Harry McCracken leaving PC World to go startup

Owen Thomas — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:00:00 EDT

PC World editor-in-chief Harry McCracken is leaving the magazine next month to work on his own technology website which, to our relief, he does not describe as a "blog." [Folio]

Happy birthday to PC World's Harry McCracken!

Jordan Golson — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:20:00 EDT

We hope hard-working PC World editor-in-chief Harry McCracken is taking a break for his birthday. McCracken looked stressed in this pic that Valleywag very special correspondent Paul Boutin snapped at Macworld in January. He may be too busy saving DOS to celebrate, however.

PC World editor is still waiting for his OLPC

Jordan Golson — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:20:02 EST

PC World's Harry McCracken ordered an XO laptop from the One Laptop For Child charity on November 12. He gave a $400 "donation" — half to buy himself a laptop and half to buy a laptop for a "deserving child" in a developing country. After many emails back and forth and 35 minutes on hold, McCracken still hasn't received his laptop. Neither has a colleague of his. OLPC claims that they don't have a mailing address for him because he paid with PayPal.

Which is nonsensical: One of PayPal's features is that it gives merchants a verified address. And why wouldn't they get in touch to complete the order? Apparently he "might have good news in February." Some customer service that is. Snafus like this prevent the OLPC project from being taken seriously. If you can't ship laptops to a few reporters in California, how can you deliver hundreds of thousands of laptops to developing countries? Of course, the nonprofit has no profit motive to spur it to deliver on its promises. The invisible hand has a way of providing visible results.

Old Media runs circles around Web 2.0 at Macworld

Paul Boutin — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:07:09 EST

I took this picture of Valleywag cub reporter Jordan Golson because I think the kid has potential. But Jordan, watch and learn: See the guy typing away behind you? Forbes senior editor Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs. And the man with the early migraine? PC World editor in chief Harry McCracken. Look at them: Work, work, work. With the dual exception of Engadget and Gizmodo, the Web 2.0 kids fell way behind the old guard in reporting this morning. Oh, and whoever decided Valleywag would report the whole thing via Twitter? You win the prize. Go back and read Uncov until you know the difference between "scale" and "fail."