Paul Boutin :

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boutin2008@mac.com
Reader mail, questions and complaints welcome.

I write for ...
The New York Times
The Wall Street Journal
Slate (Washington Post Co.)
Valleywag (Gawker Media)
Wired magazine

Editors and Producers...
Yes, I do national radio and print gladly with no advance notice. Drop me a line.

Why I do this...
I like to write. I like to entertain people. I'm a wannabe gag writer who grew up reading 1960's Mad, 70's National Lampoon and 80's Spy. For some reason, I get paid to write about online shopping instead.

Where I live...
San Francisco, California,
atop Pacific Heights. I'm just down the block from Danielle Steel. You think I'm prolific? She's on her 70th novel.

Bio...
I went to MIT. I didn't graduate. I grew up in working-class Maine, but live in upper-class San Francisco. 20 years of information technology experience and an overlapping 12 years writing for national publications. This explains everything about me you need to know.

Because it's an election year...
I'm a registered Republican and a libertarian. No idea who I want for President. I'm all for universal health care—you would be too if you were a 46-year-old freelance writer. Wow, posting about politics makes me sleepy.

My lovely wife...

photo (c) Lane Hartwell /
Wired News
Christina Noren
I married her for her
1963 Avanti.

RSS feed

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Nov Jan

Saturday, December 15, 2007

FAQ: What am I working on?

New York Times - computers, cellphones, cameras, TV, plus any Web 2.0 stuff that survives Uncov.
Sample article: A Universe of Gadget Advice

Wall Street Journal - book reviews on tech and science.
Sample article: The Apple of his iBook

Valleywag - Silicon Valley Users Guide, general griping.
Sample article: How to Remain an Anonymous Critic

Slate - pop-culture technology, technology pop culture.
Sample article: A Grand Unified Theory of YouTube and MySpace

Wired - whatever they want. I'm just a churl who cain't say no.
Sample article: What We Don't Know

I also just filed 25 Days That Changed Everything for PC World's 25th anniversary.

Link to this entry Posted on 12/15/07; 12:33:17 AM

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Bulldog pups for everyone

bulldogpup:

Are we all gwumpy today? Let Professor Chips soothe your angry angry heart.

Link to this entry Posted on 12/13/07; 11:08:17 AM

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

NYT home page

Five seconds of gloating, ok? Alright, done. I'll be doing technology articles for non-technologists in the Times, starting with this guide to online gadget gift shopping.

Link to this entry Posted on 12/12/07; 9:51:35 PM

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Season's Greetings from the 13th floor

It's my birthday. New sunglasses. Again. The animatronic reindeer -- one big, one little -- are watching over San Francisco from the balcony behind me.

Link to this entry Posted on 12/11/07; 10:07:25 PM

Thursday, December 6, 2007

More Valleywag traffic charts

By popular demand: Google Analytics screenshots of VW top content, new-vs-returning visitors, and other stats from a typical weekday. Click the thumbnails for full size. I'm always skeptical of anything more abstracted than an httpd access log, but Google dashboards are prettier to look at.

Link to this entry Posted on 12/6/07; 10:56:55 PM

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Valleywag crosses the 100,000 mark

vw100k:

It's taken nearly two years, but our little Silicon Valley gossip blog now pulls 100,000-plus pageviews a day regularly, even on Saturday. Credit goes to Owen Thomas's scorched-earth strategy: Hire enough writers to put up two to three dozen posts every day. I'm a mere 5 percent of volume, because I only post at night and early in the morning when I'm not working. But still, it's stupidly fun to be part of the site.

Link to this entry Posted on 12/2/07; 2:21:53 AM

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