What does annoy him is people misunderstanding his work - or "the technology", as he puts it. One example he gives is an article about him in which the journalist confuses Java and JavaScript (the former is a stand-alone program which can be accessed online, the latter is a browser-dependent scripting language)
I'd say that distinction between Java and Javascript is pretty wrong too ...
Sure, I'm a programmer. But why is it so easy for a journalist to get a definition this wrong? Wikipedia immediately tells one that "Java is a programming language" -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language)
Why the disdain and distrust of a novice trying to educate themselves?
Accepting something that is wrong and dumbed down for "average users" is a disservice to yourself. The entire idea of "average users" and the infantilization that goes along with it is a big problem in the computing industry today. Read Ellen Rose's "User Error," and then when you need to learn something next time, go straight to the best available source for it. Frequently these will be technical reports or refereed papers. You don't need some hack being paid by the word to summarize and misinterpret these for you.