Ars Technica
Encyclopedia
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go into specific detail on their subjects. Many of the site's writers are postgraduates, and some work for research institutions. Articles on the website are often written in an opinionated tone, as opposed to a journal.
Ars Technica was privately owned until May 2008 when it was sold to Condé Nast Digital—the online division of Condé Nast Publications
. Condé Nast purchased the site along with two others for $25 million, and added it to their Wired Digital group that also includes Wired News
and Reddit
. The website's staff moved to Chicago, Illinois, and also use offices in San Francisco, California. The cost of operating Ars Technica has always been funded primarily by online advertising. The website generated controversy in 2009 when it experimentally blocked users who use advertisement blocking software from viewing the site. Ars Technica has also offered a paid subscription service since 2001.
and limited liability company
in 1998. Its purpose was to publish computer hardware
and
software
-related news articles and guides; in their words, "the best multi-OS, PC hardware, and tech coverage possible while [..] having fun, being productive, and being as informative and as accurate as possible". "Ars technica" is a Latin
phrase that translates to "technological art". The website published news, reviews, guides, and other content of interest to computer enthusiasts. Writers for Ars Technica were geographically distributed in the United States at the time; Fisher lived in Boston
, Massachusetts
, Stokes in Chicago
, Illinois
, and the other writers in their respective cities.
On May 19, 2008, Ars Technica was sold to Condé Nast Digital—the online division of Condé Nast Publications
. The sale was part of a combination purchase by Condé Nast Digital of three unaffiliated websites costing $25 million total: Ars Technica, Webmonkey
, and Hot Wired
. Ars Technica was added to the company's Wired Digital group that includes Wired News
and Reddit
. In an interview with The New York Times
, Fisher said other companies offered to buy Ars Technica, and that the site's writers agreed to a deal with Condé Nast because they felt it offered them the best chance to turn their "hobby" into a business. Fisher, Stokes, and the eight other writers at the time were employed by Condé Nast, with Fisher as editor in chief
, and they began relocating to Chicago. Layoff
s at Condé Nast in November 2008 affected websites owned by the company "across the board", including Ars Technica.
purposes. They are now categorized by four types: News, Guides, Reviews, and Features. News articles relay current events. Guides instruct readers on how to do things; for example, the Ars Technica System Guide that advises readers on which computer parts to buy when building a computer. Reviews give opinionated assessment of hardware and software products. Features are longer informative articles. The website's readers can post their comments and start discussions at the bottom of each article. Ars Technica also hosts OpenForum, a free internet forum
for the discussion of a variety of topics.
Originally, most news articles published by the website were relayed from other technology-related websites. Ars Technica provided short commentary on the news, generally a few paragraphs, and a link to the original source. After being purchased by Conde Nast, Ars Technica began publishing more original news; investigating topics and interviewing sources themselves. A significant portion of the news articles published there now are original. Relayed news is still published on the website, ranging from one- or two-sentences to a few paragraphs.
Ars Technica's Features are long articles that go into great depth on their subject. For example, the site published a guide on CPU architecture in 1998 named "Understanding CPU caching and performance". An article in 2009 discussed in detail the theory
, physics
, mathematical proof
s, and applications of quantum computer
s. The website's 18,000-word review of Apple Inc.'s iPad
described everything from the product's packaging, to the specific type of integrated circuit
s it uses.
Ars Technica is written in an informal, opinionated tone, as opposed to a traditional journal, but its articles are often written by people with some expertise on the subject they are writing, and by this logic, some articles are written by people with no expertise. Many of the website's regular writers have postgraduate
degrees, and many work for academic or private research institutions. Website co-founder Jon Stokes published the computer architecture textbook Inside The Machine in 2007; John Timmer performed postdoctoral research in developmental neurobiology
; Timothy Lee is a scholar at the Cato Institute
, a public policy institute, which has republished Ars Technica articles by him. Biology journal Disease Models & Mechanisms
called Ars Technica a "conduit between researchers and the public" in 2008.
has been significantly changed five times since its creation, most recently in 2009. The current layout consists of two vertical columns topped by a horizontal navigation bar, interspersed with two banner advertisements
. Links
on the navigation bar lead to the website's 17 sections. Any given article is listed under a section that organizes it by its general subject: Infinite Loop (Apple), Uptime (business
), Gear & Gadgets (electronics), Opposable Thumbs (video games), One Microsoft
Way, Open Ended (open source
), Nobel
Intent (science), Law & Disorder (technology policy
), Hardware, Media, Security, Software, Staff (articles about Ars Technica), Telecom (telecommunication
), Web, and Exploring Datacenters. The left column lists the most recent articles of all types and their associated images. The right column showcases the ten latest Features with larger pictures; below the Features, it lists aggregated news, job listings for technology companies in the United States and Canada, and other varied links.
, and the site's Exploring Datacenters section is sponsored by data management
company NetApp. In the past, Ars Technica collected shared revenue
from affiliate marketing
by advertising deals and discounts from online retailers, and from the sale of Ars Technica-brand
ed merchandise.
—from viewing the website. Fisher estimated 40% of the website's readers had the software installed at the time. The next day, the block was lifted, and the article "Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love" was published on Ars Technica persuading readers not to use the software on websites they care about:
The block and article were controversial, generating articles on other websites about them, and the broader issue of advertising ethics. Readers of Ars Technica generally followed Fisher's persuasion; the day after his article was published, 25,000 readers who used the software had allowed the display of advertisements on Ars Technica in their browser, and 200 readers had subscribed to Ars Premier. Adblock Plus developer Wladimir Palant responded, stating that blocking advertisements in general is justified because websites receive revenue from them regardless of whether they are seen or ignored by readers:
Ars Technica was privately owned until May 2008 when it was sold to Condé Nast Digital—the online division of Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, is a magazine publisher. In the U.S., it produces 18 consumer magazines, including Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, as well as four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps...
. Condé Nast purchased the site along with two others for $25 million, and added it to their Wired Digital group that also includes Wired News
Wired News
Wired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Wired News was owned by Lycos not long after the split, until Condé Nast purchased Wired News on July 11, 2006...
and Reddit
Reddit
reddit is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page.Reddit was originally...
. The website's staff moved to Chicago, Illinois, and also use offices in San Francisco, California. The cost of operating Ars Technica has always been funded primarily by online advertising. The website generated controversy in 2009 when it experimentally blocked users who use advertisement blocking software from viewing the site. Ars Technica has also offered a paid subscription service since 2001.
History
Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes created the Ars Technica websiteWebsite
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
and limited liability company
Limited liability company
A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...
in 1998. Its purpose was to publish computer hardware
Hardware
Hardware is a general term for equipment such as keys, locks, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, plumbing supplies, tools, utensils, cutlery and machine parts. Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores....
and
software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
-related news articles and guides; in their words, "the best multi-OS, PC hardware, and tech coverage possible while [..] having fun, being productive, and being as informative and as accurate as possible". "Ars technica" is a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
phrase that translates to "technological art". The website published news, reviews, guides, and other content of interest to computer enthusiasts. Writers for Ars Technica were geographically distributed in the United States at the time; Fisher lived in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Stokes in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and the other writers in their respective cities.
On May 19, 2008, Ars Technica was sold to Condé Nast Digital—the online division of Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast Publications
Condé Nast, a division of Advance Publications, is a magazine publisher. In the U.S., it produces 18 consumer magazines, including Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, GQ, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Vogue, as well as four business-to-business publications, 27 websites, and more than 50 apps...
. The sale was part of a combination purchase by Condé Nast Digital of three unaffiliated websites costing $25 million total: Ars Technica, Webmonkey
Webmonkey
Webmonkey is a popular online tutorial website composed of various articles on building webpages from backend to frontend. The site covers many aspects of developing on the web like programming, database, multimedia, and setting up web storefronts. The content presented is much like Wired magazine...
, and Hot Wired
HotWired
Hotwired was the first commercial web magazine, launched on October 27, 1994. Although it was part of Wired Ventures, Hotwired was a separate entity from Wired, the print magazine, and had original content....
. Ars Technica was added to the company's Wired Digital group that includes Wired News
Wired News
Wired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Wired News was owned by Lycos not long after the split, until Condé Nast purchased Wired News on July 11, 2006...
and Reddit
Reddit
reddit is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page.Reddit was originally...
. In an interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Fisher said other companies offered to buy Ars Technica, and that the site's writers agreed to a deal with Condé Nast because they felt it offered them the best chance to turn their "hobby" into a business. Fisher, Stokes, and the eight other writers at the time were employed by Condé Nast, with Fisher as editor in chief
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
, and they began relocating to Chicago. Layoff
Layoff
Layoff , also called redundancy in the UK, is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or a group of employees for business reasons, such as when certain positions are no longer necessary or when a business slow-down occurs...
s at Condé Nast in November 2008 affected websites owned by the company "across the board", including Ars Technica.
Content
The content of articles published by Ars Technica has generally remained the same since its creation in 1998. Articles include commentary and opinion by the writers, and are usually accompanied by pictures for illustration, or for aestheticAesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
purposes. They are now categorized by four types: News, Guides, Reviews, and Features. News articles relay current events. Guides instruct readers on how to do things; for example, the Ars Technica System Guide that advises readers on which computer parts to buy when building a computer. Reviews give opinionated assessment of hardware and software products. Features are longer informative articles. The website's readers can post their comments and start discussions at the bottom of each article. Ars Technica also hosts OpenForum, a free internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
for the discussion of a variety of topics.
Originally, most news articles published by the website were relayed from other technology-related websites. Ars Technica provided short commentary on the news, generally a few paragraphs, and a link to the original source. After being purchased by Conde Nast, Ars Technica began publishing more original news; investigating topics and interviewing sources themselves. A significant portion of the news articles published there now are original. Relayed news is still published on the website, ranging from one- or two-sentences to a few paragraphs.
Ars Technica's Features are long articles that go into great depth on their subject. For example, the site published a guide on CPU architecture in 1998 named "Understanding CPU caching and performance". An article in 2009 discussed in detail the theory
Scientific theory
A scientific theory comprises a collection of concepts, including abstractions of observable phenomena expressed as quantifiable properties, together with rules that express relationships between observations of such concepts...
, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, mathematical proof
Mathematical proof
In mathematics, a proof is a convincing demonstration that some mathematical statement is necessarily true. Proofs are obtained from deductive reasoning, rather than from inductive or empirical arguments. That is, a proof must demonstrate that a statement is true in all cases, without a single...
s, and applications of quantum computer
Quantum computer
A quantum computer is a device for computation that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from traditional computers based on transistors...
s. The website's 18,000-word review of Apple Inc.'s iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
described everything from the product's packaging, to the specific type of integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
s it uses.
Ars Technica is written in an informal, opinionated tone, as opposed to a traditional journal, but its articles are often written by people with some expertise on the subject they are writing, and by this logic, some articles are written by people with no expertise. Many of the website's regular writers have postgraduate
Postgraduate education
Postgraduate education involves learning and studying for degrees or other qualifications for which a first or Bachelor's degree generally is required, and is normally considered to be part of higher education...
degrees, and many work for academic or private research institutions. Website co-founder Jon Stokes published the computer architecture textbook Inside The Machine in 2007; John Timmer performed postdoctoral research in developmental neurobiology
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
; Timothy Lee is a scholar at the Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
, a public policy institute, which has republished Ars Technica articles by him. Biology journal Disease Models & Mechanisms
Disease Models & Mechanisms
Disease Models & Mechanisms is a peer-reviewed Open Access biomedical journal covering the mechanisms, diagnostics and treatment of human disease...
called Ars Technica a "conduit between researchers and the public" in 2008.
Layout
Ars Technica's page layoutPage layout
Page layout is the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements on a page.- History and development :...
has been significantly changed five times since its creation, most recently in 2009. The current layout consists of two vertical columns topped by a horizontal navigation bar, interspersed with two banner advertisements
Web banner
A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser...
. Links
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
on the navigation bar lead to the website's 17 sections. Any given article is listed under a section that organizes it by its general subject: Infinite Loop (Apple), Uptime (business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
), Gear & Gadgets (electronics), Opposable Thumbs (video games), One Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Way, Open Ended (open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
), Nobel
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
Intent (science), Law & Disorder (technology policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
), Hardware, Media, Security, Software, Staff (articles about Ars Technica), Telecom (telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
), Web, and Exploring Datacenters. The left column lists the most recent articles of all types and their associated images. The right column showcases the ten latest Features with larger pictures; below the Features, it lists aggregated news, job listings for technology companies in the United States and Canada, and other varied links.
Revenue
The cost of operating Ars Technica has always been funded primarily by online advertising. Originally handled by Federated Media Publishing, selling advertising space on the website is now handled by Condé Nast. In addition to online advertising, Ars Technica has sold subscriptions to the website since 2001, now named Ars Premier subscriptions. Subscribers are not shown advertisements, and are able to see exclusive articles, post in certain areas of Ars Technica forum, participate in live chat rooms with notable people in the computer industry, and other benefits. To a lesser extent, revenue is also collected from content sponsorship. A series of articles about the future of collaboration was sponsored by IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, and the site's Exploring Datacenters section is sponsored by data management
Data management
Data management comprises all the disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource.- Overview :The official definition provided by DAMA International, the professional organization for those in the data management profession, is: "Data Resource Management is the development and execution...
company NetApp. In the past, Ars Technica collected shared revenue
Revenue sharing
Revenue sharing has multiple, related meanings depending on context.In business, revenue sharing refers to the sharing of profits and losses among different groups. One form shares between the general partner and limited partners in a limited partnership...
from affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...
by advertising deals and discounts from online retailers, and from the sale of Ars Technica-brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
ed merchandise.
Advertisement block
On March 5, 2010, Ars Technica experimentally blocked readers who use Adblock Plus—one of several computer programs that stop advertisements from being displayed in their browserWeb browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
—from viewing the website. Fisher estimated 40% of the website's readers had the software installed at the time. The next day, the block was lifted, and the article "Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love" was published on Ars Technica persuading readers not to use the software on websites they care about:
The block and article were controversial, generating articles on other websites about them, and the broader issue of advertising ethics. Readers of Ars Technica generally followed Fisher's persuasion; the day after his article was published, 25,000 readers who used the software had allowed the display of advertisements on Ars Technica in their browser, and 200 readers had subscribed to Ars Premier. Adblock Plus developer Wladimir Palant responded, stating that blocking advertisements in general is justified because websites receive revenue from them regardless of whether they are seen or ignored by readers: