Lessig has another great essay on what he calls "a costly addiction." My favorite quote:

[I]t takes an extraordinarily perverse view of progress to think that protecting the past is the best path to the future.

From Wired 14.11: Posts
Referenced Mon Nov 20 2006 13:54:58 GMT-0700 (MST)

And as a bonus, be sure to read Steven Levy's article on the iPod. He is such a great writer. He describes showing the iPod to Bill Gates the day after Jobs announced it:

I brought along my new iPod. At the end of the meal, just as the other guests at the table were pushing away their chairs, I pulled out the iPod and put it in front of Gates.

"Have you seen this yet?" I asked.

Gates went into a zone that recalls those science fiction films where a space alien, confronted with a novel object, creates some sort of force tunnel between him and the object, allowing him to suck directly into his brain all possible information about it. Gates' fingers, racing at Nascar speed, played over the scroll wheel and pushed every button combination, while his eyes stared fixedly at the screen. I could almost hear the giant sucking sound. Finally, after he had absorbed every nuance of the device, he handed it back to me.

"It looks like a great product," he said.

Then he paused a second. Something didn't compute.

"It's only for Macintosh?" he asked.

Yes, it was. (Then.)

From Wired 14.11: The Perfect Thing
Referenced Mon Nov 20 2006 13:56:27 GMT-0700 (MST)

Classic.