August 19, 2002

Robert Cringely is an idiot

Well, he's at it again.  Bob Cringely, after going out and making up a column earlier this year, he's decided that WiFi is dead, long live... HomePlug?  Hmmm.  OK, perhaps 802.11 wireless networks don't work everywhere, that's true.  And perhaps you can use a HomePlug-type device to act as a connection between WiFi APs on different sides of the house, but the fact of the matter is that 802.11 networking ain't going away.

Forget for the moment that 802.11 networking chips are already built into high end laptops, and that Intel is rolling 802.11 chips in its next generation of mobile chipsets.  Forget that WLAN shipments are up 15% last quarter, nah that stuff doesn't really mean anything, does it, Bob?

It almost makes you think that Cringely is just trolling for ideas - with the burden of writing a weekly column about technology, perhaps he's just hit the doldrums and is generating controversy just to generate controversy. (Thanks to Glenn for the link and initial commentary) Posted by dsifry at August 19, 2002 11:25 PM | TrackBack | View blog reactions
Comments

Um, congratulations. You've made cringleys troll worthwhile for cringely.

Quote:
But where I had it wrong, I now believe, was in my prediction that this would make WiFi the default home networking technology of the future. I no longer think that.

This is a 'this home plug stuff is pretty cool and I like the shirt they sent me, why don't I promote it in a column and still cover my arse in the process?' article he wrote.

Hardly is it a 'death of wifi' article, but a 'this stuff will show up in homes more often than wifi'.

Whether or not I agree with his statement is another story, but you just seem to have gotten caught up in the hysteria of his article. Congrats, you've been trolled (or I've been trolled by your reply ;)

Posted by: john at August 20, 2002 12:18 PM

i don't know just how serious one needs to be to call cringely other than the worlds most widely read troll. maybe david coursey (zdnet)can step in and take over the mantle when cringely eventually steps down. or they could tag-team the role.

to @john:
i don't quite know why you would call responding to an article as "you've been trolled", it's immature, and it's vague, not to mention wrong. i'll hand you a dictionary and a thesaurus and you can look up the word you want to use instead.

Posted by: toliman at August 20, 2002 10:56 PM

I read the Sifry's comments above before reading the Cringely story so I was expecting the worst... Actually I agree with 'John':
"Hardly is it a 'death of wifi' article, but a 'this stuff will show up in homes more often than wifi'."

Is Cringely that bad? I certainly wouldn't put him anywhere near David Coursey (when he arrived I stopped going to Zdnet - period).

Lastly I'm intrigued about this comment:
"after going out and making up a column earlier this year".
This is the first I've heard about that being *baloney*. so what's the score?

Posted by: c123 at August 21, 2002 8:49 AM

Everyone is totally right Robert Cringely is really really really annoying and stupid. I have seen his revenge of the ners series and it made me want to kill myself. The only person on this planet who could possibly be more annoying is Microsolft's Ballmer, but he is another story.

Posted by: Bill at January 30, 2003 8:55 AM