Loose Wire FAQ
What is Loose Wire?
Loose Wire started out as the name of a technology column by Jeremy Wagstaff, our director, that ran in the Far Eastern Economic Review, and now runs in some editions of The Wall Street Journal. It's now the name of a Singapore-based company.
Why Loose? Why Wire?
Jeremy writes: "I'm not sure. It was dreamed up by my editor as the title of the technology column I was writing at the time. The name ended up to be quite apt for what I was trying to do, which was to be something of an independent, maverick voice, representing the end-user rather than the companies I was writing about. I also quite liked the idea of a loose wire inside the machine, not exactly serving any purpose but still there because no one wanted to find out what happened if it was removed." That's us.
What about now?
Loose Wire Pte Ltd is now a company that provides content and services to offline and online media, as well as several blogs, radio stations, universities, newspapers and companies. But we try to stick to the original guiding philosophy of Loose Wire, which is to keep things simple, remember that technology is there to be our slave, not enslave us, and to have some fun with it.
What about the blog?
True. There's also a loose wire blog, which has been going since 2002. Jeremy again: "I started writing it because I wanted to write enthusiastically about blogging and I felt it would be somewhat hypocritical of me to do so without actually having one myself." It's still going.
And the book? How about plugging the book?
Good point. There's a Loose Wire book, which is a collection of Loose Wire columns updated and arranged by theme. If I say so myself, it's a good place to start if you're new to all this tech stuff, and even oldies find it a useful read. I suspect most copies are bought as presents by people who are tired of relatives and friends asking them to fix their printer/laptop/mouse/social life.
So what's this Loose Wire Service thing?
It's a subscription service for print and online publications, giving them a weekly column at a reasonable price. More details here.
