The Glamour of Journalism

Don't get me wrong -- I'm lucky enough to have a really wonderful job that I'm enjoying the hell out of. But the next time someone is talking about how cool it must be, I think I'll point them to this photograph, taken out the window of my hotel in Los Angeles at E3 this past week. Apparently, this was the best lodging option available. I don't have a photo of the police that one of my co-workers saw riding up in an elevator before I got there, presumably to bust someone.

The show was a typical E3, with too much noise and too many people, although it did seem slightly less-horrific than last year. Of everything I saw and played, I was most impressed with Nintendo's new console, the Wii. It's motion-sensitive remote-like control was really easy to use, and there were several games that highlighted just how much fun it's going to be to play with this thing.

Better Eating Through Chemistry

Back in February, I was lucky enough to spend a few nights in the kitchen at Chicago's remarkable Alinea restaurant. Grant Achatz, the chef at Alinea, and his whole crew were amazingly gracious and helpful, as I did the reporting on a story for Wired about Achatz, and the ways he's reinventing food.

The kitchen - spotless, sparkling stainless steel - looks like a chemistry lab. Dominating an entire counter, with a smooth steel top and an industrial frame, sits the antigriddle. Built by lab supplier PolyScience, it can chill food to minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit in an instant. Another station features an infuser, more often found in head shops and Amsterdam coffeehouses, which pumps mace-scented air into cotton pillows that cushion a duck-and-foie gras dish. And in the spice rack alongside the cinnamon and paprika are carrageenan and sodium alginate - chemicals used to thicken and stabilize foods. The whole place bubbles and pops with dehydrators, vacuum sealers, immersion circulators, and induction burners.

The genius at the heart of the lab is Grant Achatz (rhymes with rackets). A veteran of famous kitchens, the 31-year-old chef opened Alinea on the north side of Chicago a year ago. "When we started putting this thing together I told everybody, 'This is going to be the next best restaurant in the country,'" Achatz says, "'and we're going to do it the way I want to do it.'"

If you're in Chicago and want to see the future of food, it's worth trying to get into Alinea.

Live on CNN

Sorry for the lack of posting -- a big work trip and writing the subsequent feature has taken up a ton of time.

But I did make it to CNN this morning to talk about Microsoft's new gadget:

Can someone explain why I can't look steadily at the camera?

Musings on a Classic

My latest Wired News column is up: I spend it talking about a bike I just bought on eBay, a 1983 Colnago Super with Campagnolo Nuovo Record parts.

Cyclists are a fickle lot, and we're generally willing to sell our soul for the lightest, most aerodynamic, craziest tech we can find. After all, when you're chugging up a hill, every gram you can cut off your bike is one less gram you have to haul to the top of the climb.

We're addicts -- just like golfers, or tennis players, or skiers -- we're chasing the piece of equipment that will make us better, or stronger, or faster. Catalogs filled with the latest gear stack up in our houses, dog-eared and well-thumbed, as we fantasize about our latest purchase.

But sometimes, it's important to step back and realize that what's essential and true about a sport isn't the equipment or the technology, but the activity, the act itself. Taking a spin on an old bike, with old parts, reminds you that it's not about the bike, but about the ride.

Did Armstrong Dope?

My latest column for Wired News is live. I start off by discussing the rumors surround Lance Armstrong, and the story published by L'Equipe earlier this month.

The opinion you form after digesting all this information is more a Rorschach test than anything else. If you're inclined to believe that Armstrong doped, these test results can serve as confirmation. If you're inclined to believe his denials, they're further proof of a vendetta against Armstrong by the French.

But what the situation really points out is the futility of the drug-testing regime in place today. New drugs appear all the time, leaving testers playing a never-ending game of catch-up. Athletes find themselves smeared by innuendo. Rumor and recrimination are the order of the day.

One thing we can be sure of: The technology of athletes who want to cheat will always outpace that of those people charged with catching them. Is there another way?

I ended up arguing, at least guardedly, that maybe we should just give up on trying to win this arms race. I was surprised to find myself coming around to this position--it was one of those pieces that as you write it, you end up in a very different place than you expected.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone who has read it has agreed, or been convinced. I'm not even sure I am, 100%. But I am sure of one thing; it's how I ended the column:

Athletes will always do what they can to find an edge, even if it endangers their health. And people will always thrill to the performance of these elite athletes. Until one of those things changes, the debate, and the uncertainty, will continue.

Weblogging Badges of Honor

So, just about every weblog in the universe seems to have the same sort of buttons on it somewhere. In fact, the pull was so great that I just had to put some up on this site. They're in the left column, down below the link. It all started on Antipixel, with buttons that I find handsome, but not overwhelming in their beauty. There is something about them that screams, "I am a geek!" in a way that appeals to me.

It obviously appealed to others, too, because now there are over 1,700 of the damn things available for downloading, including the ones that I just put up. You can even make your own online.

There's something a little sad about the visual state of the web -- especially when it comes to weblogs. There are some beautiful sites out there, but overall, it looks like most of them are one of the same ten templates (present company included).

I'd be inclined to think of the proliferation of these buttons as another symptom of that stunted state of design, but maybe there's something else. It's a way to visually proclaim that you get it. That you're part of the mass of bloggers who understand what it means to be blogging.

Or, maybe you're just to lazy to design your own buttons.

Sharing through Windows iTunes

Apple has done a terrific job porting iTunes to the Windows world. I had no installation problems, and was up and running, and sharing across my home network, in a couple of minutes. But now it turns out that a college student has hacked iTunes for Windows to allow users to download tracks on other users shared playlists. It's reminiscent of a bug (or feature) in the first release of iTunes 4.0 on the Mac, which allowed the same sort of sharing over the internet, and not just on local networks.

Apple has done a hell of a lot of work to try and legitimatize the purchase of music online, but they're going to run out of good will from the record companies if they keep putting out software with loopholes like this. Look for a "bug fix" soon.