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John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

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Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#71

Post by buzzert »

acomjean wrote: post #39
Steko wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dvorak's greatest hits: "nobody wants a mouse", "Steve Jobs going the way of pet rocks", "cable modems are a dead end", "the mac is dead", "ipod is a niche product", "wikipedia is a dead end", "podcasting is a dead end", "linux is a dead end", "time to short apple", "the iphone's a flop", "ipad's a flop", "apple watch's a flop", etc.

When I used to listen to the TWIT podcast (its been years..), I liked Dvorak's cynical perspective vs the love everything new and tech of the other hosts. He was cranky. I give him bonus points for remembering lotus's Jazz software in the podcast (and calling it out for its problems when it came out). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Jazz

“I get no spam!”

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#72

Post by busterarm »

ternaryoperator wrote: post #70
busterarm wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're listed as Columnists (as opposed to Contributing Editor, which means you're an employee), have non-pcmag.com (unlike all of their other authors) email addresses in their Author Bios on PC Mag's site and with one exception (a twice-yearly contributor anyway) they all have published PC Mag articles within the last week. Moreover, they all have full-time jobs which are not at Ziff Davis. Knowledge is power.

> (as opposed to Contributing Editor, which means you're an employee) It might mean that at PC Mag, but it definitely does not mean that on other magazines. In fact, at most publications it refers to someone who is not an employee. For more, see [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributing_editor

You're certainly right. In fact most authors actually have Analyst or Reporter. I was looking at Tim Gideon and a few others as an example, who happen to have a pcmag emails. Thank you for the correction.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#73

Post by bitwize »

mc32 wrote: post #30

This is really too bad. After 36 years, they don't have the courage and decency for a call. On a side note, I had always assumed 'Dvorak' was a penname --however, I've learned he's actually related to the actual Dvorak Keyboard creator.

You may be confusing him with Robert X. Cringely, which is a pen name.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#75

Post by Consultant32452 »

GW150914 wrote: post #68
Consultant32452 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who gets to decide who is a Frederick Douglass and who is an Alex Jones? What makes you feel so confident that you will be on the right side of history when the modern Frederick Douglass is deplatformed?

When that modern Frederick Douglass is deplatformed, we can talk, instead of this hysterical “when the world ends where will you be?!” shit. If you have something more than slippery slopes to offer, and comparing Alex Jones to Frederick Douglass, I’m all ears, otherwise, have a good day.

I don't know if any modern Frederick Douglass' are being deplatformed. It's nice to imagine that if I lived in 1863 that I would recognize that Douglass was on the right side of history, but statistically that is unlikely. I highly doubt you would recognize a Frederick Douglass either, if I could manage to point one out. That is why everyone must be allowed to speak.

If I find someone that I think is an Alex Jones, a Nazi, etc. it's easy enough to block them. What I don't do though is tell you that you're not allowed to listen to them either. That's where sensibility turns to authoritarianism. Freedom of speech is not just the right to speak, but also the right to hear.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#76

Post by grigjd3 »

busterarm wrote: post #60
lukev wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, you can believe whatever you want about why he was fired, but "no-platforming" is an actual deliberate thing and this was by definition not it. I read over his tweets for the past couple weeks and while he comes off as your typical conservative blowhard, there's nothing worthy of public outcry and therefore worthy of a de-platforming event. Look. I almost feel bad about myself for engaging with you on this leve…

Woah, hold up there. You're speaking for some progressives as if you're speaking for all. I generally like to think of myself as progressive. I'm pretty sure that many progressives consider employing someone in your organization who posts hateful content online _is_ amplifying them. Look at the internal messages of Google employees in the John Damore lawsuit documents if you don't believe me. Breitbart fired Milo ove…

Damore wasn't fired for having certain views. He was fired for making his feelings about his views in relationship to his company a national issue. I think many negative things about my employer, all not ideological, but I fully expect to get fired if my rantings about it end up as national news. On the other hand, if I act like an adult and minimize my impact, my employer doesn't give a rat's ass what my views are.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#77

Post by busterarm »

grigjd3 wrote: post #76
busterarm wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah, hold up there. You're speaking for some progressives as if you're speaking for all. I generally like to think of myself as progressive. I'm pretty sure that many progressives consider employing someone in your organization who posts hateful content online _is_ amplifying them. Look at the internal messages of Google employees in the John Damore lawsuit documents if you don't believe me. Breitbart fired Milo ove…

Damore wasn't fired for having certain views. He was fired for making his feelings about his views in relationship to his company a national issue. I think many negative things about my employer, all not ideological, but I fully expect to get fired if my rantings about it end up as national news. On the other hand, if I act like an adult and minimize my impact, my employer doesn't give a rat's ass what my views are.

I'm not saying anything about why Damore was (deservedly) fired, I'm speaking specifically about the self-described activity of _some_ Google employees and managers to deliberately not hire or ensure the firing of non-progressives and to keep the company roster 'ideologically pure'.

I am purely speaking about the content of the internal messaging included in the court documents. It's a good read if you haven't gone through it yet.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#79

Post by Gibbon1 »

swingline-747 wrote: post #50
nasalgoat wrote: post #9

Wait, PC Magazine is still a thing?

Homebrew/home-assembly computing nostalgic sigh All those trips up and down the Valley, like was a spread out Guangzhou JDR Microdevices, NCA Peripherals, WierdStuff, Central Computers, MicroCenter, Halted, Egghead, mom&pop shareware and even the "evil" Fry's and CompUSA. IIRC I spend somewhere on the order of $5k on basically a homebuilt workstation... Adaptec U2W, IBM Ultrastar whopping 9 GB drive, Plextor CD burne…

> Central Computers

Is still kicking. I think their business model is you a pay a small premium for retail service and stuff that works reliably.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#80

Post by daveFNbuck »

itbeho wrote: post #57
Operyl wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The email states they’re winding down more than just him. Not everything is a conspiracy, PC Mag could just be cost cutting or downsizing due to a reduced readership.

I think you are right and it's probably the most plausible answer. But in the spirit of interpreting the parent comment with good faith, help me walk through a thought experiment: Try getting a job or a promotion with any VC backed SV company while having a Twitter bio that indicates you voted for or support Trump. Not quite willing to do that? A bridge too far? No prob. Instead, just put that you support the 2nd Ame…

I've never seen a problem with coworkers who loudly support any of these causes at VC backed SV companies. One of my coworkers posted about how happy he was about King Trump winning the election. He was promoted and later hired at another VC-backed SV company.
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