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davidgewirtzunplugged:
JUST SO:ESSAYS AND COMMENTARY

I've been very fortunate. As an editor, I've been able to get away with writing commentaries and essays on a whole range of topics, even though the publications are mostly technical in nature. Earlier, I wrote some of my own commentary and just posted them online (and I intend to do more of this for the more off-the-wall topics).

Rather than making you sift through the hundreds of articles I've written, I've selected 12 of my favorites, listed below.

Together, maybe we really can change the world
One of my employees, Heather McDaniel, embarked on an exciting 400-mile bike journey to raise money to help find a cure for AIDS, and I got to talk about it in my magazine. [PalmPower, June 2001]

The April Fool's article that never was
It's the economy, stupid. As we began the second Bush recession, I had some comments (and some fun). [PalmPower, April 2001]

I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that
As PalmPower kicked off its fourth year, I reflected (when you're an Editor-in-Chief, you get to reflect) on why the predictions science fiction writers like Arthur C. Clarke had for the year 2001 failed to pan out. [PalmPower, January 2001]

The beauty and the beast
As the wacky 2000 election wound down, I did this piece about the beast of this nation's conflicting ideologies versus the beauty of America's particular brand of democracy. [PalmPower, December 2000]

Don't stop thinking about tomorrow
Deep down, I'd kinda like to be President of the United States because I want my own naval fleet (badly, so badly). This was a very special project for us that I'm quite proud of. Read between the lines and maybe you'll figure out why. [PalmPower, October 2000]

PalmPower interviews Al Gore
Presidential candidate Al Gore is known to be an active Palm device user, wearing it most days on his belt. I got to do this (very short) exclusive interview with the candidate. For a while, we were concerned the men in the black vans would pull up outside. [PalmPower, October 2000]

That old time religion
Back on July 10, our news team ran a one-paragraph news item about a site that can download adult stories to Palm devices. We got letters. So, last month in our Letters to the Editor column we ran those letters. Well, wouldn't you know it, we got more letters! Somehow, in a publication dedicated to technical information on Palm devices, we managed to spark a discussion on free speech, the Internet, morality, and much more. Although a morality discussion is quite far afield for PalmPower, we've decided to reprint those letters here for you to think about and enjoy. [PalmPower, September 2000]

Welcome to the new millennium
Somehow, I managed to get Bill Clinton, Milli Vanilli, Karen Carpenter, cigars, loincloths, IBM, Eudora, pointy-eared Vulcans, flush-toilets, and Charlemagne all into one reasonably lucid editorial. You don't find gems like this in Time, baby! [PalmPower, January 2000]

It's not Y2K, it's stupidity!
I decided to get on my soapbox. Hundreds of thousands of people read our publications. Back before the Y2K non-issue, I thought that if we all started a "let's not be friggin' stupid" campaign, Y2K would work out fine. [DominoPower, September 1999]

It's a small world
You might not expect social commentary in a technical magazine like DominoPower, but sometimes the real world asserts itself when you least expect it. I dedicated this issue of DominoPower to a female Notes administrator who was most unfairly treated, late one night at Newark airport. [DominoPower, December 1998]

A factory on the banks of a raging river
I wrote this when we installed our first dedicated Internet feed back in 1997. It's a very interesting commentary given our current activities.

Lest we forget
It snowed one April back in 1997. And I wrote about it.

If you want to see more, you can find the bulk of my articles here.


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