But not for want of programmers trying.

The dark side of startup life in Silicon Valley.

An extended version of this story is available as an ebook.</em></p>

On Silicon Valley's newfound interest in the weed business.

Previously: Mat Honan on the Longform Podcast.

An ode to an enduring cult classic and its author, Katherine Dunn.

After nine months of striking out, Chris McKinlay decided to change his online dating strategy. It worked.

How and why the goverment pulled Silicon Valley into the war on terror.

The FBI couldn’t find Ryan Eugene Mullen. Neither could a trio of private investigators. Only Michelle Gomez knew where to look.

The fight to vaccinate children in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan as part of an attempt to eradicate polio worldwide.

“I shared my plans with no one, not my girlfriend, not my parents, not my closest friends. Nobody knew the route I was taking out of town, where I was going, or my new name. If I got caught, it would be by my own mistakes.” A writer’s attempt to disappear for a month with a $5,000 bounty on his head.

“In 1981, with a computer built into my shoe, I walked into a Las Vegas casino and beat the house.”

How social media is fueling gang activity in Chicago.

How real-time information can make you a better human.

“The government calls it “Operation Open Market,” a four-year investigation resulting, so far, in four federal grand jury indictments against 55 defendants in 10 countries, facing a cumulative millennium of prison time. What many of those alleged scammers, carders, thieves, and racketeers have in common is one simple mistake: They bought their high-quality fake IDs from a sophisticated driver’s license counterfeiting factory secretly established, owned, and operated by the United States Secret Service.”

How a corporate network engineer became one of Aleppo’s most prolific weapons manufacturers.

A startup’s plan to launch a fleet of cheap, small, ultra-efficient imaging satellites and revolutionize data collection.

How General Keith Alexander, director of the NSA, became the most powerful intelligence officer in U.S. history.

How to drive across America in less than 32 hours and 7 minutes.

A cautionary satire about the potential excesses of an unchecked Google.

"'My Google Being anticipates everything I would think, everything I would want to say or do or feel,' Larry explained. 'Everywhere I would go. Years of research have gone into this. It is in every way the same as me. So much so that my physical form is no longer necessary. It was just getting in the way, so we removed it.'"

The con man who cost Google $500 million.

In the not-so-distant future, all of our objects will talk to each other. They’ll make our coffee, find our keys, save our lives. The roadmap to a fully networked existence.

An conversation with Omar Hammami, via Twitter.

On the new science of collective behavior.

Alfred Anaya was a genius at installing secret compartments in cars. If they were used to smuggle drugs without his knowledge, he figured, that wasn’t his problem. He was wrong.

The man behind the Body Worlds exhibit faces his own death.

Dr. Elisabeth Targ became famous for running scientific experiments that appeared to prove the healing power of faith. Then she got sick and became a test subject herself.