The New York Times

As my writing veered more from covering desktop publishing and the Web in the mid to late 90s into broader issues of technology and its implications, I was pulled into the orbit of the Times's Circuits section, which is devoted to those topics. I have also contributed briefs to the Business section on technology, and written a couple of features for that section. (Circuits has been shrunked into the back of Business on Thursdays, but still publishes a full slate of technology-cross-society articles.)

My first piece was a first-person article on using the Internet to research my Hodgkin's Disease, which I was diagnosed with in early 1998, and treated for during that year. (I was quickly, and remain in, full remission from the disease). The piece had a slightly melodramatic headline ("Turning to the Net to Lift the Shadow of Cancer's Dark Days"), but the tone and voice are my own.

With a number of lacunae, I've written regularly ever since. Circuits runs a regular How It Works feature, and I've done several of those, including ones on telnet, modems, routing, DSL, cookies, and bike cyclometers. Four of my How It Works articles appear in How Electronic Things Work from St. Martin's Press/NY Times Press (published Nov. 01).

On Feb. 22, 2001, I had the cover story about high-speed Internet access via Wi-Fi in public places. A follow-up on the wireless article appeared Nov. 1, 2001, discussing airports continuing and expanding partnerships to offer wireless networks in spite of reduced travel, and subsequent articles include two in December 2002 on the profusion of standards and a researcher who mapped all wireless nodes in Manhattan. In 2004, I had a cover story on commuter Internet access, which is spreading to ferries, buses, and trains.

In late 2000, I wrote one of my favorite articles: about The New Yorker cartoon "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" cartoon", interviewing its creator, Peter Steiner, and discussing the phrase's impact.

2006

Marrying the Cell Phone to Cheap Internet Calling (12/14/06)
Radio Stations Add Personalities, Digitally (12/6/06)
Advocates of Wi-Fi Learn Politics (1/19/06)
First HD Radio Ships (1/5/06)

2005

Now, Listen to Internet Radio on a Radio (10/6/05)
Revolution on the Radio (on HD Radio, 7/28/05)
Secrets to Good Hard Drive Hygiene* (7/21/05)
Some Cafes Pull the Plug on Lingering Wi-Fi Users (6/13/05)

* Featured in the book The New York Times Pracitcal Guide to Practically Everything from St. Martin's Press/NY Times Press (published Oct. 06)

2004

Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter (12/2/04)
Commuter Internet access by rail, bus, or train (7/8/04)
Jitney rolls to the Hamptons, wirelessly (6/3/04)
Wi-Pics relays pictures from a digital camera to a server (5/20/04)

2003

Jostling for the Wi-Fi lead in a crowded field (8/11/03)
Bandwidth fees blindside users (4/24/03)
The speaking music player tells songs (3/27/03)
Dell to offer Intel competitor's chips as laptop option (3/12/03)

2002

80 gigs on a network with little fuss (12/26/02)
A researcher maps Manhattan's Wi-Fi nodes (12/12/02)
Wi-Fi standards profusion threatens confusion (12/12/02)
Get Your Cartoons on the Web for a Yearly Fee (10/3/02)
Warchalking: Hobo Signs in the Modern Age (7/11/02)
Cartoonists who blog (6/6/02)
Google Offers Up Pay-for-Position Ad Placement (2/21/02)

2001

Boingo Wireless Binds Wireless ISPs Together Through Single Price and Account (12/20/01)
Google Adds 1981 to 2001 Usenet Newsgroup Archives (12/01)
Google Scans Mail-order Catalogs and Uses OCR to Index Them (12/01)
Fast Adds Refreshed News to Alltheweb.com Flagship Site (11/19/01)
Google Expands Index with Business Documents (11/7/01)
Airports Continue to Push Ahead on Wireless Networks (11/1/ 01)
Wireless Web, Wherever (Feb. 01)
Google Indexes PDFs (Feb. 01)
Companies Exchange Info without Endangering Privacy (Jan. 01)

2000 and earlier

Open the Pod Bay Doors, Furby (Dec. 00)
On the Internet, Nobody Knows You Coined A Phrase (Dec. 00)
How Bike Cyclometers Work* (Aug. 00)
How DSL Works (May 00)
How Cookies Work* (July 99)
How Routing Works* (Dec. 98)
Bob Mankoff and The Cartoon Bank (Oct. 98)
The Internet's Impact on Daily Cartoonists (Dec. 98)
How a Modem Works* (Nov. 98)
How Telnet Works (Sept. 98)
Turning the Net to Lift the Shadow of Cancer's Dark Days (July 98)

* Featured in the book How Electronic Things Work from St. Martin's Press/NY Times Press (published Nov. 01)