Gary Wolf

"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" for our own age, the story of a dreamer who turned American media upside down-and suffered the consequences Louis Rossetto had no money, no home, no job. Five years later he owned the hottest magazine in America and was poised to become an international tycoon, with America's most powerful financiers by his side. Rossetto was the founder and editor of" Wired, " whose hyperactive Day-Glo pages proclaimed that every American institution was obsolete. Instantly, "Wired, " was everywhere-on television, passed around the halls of Congress, displayed in the office of the president of the United States. "Wired, "'s headquarters in San Francisco became a pilgrimage site for everybody who wanted to be at the white-hot center of the digital revolution. Not since the early days of Jann Wenner and" Rolling Stone" had anybody so brilliantly channeled the enthusiasms of his era. But this was only the beginning. Wired cast an uncanny spell, creating a feedback loop that grew stunningly out of control. "Wired, "'s online site, HotWired, designed and sold the first banner advertisements for the World Wide Web, unleashing a commercial frenzy. "Wired, " reached for empire, with a book-publishing company, a broadcast division, and foreign editions all over the globe. But as the market's enthusiasm outstripped the limits of reason, Rossetto faced a battle over the fate of Wired that would prove the ultimate test of his radical ideas. Gary Wolf, one of "Wired, "'s most popular writers, takes no prisoners in this insider's account, telling a story that is alternately thrilling, hilarious, heartbreaking, and absurd. Now that bumper stickers read-ing please god-just one more bubble have been sighted on the highways of California, "Wired-A Romance" goes beyond the dot.com clicheeacute;s and paints a deeply affecting portrait of the boom."From the Hardcover edition."

Over the course of WIRED's first 20 years, our writers have embedded with the CEOs, engineers, and thinkers who have shaped the future we live in today. WIRED:Icons presents 16 heroes who have graced the magazine's pages, including Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, George Lucas, and more. You'll enjoy this collection for all the usual reasons: great characters, evocative writing, provocative insights. You'll also find something unique: a vision of our present through the streaked window of the past.

As you read this, five million Americans are day-trading. Not since gold was discovered in California have more people dropped out of their old lives and come running for the promise of a big score. For a time, Joey Anuff was among them. He has emerged-enriched, enlightened, and exhausted-to share his story. In a marriage of Anuff's own experiences with the brilliant investigative work of his Wired and Suck colleague Gary Wolf, Dumb Money explores and explains the world of day-trading as has never been done before. No strategy is too crackpot to try, no news break too dubious to play off, no so-called guru too shady, no online chat room too pathetic. Using the rhythms of a day trader's typical day as its frame, Dumb Money is a dispatch from the front lines of the stock-market revolution, a brutally Darwinian battleground on which some become wildly rich and more become part of the body count. It is essential reading for online investors, off-line investors, voyeurs, concerned citizens, and adrenaline freaks alike.