John C. Dvorak is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
columnistA columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
and broadcaster in the areas of
technologyTechnology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and
computingA computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a mainstay of a variety of magazines. Dvorak is also the Vice-President of
MevioMevio Inc., is an American internet entertainment network, whose properties include PodShow+, PodShow Podcast Network, PodShowPDN, Podcast Alley, CastBlaster, the Podsafe Music Network and, BT PodShow...
(formerly PodShow) and well known for his work for Tech TV. He has also gained some notoriety for making predictions that have turned out to be spectacularly off-target.
Personal life and background
John Charles Dvorak was born in 1952 in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. He graduated from the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
with a degree in history, with a minor in chemistry, and has homes in the
San Francisco Bay areaThe San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
and Port Angeles, in Washington State. He is married to Mimi Smith-Dvorak.
Dvorak is a skilled BBQ and grilling enthusiast, noted collector of
Bordeaux wineA Bordeaux wine is any wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France. Average vintages produce over 700 million bottles of Bordeaux wine, ranging from large quantities of everyday table wine, to some of the most expensive and prestigious wines in the world...
s and has been a
tasting judgeWine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onwards...
at various international events. He started his career as a wine writer.
Dvorak obtained a technician class
amateur (ham) radioAmateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
license, callsign KJ6LNG, in November 2010.
Periodicals
Dvorak has written for various publications, including
InfoWorldInfoWorld is an information technology online media and events business operating under the umbrella of InfoWorld Media Group, a division of IDG...
,
PC MagazinePC Magazine is a computer magazine published by Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009...
(two separate columns since 1986),
MarketWatchMarketWatch operates a financial information website that provides business news, analysis and stock market data to some 6 million people. MarketWatch offers personal finance news and advice, tools for investors and access to industry research. Along with its flagship website, the company operates...
,
BUG Magazine (
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
), and
Info ExameInfo Exame is a high-popular Brazilian technology magazine. Its name was Exame Informática formerly, a reference to its creation as the technology supplement for Exame, a business magazine...
(
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
). Dvorak has been a columnist for
BoardwatchBoardwatch, published and edited by Jack Rickard, began as an important publication for the online Bulletin Board Systems of the 1980s and 1990s and ultimately evolved into the primary trade magazine of the ISP industry in the late 1990s. Late in the magazine's run, it was renamed to ISPWatch when...
,
ForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
,
Forbes.com,
MacUserMacUser is a biweekly computer magazine published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. and licensed by Felden in the UK.In 1985 Felix Dennis’ Dennis Publishing, the creators of MacUser in the UK, licensed the name and “mouse-rating” symbol for MacUser to Ziff-Davis Publishing for use in the rest of the world....
,
MicroTimes,
PC/ComputingPC/Computing was a monthly Ziff Davis publication that for most of its run focused on publishing reviews of IBM-compatible hardware and software and tips and reference information for users of such software and hardware.Established under the guidance of founding publisher and columnist Michael...
,
Barron's MagazineBarron's is an American weekly newspaper covering U.S. financial information, market developments, and relevant statistics. Each issue provides a wrap-up of the previous week's market activity, news reports, and an informative outlook on the week to come....
,
Smart Business, and
Vancouver Sun. (The
MicroTimes column ran under the banner
Dvorak's Last Column.) He has written for the
New York Times, Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, MacMania Networks, International Herald TribuneThe International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, San Francisco Examiner and
The Philadelphia InquirerThe Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
among numerous other publications.
His
PC Magazine column is licensed worldwide.
Dvorak created a few tech running jokes; in episode 18 of
TWiTThis Week in Tech–casually referred to as TWiT, and formerly known as Revenge of the Screen Savers–is the weekly flagship podcast of the TWiT.tv network...
(This Week in Tech) he claimed that, thanks to his hosting provider, he "gets no
spamEmail spam, also known as junk email or unsolicited bulk email , is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by email. Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. One subset of UBE is UCE...
."
Books
Dvorak has written or co-authored over a dozen books, including
Hypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of the Osborne Computer CorporationHypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of the Osborne Computer Corporation was published in 1984 and coauthored by Adam Osborne and John C. Dvorak. It tells the story of the Osborne Computer Corporation from the establishment of the company in 1980 until its bankruptcy in 1983, written from Osborne's...
with
Adam OsborneAdam Osborne was an American author, book and software publisher, and computer designer who founded several companies in the United States and elsewhere.- Computers :...
and
Dvorak's Guide to Desktop Telecommunications in 1990,
Dvorak's Guide to PC Telecommunications in 1992,
Dvorak's Guide to OS/2 in 1993, and
Dvorak Predicts in 1994. His latest book is
Online! The Book (Prentice Hall PTR, October, 2003) with co-authors Wendy Taylor and
Chris PirilloChristopher Joseph Pirillo is the founder and maintainer of Lockergnome, which is a network of blogs, web forums, mailing lists, and online communities. He spent two years hosting the TechTV television program Call for Help, where he also hosted the first annual Call-for-Help-a-Thon...
.
Awards
The Computer Press Association presented Dvorak with the
Best Columnist and
Best Column awards, and he was also the 2004 and 2005 award winner of the American Business Editors Association's national gold award for best online columns of 2003 and 2004, respectively.
He was the creator and lead judge of the
Dvorak AwardsThe Dvorak Awards for Excellence in Communication were established by computing columnist John C. Dvorak. Ascend Communications was their primary sponsor, but other businesses both inside and outside the computing industry also assumed sponsorship. The awards were given from 1992 through 1997...
(1992–1997).
In 2001, he was awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology.
TV and online media
Dvorak was on the start-up team for
CNET NetworksCNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
, appearing on the television show
CNET Central. He also hosted a
radioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
show called
Real Computing and later 'Technically Speaking' on
NPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, as well as a television show on
TechTVTechTV was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming...
(formerly ZDTV) called
Silicon SpinSilicon Spin was a half-hour business-related technology television program that aired on ZDTV for several years during the dot-com era from 1998 to 2001. It featured guest panelists , usually business insiders, engaged in debates moderated by host John C...
. Dvorak is currently a voice on the
podcastA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
"
No AgendaNo Agenda is a podcast which takes place two times a week on Thursday and Sunday in the morning, hosted by Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak on the mevio network. The show is a free-flowing conversation that deconstructs recent news and media memes. Much of the appeal of the show comes from the odd...
".
He now appears on
Marketwatch TV and is a regular panelist on
This Week in TechThis Week in Tech–casually referred to as TWiT, and formerly known as Revenge of the Screen Savers–is the weekly flagship podcast of the TWiT.tv network...
, a
podcastA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
audio and now video program hosted by
Leo LaporteLéo Gordon Laporte is an Emmy Award winning, American technology broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur. A former resident of Providence, Rhode Island, he now lives in Petaluma, California with his wife Jennifer and two children, Abby and Henry....
and featuring other former TechTV personalities such as
Patrick NortonPatrick Norton is most commonly known as the former co-host and managing editor of The Screen Savers, an interactive television program on TechTV geared toward the technology enthusiast...
,
Kevin RoseKevin Rose is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Revision3, Digg, Pownce, and Milk...
, and Robert Heron. As of December 2005, that "TWiTcast" regularly ranks among the top 5 at Apple's iTunes Music Store. Dvorak also participated in the only
Triangulation podcast, a similar co-hosted technology discussion program. In March 2006, Dvorak started a new show called
CrankyGeeksCranky Geeks was a technology-related Internet show produced by Ziff Davis Media centered on discussion of technology topics of the week. It was hosted by industry pundit John C. Dvorak...
in which he led a rotating panel of "cranky" tech gurus in discussions of technology news stories of the week. The last episode (No. 237) aired on September 22, 2010.
MevioMevio Inc., is an American internet entertainment network, whose properties include PodShow+, PodShow Podcast Network, PodShowPDN, Podcast Alley, CastBlaster, the Podsafe Music Network and, BT PodShow...
hired Dvorak as Vice President & Managing Editor for a new Mevio TECH channel in 2007. He manages content from existing Mevio tech programming as well as hosts the show, "Tech5", where Dvorak discusses the day's tech news in approximately 5 minutes, although the show has been out of production since late 2010. Dvorak also co-hosts a podcast with Mevio co-founder
Adam CurryAdam Clark Curry is a broadcasting and Internet personality well known for his stint from 1987 to 1994 as a video jockey on the music video channel MTV. In the mid-1990s, Curry was a World Wide Web entrepreneur and one of the first celebrities to personally create and administer a Web site...
called
No AgendaNo Agenda is a podcast which takes place two times a week on Thursday and Sunday in the morning, hosted by Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak on the mevio network. The show is a free-flowing conversation that deconstructs recent news and media memes. Much of the appeal of the show comes from the odd...
. The show is a free flowing conversation about the week's news, happenings in the lives of the hosts and their families, and restaurant reviews from the dinners John and Adam have together when they are in the same city (usually San Francisco). Adam usually has more outlandish opinions of the week's news or world events while Dvorak is intended to play the straight man in the dialogue.
Since early 2011, John has been one of the featured "CoolHotNot Tech Xperts," along with
Chris PirilloChristopher Joseph Pirillo is the founder and maintainer of Lockergnome, which is a network of blogs, web forums, mailing lists, and online communities. He spent two years hosting the TechTV television program Call for Help, where he also hosted the first annual Call-for-Help-a-Thon...
,
Jim LouderbackJames 'Jim' Louderback is the CEO of Revision3. He has had numerous jobs in media companies involved in technology, most notably with TechTV and editor-in-chief of PC Magazine...
,
Dave GravelineDave Graveline is an American radio talk show host. His syndicated show "Into Tomorrow" has been on the air for the past 16 years and is currently aired in over 160 AM & FM stations throughout the U.S., on the Armed Forces Network, and on several foreign radio stations.- Early career :Graveline has...
, Robin Raskin, Dave Whittle, Steve Bass, and Cheryl Currid. At CoolHotNot's web site, Dvorak shares his "Loved List" of favorite consumer electronics, his "Wanted List" of tech products he'd like to try, and his "Letdown List" of tech products he found disappointing.
John now hosts the show X3 which like the defunct Tech 5 is a short tech focused cast, but now in a video format together with two additional "pundits".
Controversy
Dvorak's pithy style often attracts critics who point out his frequent—and occasionally egregious—errors of prediction. Dvorak's most famous prediction came in 1984 as a writer for the San Francisco Examiner: "The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things."
Another such example is his 2007 advice to Apple about the iPhone - "If [Apple's] smart it will call the iPhone a "reference design" and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else's marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures. [... ] It should do that immediately before it's too late." in his 2007 article for Marketwatch
External links
- John C. Dvorak's blog with commentary on news articles, observations on industry trends, and links to web pages of interest.
- John C. Dvorak's Channel Site aggregating all things Dvorak created by his son.
- Channel Dvorak Twitter [Twitter] version of above site.
- John C. Dvorak's column - PC Magazine
- John C. Dvorak's Inside Track - PC Magazine
- John C. Dvorak's Second Opinion - MarketWatch
- Official short bio
- John C. Dvorak's Universal Home Page and Personal Portal
- John C. Dvorak's wine tasting website Zinfandel On the Web (abandoned)
- CrankyGeeks official site
- John Dvorak Interviewed on CS Techcast
CS Techcast: The Technology Information IT Professionals Need to Succeed is a technology podcast released every Monday that is hosted by Dana Warren, , , and ; all are authors, IT professionals, and avid contributors to the IT community at large...
Episode 20
- Dvorak interview on Tech Talk for Families
- No Agenda, a Podcast he does with Adam Curry.
- Dvorak's current list of best, most wanted, and worst tech products