Larry Magid: Taking the Mystery Out of Technology

by Rena Shaw Davidow

When Larry Magid wrote his first technology column for the Los Angeles Times in 1983, most of his readers didn’t know the difference between a modem and a megabyte. They were just trying to figure out how to operate their new computers. People who had always worked with pencil and paper were beginning to put their faith in “chips” and “hard drives,” things they couldn’t see, touch, or understand. Since that early column, Magid has established a multimedia career encompassing newspapers, books, television, radio, the Internet, and public speaking, explaining technology, he says, “in every medium but skywriting.” He has helped his public to better understand hardware, software, and online services and products, and to use the Internet in a smart, safe, ethical way. His top goal: to demystify technology. Magid, 53, is ubiquitous in the world of high-tech commentary. The best-selling author of “The Little PC Book” and other how-to primers, he writes a syndicated column that appears in newspapers and web sites worldwide. He is technology analyst for CBS, and his reports can be heard on CBS Radio affiliates throughout the country. A frequent talk show guest, he has appeared on “The Larry King Show,” “CBS This Morning,” and NPR's “Talk of the Nation Science Friday.” The journalist never expected that one day he would “eat, breathe, and live technology.” A social activist at the University of California, Berkeley, in the ’60s, Magid didn’t lock horns with a computer until 1977. As director of the University of Massachusetts Student Center for Educational Research, he took a class to learn a computer language for work with the college’s huge mainframe, a Cyber 70. “I was absolutely baffled,” he recalls. “I dropped out of the course midway, convinced I had no aptitude for computers.” Help from a friend taught him a lesson that shaped his future. The classmate took him to the school’s computing center and quickly taught him everything he needed to know to get started with the program. “That was a critical moment,” Magid says. “I realized that a patient, competent instructor could demystify technology.” Magid went on to earn his doctorate in educational research, returning to California in 1981 to find a job. He tried to print his resume, using an Apple II and a software package called EasyWriter. It was another disaster. “I couldn’t get the printer and software to work. I was tearing my hair out.” Frustrated, he phoned the software company for help. After an hour of collaborative troubleshooting, he printed his resume. The technical support came from Bill Baker, the program’s inventor and president of Information Unlimited Software. Magid never had to finish his resume: Baker hired him as director of publications for the company. Magid played with computers and found them fascinating. “I liken myself to someone who bought a car to drive to work and discovers he likes driving and tinkering with the car more than he likes the job.” When leaving IUS in 1982, Magid had two dreams: to become a computer journalist and to start a computer training firm. He realized both, first serving as an early editor of PC Magazine and later founding Know How, one of the first companies to train business people in computer use. As he wrote more articles, Magid found he had a knack for simplifying technology’s complexities. He explained modem use in “Electronic Link: Using the IBM PC to Communicate” (1983) and went on to write several more books, including “Cruising Online: Larry Magid's Guide to the New Digital Highways” (1994). Over the years, Magid has tested and reviewed dozens of cutting-edge products, from an early 9-pound “portable” computer (1984) to wireless modems (2000). He never lets dazzling technology blind him to the most important factor contributing to a machine1s usefulness, though: the human element. Magid points out that “when you pick up your telephone, what’s important isn’t the copper wires or the long-distance network; what’s important is what you’re saying.” With that in mind, Magid’s also blazed new trails in ways to use new media. Upon learning of the 1993 kidnapping of Polly Klaas in Northern California, he rounded up executives at AOL, Prodigy and other Internet notables to create the first site for finding missing children. “What’s a more important use of a computer than finding a missing child?” he asks. Time magazine (Nov. 1, 1993) called Magid and his colleagues "high-tech heroes" for such innovative work. Currently, Magid runs several sites, including the award-winning SafeKids.com. He writes columns for Upside.com and MicroTimes. His home page, www.LarrysWorld.com, reflects the amazing range of his work. Magid also enjoys the challenge of keeping ahead of his readers. They’re a lot more sophisticated than they were 17 years ago, but with countless emerging technologies, Magid will always have something to explain to them. Rena Shaw Davidow writes about the people and issues of the Silicon Valley and beyond. You can contact her at renasdesk@sbcglobal.net.

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