Re-reading this article makes me think of a scifi short story that I read a while back that I can't remember the name of. I thought it was by Bruce Sterling bu

Re-reading this article makes me think of a scifi short story that I read a while back that I can't remember the name of. I thought it was by Bruce Sterling but apparently not. About a guy who went to (Dubai?) to reprogram some "ancient" assembly-line robots, and had trouble because access to the "net" was highly controlled, and he needed to get documentation. He hacked into a payphone, only to find that there was a lively "underground" scene on the net, and some of the royalty he had encountered was active on it. Surely someone can remember the name/author..