Is he worse than the tabloid star Ashlee Vance who now writes for the NYC?

Good point. But The Register, like The Inquirer, is heading the wrong way now.

I first read John Dvorak in Mac User in the late ’80s. He was pretty good then. Or I just hadn’t read him long enough, or something.

This was just before the boom times of the ’90s, when he was putting his name to twenty-four columns a month. Most of the actual word arrangement for which was done by his research staff.

He is what he is: entertainment.

Is he worse than that old guy who writes for the WSJ, Mossberg?
Is he worse than the tabloid star Ashlee Vance who now writes for the NYC?

No, yet those two have captive audiences of non-techies so what they say is the gospel to the average reader.

Dvorak’s ‘influence’ is only felt in specialized tech publications so I think Vance and Mossberg are worse than Dvorak.

He’s like the cranky old uncle who farts at the Christmas table.
You smile and move on to something else.

His recent Redmond bashing are noteworthy because its never been this bad. There are too many tech writers who are still deathly afraid to say things that are too critical of MS for a variety of reasons. And you know how the lemmings who write in tech are: if someone does/says something, others will follow suit. THATS why I find it interesting.
People love piling on so you have to wonder if John is at the forefront of something (probably not but weirder things have happened)

Ah, what the hell…. dvorak.org/blog …. you can all have a drink now.

As for click-trolling. Please, name me one paid blogger who doesnt do that? Its the nature of the beast. Sensationalism attracts attention.

On a side note, I dont think its the spam filter which are the problem, its those damn complicated captcha math questions which are the problem.

As always, the long articles are excellent and the links section are the best of any FLOSS site.

LHS

http://boycottnovell.com/2008/11/20/irc-log-19112008-2/#tNov%2019%2022:09:06
http://boycottnovell.com/2009/01/04/irc-log-03012009-2/#tJan%2003%2021:31:03

Also, search the site for “An open letter to eWeek” where, hilarity of the content aside, Dvorak’s work is used as a negative example. I’d paste a link but that would probably not get past the curiously strong spam filter.

This is consistent with insulting Mary Jo Foley and Matt Asay in his IRC channel, and then using things they write as supporting arguments for his blog posts. Also amusing is the constant slagging of ZDNet paired with the almost spiritual joy he displays when he is mentioned there.

I don’t know how they roll in the land of King Arthur, but where I come from we call this hypocrisy.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1927885,00.asp

How about when he decided that Podcasting won’t work: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1682993,00.asp

Then a year later jumps sides and declares it the next big thing:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1855908,00.asp

John has a great strategy. If he’s wrong on one issue he just comes out with a different view in another article! He truly lives up to the old saying, “Even a broken clock is right twice a day”, and that’s pretty much what he’s banking on. Add some high seniority to the mix and you can be sure that even being wrong isn’t going to put his job in jeopardy.

People don’t consider him influential, rather he’s a form of entertainment that pulls in readers who simply read his articles to find out what crazy, off the wall thing he’ll come up with next. Not unlike the same reason I come here. None of that matters for you though. Right now John is saying something that makes you very happy, so you’ll give him the coverage he needs to stay afloat, regardless of how inaccurate, biased, or completely insane he has been in the past.