Walter Mossberg: Inspector gadget

For an unremarkable-looking man who sits in an unexceptional office in Washington DC, Walter Mossberg has an extraordinary power over all our lives. The self-professed anti-techie technology writer began his first weekly "Personal Technology" column in The Wall Street Journal 16 years ago with the words, "Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it isn't your fault." Ever since, he has made it his business to ensure consumer electronics are suited not only to geeks, but to everyone. Yet Mossberg's judgements resonate far beyond the readership of The Wall Street Journal ? he has been described, by Newsweek, as "arguably the most powerful arbiter of consumer tastes in the computer world today". No wonder Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of Apple Computers beat a path to his door.