There was something oddly charming about the geeks who made up the first wave of Internet entrepreneurs. Social misfits pounding out code in their computer-science labs--these people deserved professional success. But after the Wright Brothers, you get Frank Lorenzo. And so this summer Silicon Valley was flooded by the Second Wave: fast-talking business-school grads whose interest in technology is limited to how it will make them money. This is Silicon Valley in the IPO age. Geeks are history; they're all capitalists now. Netscape founder Marc Andreesen stars in a Miller Lite ad.
For every screenplay in L.A., there's a business plan...