Marc Andreessen continues to fill up notebooks with ideas and sketched-out business plans for new companies. Among the gossipy cognoscenti, it's a poorly kept secret that in recent months he has been occupied starting a new Internet company.

Improbable as it may seem, given the breadth and depth of the dot-com collapse, not to mention the emergence of hivelike high-tech centers in places like China and India now available for off-shoring and outsourcing, Silicon Valley is starting to feel like 1995 -- the year Netscape went public -- all over again.

The miracle of Silicon Valley is that it is a system finely calibrated to spit out new companies -- some of which have come to be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, within a few years' time.

"I think the mistake now is holding back when you've got a good idea." Particularly with the rich scent of investment money once again in the air.

They form the core of a revived entrepreneurial network drunk on the idea of creating the next big thing. None have to work another day in their lives, yet they still routinely work 60 to 70 hours a week -- except those who sheepishly confess to working 80.

"You can't underestimate the good feeling you get when people in your wider social circle think you created something really, really cool."

"It's like the word 'opportunity' is there in front of you in red flashing lights and you feel you have no choice. I'm having the time of my life."

"I know one venture capitalist who's basically reviewing scores of ideas from 1999 [2], figuring there's all these babies thrown out with the bath water. I think he's right."

"We are not ready to stop changing the world."

If You Can Make It in Silicon Valley, You Can Make It . . . in Silicon Valley Again

For the first few centuries after Johann Gutenberg started churning out Bibles, books had it easy.

Even in this high-tech age, old-fashioned books appear to be holding their own.

Remarkably, Americans still spend more on books than they do on moviegoing, recorded music, video games or DVD's. Despite all the advances in technology, books still have no equal when it comes to telling complicated, nuanced narratives.

Yes, Obi-Wan, There Still Are Books

The bust yielded of ShadowCrew a treasure trove of evidence. "We will be arresting people for months and months and months," says the Secret Service.

Hacker Hunters

The critical question is not, "How can I achieve?" but "What can I contribute?"

The 12th Disasters Roundtable workshop, held earlier this year, focused on grand challenges in science and technology related to society s vulnerability to disaster. Agencies and stakeholders from the disaster research and policy community gathered to discuss research and program priorities for the future. They identified problems in science and technology that might be resolved by coordinated and sustained investments in research, education, communication, and the application of knowledge and technology. Attendees talked about how such investments might help produce significant reductions in the loss of life and property from natural, technological and human-induced disasters.

Creating a Disaster Resilient America: Grand Challenges in Science and Technology

Perhaps no element of the current conflict in Iraq engenders more emotion and acrimony within the military than debate concerning the role and influence of the news media on public opinion and national policy. Debates regarding this subject are nothing new.

As a result of this reemerging debate, it is useful and appropriate to revisit the relationship of press reporting, public opinion, and war policy, and to seek a theoretical understanding of how these relate to each other.

This essay is also available in a PDF version.

War Policy, Public Support, and the Media

We show that network theory, combined with the analysis of roll-call votes using singular value decomposition, successfully uncovers political and organizational correlations between committees in the House.

A network analysis of committees in the US House of Representatives [PDF]

The microchip that runs Apple's popular music player is made in India, Taiwan, China and Silicon Valley. Is this an example of how globalization works to everyone's benefit -- or a sign that the world economy is about to roll over America?

The iPod is a striking Apple success story, but the first thing worth noting is that Apple doesn't "make" it. Steve Jobs and Co. led the overall design, but the pieces get put together in China by a pair of Taiwanese firms.

Making a buck in high-tech has never been harder and competition will only get more intense.

The world in the iPod

"The fundamental root of the problem is that I don't want to hear a recording. I want to hear the young Horowitz, Schnabel, Fats Waller, Thelonious Monk on an in-tune piano."

If the claims he is making for his new technology are accurate, he will soon be able to.

Play It Again, Vladimir (via Computer)

On every day except graduation day, young people are taught that their futures depend not on following their bliss, but on mastering dutiful (and less lovable) abilities like crunching numbers and following rules.

But this year is different. The students graduating this spring will operate in a labor market that increasingly confers an economic advantage on the activities that people do out of a sense of intrinsic satisfaction -- designing cool things, telling stories and helping others. For the class of 2005, "Do what you love" is no longer a soft-hearted sentiment. It is also a hard-headed strategy.

What's going on?

Pomp and Circumspect