The Technologist

Newsweek senior editor Steven Levy, whose column now also appears in The Washington Post, was online Wednesday, May 7 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss his recent columns. He will also answer questions about the latest news in the tech industry, including what's happening with Microsoft and Yahoo.

Read his recent columns here:

A Scholarship Hunt With Strings Attached (May 7)

In Every Voter, A 'Microtarget' (April 23)

Start-Up Kids Grow Up to Be Millionaires So Fast ( April 9)

Levy started covering the digital revolution more than 25 years ago while writing a story for Rolling Stone about computer hackers. Since then, he's written books about hackers, Apple, artificial life and the iPod.

A transcript follows.

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Steven Levy: Hi, everyone. Happy to answer questions on this week's column on scholarships and FastWeb, or about recent columns like the one about political "microtargeting." Or anything else in the tech world that you might like to discuss. (Wasn't there some news on the Microsoft and Yahoo front recently?)

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Gaithersburg, Md. : What's the best type of Notebook for a college student that's cheap?

Steven Levy: Some people are wondering whether the superlow cost notebooks, like the One Laptop Per Child XO, or the new models from HP, are sufficient for college work. The answer so far is no, a traditional model is necessary. These can be obtained for under $1000 from Dell, Lenovo, etc. A little more costly, but not much considering value, are the Apple Macbooks. Best check with the college to see if the campus favors Mac or Windows, or (as is the case with many these days) is agnostic.

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Annapolis, Md.: Are you concerned (as a national security issue) that the best AV software suites are produced from overseas such as Czech, Russia, Slovak Republic, Romania... and installed in millions of American computers? What if U.S. relations with those countries change negatively, would it not create easy backdoors to infiltrate and otherwise corrupt/hack American computers...?

A Concerned U.S. Citizen.

Steven Levy: This is a problem not just with the software you mention, but with chipsets as well. The Chinese government has talked publicly about information warfare, though there has been no evidence that I know of that commercial software from China has been compromised in that way. What makes this a tough situation is that it's not so easy to detect a subtle intrusion. But any commercial software that is found out to be compromised in that way risks economic meltdown for the company that makes it. That seems to be our best curb, but national security IT needs the maximum assurance, so maybe in some cases domestic is an imperative.

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Steven Levy: Things are quiet on the question front at this moment, so I'll chime in with some reaction to the FastWeb column which ran today. One student wrote in to defend FastWeb, and said he racked up $6000 in scholarships that he learned about on FastWeb. But this seemed to be an exceptional student (he was actually chosen as one of the top 25 high school students by a national magazine). More typical are the responses I got from people who shared my point of view that time on FastWeb might be better spent seeking other ways to pay for college. Weirdly, on the day I closed my column, my son got one of those "FastWeb has found a scholarship for you" messages. It pointed him to a scholarship awarding $3000 to the couple that dressed for their prom most imaginatively -- in Duct Tape. Great, hundreds of kids will spend one of the most special occasions of their youth marketing a product, to chase a scholarship that only one will get Does that sound like a good deal?

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Ashburn, Va.: Following up with the question from the Annapolis reader, would you recommend not purchasing a security suite but rather individual products from different vendors...?

Steven Levy: In general, the degree to which you protect yourself in in proportion to the value of your information. For most people a standard security suite is fine. If you are dealing in software that, if compromised, would result in huge losses of money, or catastrophic loss of repuation, harm to people who need protection, etc., do everything you can to get the highest level of security possible and make sure you use it in the instructed way.

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Washington, D.C.: How does a person, namely me, who is moderately competent with computers, keep up with the technology, and worse, the software needed to run a home system safely and productively?

How am I supposed to chose a good AV program? How am I supposed to know if something is slowing my computer down? How am I supposed to fix it if I do figure it out?

Can you point me to a good resource to have?

Steven Levy: It is certainly possible to keep a good system running, especially if you run security programs (anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc) from the get-go. And keep your firewall up (you can control the settings yourself). FOr most people, this might require a visit to the bookstore for a basic book of computer maintenence. Apples are also less complicated than Windows in this regard.

But your point is well taken -- things are too hard for consumers, and for a variety of reasons, computer security is a bigger problem than it should be.

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Providence, R.I.: How reliable are the rumors of a 3G iPhone going on sale in June?

Steven Levy: Only Steve knows for sure, but AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson let the cat out of the bag a few months ago that a 3G phone would be out this year It is a year since the iPhone appeared. And there have been reports (not officially verified) that suppliers and partners have seen these things. But there's a big question -- when the iPhone came out, Apple said that it wasn't a 3G because 3G networks weren't pervasive and a 3G phone would be a battery hog. Are those two things different? I can't wait for the answer.

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Follow up question for the buying a laptop: What are the standard specifications a person should require in a new computer. I keep being asked about RAM and memory and chip speed? What are these, how important are they? And what does a basic home use computer need.

I understand that with Vista, the requirements have all changed.

Steven Levy: Chip speed isn't the key, most new machines are more than enough. You want at least 1 gigabyte of memory, and two gigs is better. From there, a lot depends on what you use it for. IF you are doing media (movies, a lot of music), you want a big hard disk drive.

One good thing about our age is that a lot of people take pleasure in learning about these things, and often someone in your circle would love to take you by the hand and help you tailor a system for your needs.

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Washington, D.C.: Is the tech industry contracting or expanding. You constantly hear about all of the start-ups, but we are also seeing mergers as well.

Steven Levy: I think expanding. The big companies are trying to consolidate (like Microsoft's attempt to nab Yahoo) but it's never been easier to start a new company, because of low cost labor, tools and infrastructure. What's more at each step of the digital revolution, there's a new level of adoption on which new businesses can built. (If people have computers, that makes Internet possible, Internet makes websites possible, websites can host new applications, etc.) I truly think we're still on the upside here.

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Steven Levy: Thanks for your questions. It's a fascinating time for technology and I'm excited about covering what's ahead.

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