Doubting ThomasDoubting Thomas

Novelist Tom Wolfe tossed some verbal barbs at IT execs when he addressed the Business Software Alliance in Washington last week. He joked that it's easy to spot billionaires at trendy Silicon Valley dining spots-they all wear khaki pants or jeans and an unbuttoned shirt and arrive empty-handed, with "mere millionaires" carrying their cell phones, pagers, and other gear. He also said the instant millionaires of the dot-com era are resented by many Wall Street execs, who've generally had to work their way up through the ranks.

Earlier, Wolfe, 70, told the Baltimore Sun that while he was enjoying his recently obtained first PC, he felt that political and literary figures of the past were prolific because they weren't distracted by the conveniences of modern technology.