The long-struggling online tech magazine (the print component is pretty much kaput) has been displaying error messages all day, which raises speculation about the end being in sight. As chronicled in Valleywag, it's just the latest in a series of ominous signs - dead phones, office eviction, the cancellation of a conference next week in Beijing, and chronically understaffed operations. Silicon Alley Insider gets this from a tipster:
Rather than trying to hire ungrateful Americans to, say, write and report technology stories, he planned to hire Indian workers to do the job. But rather than outsource the work to India -- as media outfits like Reuters have already done -- he was going to bring the workers to the U.S., and pay them below-market wages.
You might recall that the magazine got its start in 1993, grew like gangbusters during the dot-com years and then crashed like gangbusters when the tech boom floundered. The publication was re-launched in 2004, but never regained the old luster.