John C. Dvorak
American journalist and radio broadcaster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John C. Dvorak (/ˈdvɔːræk/; born 1952) is an American writer and broadcaster in the areas of technology and personal computing.[1] He has been a columnist for multiple magazines since the 1980s and has written or co-authored over a dozen how-to books on software and technology. He was vice president of Mevio, and has been a host on TechTV and TWiT.tv. He is currently a co-host of the No Agenda podcast.
John C. Dvorak | |
|---|---|
Dvorak in July 2007 | |
| Born | April 5, 1952 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupations | Writer, host, podcaster |
| Spouse | Marolee "Mimi" Dvorak |
| Relatives | August Dvorak (uncle) |
| Website | www |
Early life
Dvorak was born in 1952 in Los Angeles, California.[2] He is a nephew of sociologist August Dvorak, creator of the Dvorak keyboard.[3]
Writing career
Periodicals
Dvorak started his career as a wine writer.[4]
He has written for various publications, including InfoWorld, PC Magazine (two separate columns since 1986), MarketWatch, BUG Magazine (Croatia), and Info Exame (Brazil). He has been a columnist for Boardwatch, Forbes, Forbes.com, MacUser, MicroTimes, PC/Computing, Barron's Magazine, Smart Business, and The Vancouver Sun. (The MicroTimes column ran under the banner Dvorak's Last Column.) He has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, MacMania Networks, International Herald Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner and The Philadelphia Inquirer, among numerous other publications.
Dvorak created a few tech running jokes. In episode 18 of TWiT (This Week in Tech) he claimed that, thanks to his hosting provider, he "gets no spam."[5]
Books
Dvorak has written or co-authored over a dozen books, including Hypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of the Osborne Computer Corporation with Adam Osborne and Dvorak's Guide to Desktop Telecommunications in 1990, Dvorak's Guide to PC Telecommunications (Osborne McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, California, 1992), Dvorak's Guide to OS/2 (Random House, New York, 1993) with co-authors David B. Whittle and Martin McElroy, Dvorak Predicts (Osborne McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, California, 1994), Online! The Book (Prentice Hall PTR, October, 2003) with co-authors Wendy Taylor and Chris Pirillo and his latest e-book is Inside Track 2013.
Awards and honors
He was the creator and lead judge of the Dvorak Awards (1992–1997).
In 2001, he received the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology.[6]
He has received the title of Kentucky Colonel, the highest title of honor awarded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.[7]
In July 2016, Dvorak and co-host Adam Curry won the "Best Podcast" Podcast Award for No Agenda, in the News & Politics category.[8]
TV and online media
Dvorak was on the start-up team for CNET Networks, appearing on the television show CNET Central. He also hosted a radio show called Real Computing, and later 'Technically Speaking' on NPR, as well as a television show on TechTV (formerly ZDTV) called Silicon Spin. Dvorak helped develop the game Dvorak On Typing.[9]
He appeared on Marketwatch TV and This Week in Tech, a podcast audio and now video program hosted by Leo Laporte and featuring other former TechTV personalities such as Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and Robert Heron. Dvorak was once banned from the show.[10] In March 2006, he started a new show called CrankyGeeks, where he led a rotating panel of "cranky" tech gurus in discussions of technology news stories of the week. The last episode (No. 237) aired on September 22, 2010.
In 2007, Mevio hired Dvorak as vice president and Managing Editor for a new Mevio TECH channel, where he manages content from existing Mevio tech programming. He also hosted the show "Tech5", where he discussed the day's tech news in approximately five minutes; it ended production in late 2010.[11] He co-hosts a podcast with Mevio co-founder Adam Curry called No Agenda. The show is a conversation about the week's news, happenings in the lives of the hosts and their families, and restaurant reviews from the dinners Dvorak and Curry have together when they are in the same city (usually San Francisco). Curry usually has more outlandish opinions of the week's news or world events, while Dvorak plays the straight man in the dialogue.
Since early 2011, Dvorak has been one of the featured "CoolHotNot Tech Xperts," along with Chris Pirillo, Jim Louderback, Dave Graveline, Robin Raskin, Dave Whittle, Steve Bass, and Cheryl Currid, at CoolHotNot's web site, He shares his "Loved List" of favorite consumer electronics, his "Wanted List" of tech products he'd like to try, and his "Letdown List" of tech products he found disappointing.[12]
Dvorak hosted the show X3, which, like the defunct Tech 5, was a short tech-focused cast. Unlike Tech 5, it was in video format, with two co-hosts. The last update was 24 June 2012.[13]
Since September 2009, Dvorak has hosted the DH Unplugged podcast with personal money manager Andrew Horowitz.
He is a co-founder, with Gina Smith and the late Jerry Pournelle, of the web site aNewDomain.net, where he is also a columnist.[14]
In September 2015, Leo Laporte infamously "banned" Dvorak—his long-time friend and frequent guest—from TWiT for comments Dvorak made on Twitter. In reply to Dvorak's comments that Laporte was biased, Laporte told Dvorak "you won't ever have to worry about it again",[10] insinuating that he never wanted Dvorak back on TWiT. Dvorak returned to TWiT on December 23, 2018.[15]
Personal life
Dvorak married Mimi Smith-Dvorak on August 8, 1988.[16] He is listed as a minister of the Universal Life Church.[17] He said on show #600 of No Agenda that he occasionally posts online under the pseudonym Mark Pugner.[18]
