MJ - Lashed to the Mast

Lashed to the Mast: The Digital Odyssey
My column two weeks ago, "The Best of 2002," named sixteen products in a wide range of categories and explained why I like them. As I said then, these were real, old-fashioned endorsements — I don't get paid to plug products, I don't get free products from anybody, and I paid absolutely no attention to who advertises where. None of the entries were included on the list for any other reason than that I truly like them.
Of course, I got a lot of response to that column. Many people took it in the spirit in which it was intended, and had fun reading it, and wrote to tell me so. If you're one of them, I'm glad you enjoyed it. E-mails like these are nice to receive.
I think I've also begun to discern two other types of respondents. Whether their responses are psychological in origin I have no idea, but I thought I'd address them. The first is the type of person who doesn't like anything. I used to have students like this, and in their...