no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher

So, too, no EPROM chip will replace a tasty carrotstick! No flat-screen LCD will replace a morning sunrise! No mp3 player will replace a symphony orchestra!

No [thing with functions nominally semantically related to but not intended by any stretch of the imagination to wholly supplant x] can take the place of [x]!

Today, my boss and I decided to get rid of our CD-Roms.

The funny thing is, CNN.com and political blogs have replaced my daily newspaper. Computer networks HAVE changed the way local governments work.

Stoll's arguments were made back in the 90's, and were refuted even then. He sounds ridiculously archaic, like a horse salesman railing against automobiles.

What's missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee.

Can't we have both? A few years ago, I read a study that claimed to show that people who have lots of email contact with friends and family also call friends and family on the phone very often. Wonder of wonders! People who have friends and family like to communicate with friends and family! The whole world has turned upside down.

Uh, I'm a retard. That article was written in 1995. So yeah. Archaic.

The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio

Heh. That's a pretty obsolete reference even for 1995.

I still agree with some of his ideas -- I prefer newspapers and books to the digital equivalents, and probably always will, even when there are no newspapers left to read. Shopping online is great for some things, like when I know exactly what I want, but it still stinks for browsing, and isn't all that helpful about suggesting what you might need.

On the other hand, while I also prefer letters to e-mail, I freely admit that I communicate with friends and family much more often now that there is e-mail than I did when there wasn't. It is absolutely fabulous being able to look up an odd fact rather than listening to people pointlessly speculate about it. And downloading Iron Chef episodes and watching the World Figure Skating Championships live on Turkish TV? Priceless.

I worked for a major newspaper. I literally read the newspaper every night hot off the press because the waste copies were collected in a bin in the reel room. Except for the most important breaking news, the national news was just over 24 hours old, and the international news 48 hours old. Yet that same news was no more than a couple hours old when I first read it online.

My friend got this gem from Stoll's wiki page:

Stoll is fascinated by one-sided objects and currently sells glass blown Klein bottles on the Web

TEH IRONY! IT KILLS ME!

Back in post-college, we'd get in to school in the mornings and throw ourselves at every paper there was on the breakfast table. We'd read everything, the Sun, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Guardian, the whatever and twenty more - then classes would start. Our tutors told us to make it a habit - not because we're learning what the news is, but we're learning what people are talking aboout at the pub - and thus later we can use this in making an ad talking to said people sitting at the pub.
Do you have any idea how hard this is after the invention of tha intarwebs? ;)

Not if you have to catch the Tube, dabitch. Yesterday I got to read The Sun, The Guardian and The Independent, plus the free papers, all within arm's reach and just left there. No Daily Mail, though, sadly.

And ha! This article was written right when I was first online (started uni, free dialup). The final paragraph about community is interesting, but wasn't true even then.