Julian Assange is the tech world's Donald Trump

[MADem]

4. HA! I saw "cringeley" in the url and I thought that might be a new meme working off

people or things that make one cringe....but it turns out to be the writer's name!

Assange "has to make all his own stuff?" He's never heard of AMAZON? They have a UK branch. AND...he's living across the bloody street from Harrod's. You can buy everything from an aardvark to a zebra there, damn near! Call them up and have them deliver!

The real meat of that piece is hidden on p.2--who knew the masked denizens of ANONYMOUS have "dumped" Assange? And they put it down to EGO as well! Fascinating development, that: http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/julian-assange-the-tech-worlds-donald-trump-discuss-205812?page=0,1

A lot of readers want to know why I'm so down on Assange. I realize that to some folks -- especially young impressionable types -- Assange is some heroic figure, like a cross between the Matthew Broderick character in "War Games" and Woodward & Bernstein, with maybe a little Mother Teresa thrown in. I have a more jaundiced viewpoint than that.

For the record, I think the allegations of sex abuse against Assange were trumped up, and I still don't understand why the Swedes couldn't interview the man in England. However, I believe Assange took something that could have been a force for good in the world -- WikiLeaks -- and turned it into a force for ego.

I'm hardly alone. Even Anonymous has dumped him. The Anons were easily Assange's most fervent supporters; my hunch is that most of the documents published by WikiLeaks originally came from Anonymous.

But earlier this month the Anons publicly abandoned its support via Twitter (of course):

The end of an era. We unfollowed @Wikileaks and withdraw our support. It was an awesome idea, ruined by Egos. Good-bye.

Assange's good long fifteen minutes of fame might be drawing to an end.

Be interesting to see what this TYLER PROJECT produces!