A couple times per year the New York Times calls me up asking for an Op-Ed column on some technology topic. I don’t know how they found me but I’ve been writing these pieces since 1995. I think they call because I’m good at meeting tight deadlines. Lord knows that if there was a piece I actually wanted to get in the Times (my idea, not theirs) I have no confidence that I could get them to run it. Op-Ed at the Times — at least to me — is a sort of black box.
Here’s the column they asked for on Google’s Chrome OS: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/opinion/13cringely.html
The opinions expressed, as always, are ruthlessly my own.

Intel last week bought for $884 million Wind River Systems, a venerable embedded operating system company — yet another of the chip giant’s recent forays into software. The reason for this purchase is both simple and grand — to help Intel vertically integrate and to further its Linux ambitions. Intel’s ultimate target with this purchase is Microsoft. It’s all about kicking Redmond out of the netbook business.
What happened to Neokast? It’s a mystery to me. But I suspect the answer will surprise us all soon enough.