] That winter, it finally began to rain again in ] California. The rain came in torrents, in sheets. Streets ] flooded, and houses slid off oceanside hills. On San ] Francisco's Second Street, in a large, drafty office, a ] half-dozen editors were putting together the first issue ] of Wired. The staff had a strange confidence, even a ] fanaticism, and soon after the turn of the year, the ] first fluorescent and brightly metallic pages came off ] the printer. They had made a magazine in the form of a ] manifesto. ] ] In early 1993, as Communism collapsed and the terrors of ] the Cold War era vanished in the rearview mirror, a new ] magazine startled its readers with the proclamation that ] governments were obsolete, technology was benevolent, and ] the future was going to be great. Nearly 100,000 readers ] signed up in the first 12 months. The mood had changed. Too bad its changed back. |