Heads up, the link to "The Internet's Own Boy" says it's unavailable because whoever uploaded it changed the setting to private. Which is a shame, because it's a good bio.
I would love to see a follow-up series that covers the dot com bust, the revival of Silicon Valley’s tech industry thanks to mobile and cloud tech, and the modern AI boom, starting with deep neural networks ran on GPUs and culminating with large language models.
For Triumph of the Nerds, Bob spent hours interviewing a few of us at ARDI, my Macintosh emulation company. Mat's is the only voice that made the cut. Our fridge got more air time than I did, but I'm juggling and riding a unicycle for a few seconds. "Those were fun days."
Nice to see Bob back, especially after the gut punch of Cleve Moler's death.
They’re “triumph of the nerds”really good. Really gets to the pivotal points in business.
The story of how MS got the operating system contract told by Gates/Balmer and the IBM executives. (MS at the time didn’t have an operating system, just software)
Also includes the Apple tour of Xerox research told by Steve Jobs and some of the xerox folks.
Worth a watch.
Transcripts if you want to read: (part 2 is the IBM entering the business)
For clarity, he has a master's degree, not a Ph.D.
Via NYTime Nov. 16, 1998 article "Compressed Data; Stanford Gave Writer A Start, but Not a Ph.D." -
"The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that Mr. Stephens had not been a professor at Stanford University and had not earned a doctorate there, as he had claimed."
"A university spokeswoman said that Mr. Stephens had worked as a teaching assistant and earned only a master's degree."
To clarify, I simply made a (minor) recall mistake on a website's comment section which was rapidly (within 1 hour) corrected. There is no legal tort case for fraud or defamation given the (minor) inaccuracy and lack of redressable harm or injury.
Mr. Cringely, on the other hand, overtly lied (for years in widely published writings, videos, and in public corporate filings) about having a PHD which is legitimately even worse than lying about having an MS.
Recently I've been thinking about the nerds/hippie dichotomy from that book. Really missing the anti-authoritarian streak that was so formative in the early computer industry.
Skimming through his posts he was also “back” to writing in 2023. Looks like he wrote 2 things then. Maybe he’ll do a longer run this time, maybe a good half dozen posts before another 3 year break?
Okay, bunch of memories came back of getting PBS's online presence going on AvantGo (one of the predecessors to "mobile web") and getting I, Cringely's column hosted on it...
Including all the mentally unwell people/trolls in the comments who have become obsessed with Bob's Minecraft server project that did not work out.
Their righteous indignation will valiantly carry forth forever! Let them never stop obsessing! "But it matters!" "It's really important!" "He's a liar, and boy our society is collapsing because of liars!". Urghh. They are in the comments here too, riding high white horses.
Sure, it's interesting there are still people out there who want to put him in his place or whatever. I think most people understand that's why you don't lie about the things like I've just learned this guy has. Especially if you depend on your name for your livelihood. or in this case, it's a pseudonym?
Maybe they should get over it but IMO everyone should pick their battles carefully, and just because it looks like they aren't doesn't mean it's worth your time. It's Mr. Cringely's cross to bear.
You can choose not to join the Internet outrage machine. That's a personal choice you can make.
You can choose instead to just enjoy the work and shrug at the terrible injustices and unbelievably bad behavior the trolls want to manipulate you to be mad about, multiplying their power. You don't have to obey the trolls when they instruct you that "this person is a liar!", and "what about the minecraft server!".
It’s simply inexcusable (and criminally fraudulent in many jurisdictions) to lie about your academic credentials—especially when it involves other people’s money.
This goes back a LONG way for me. I really enjoyed his Notes From The Field column in InfoWorld, which was both reliably funny and reliably interesting, from around 1987-1995.
Oh, nice! I have been wondering what was going on with Cringely for years. I was worried it was a health issue and am relieved to hear that that seems to not have been the case.
homarp | 23 hours ago
baal80spam | 23 hours ago
suprjami | 23 hours ago
I have a list of similar content here:
https://github.com/superjamie/lazyweb/wiki/General-Tech-Ente...
Haven't updated it in a long time but hope you find something nice.
vibbix | 20 hours ago
zeafoamrun | 13 hours ago
wyclif | 4 hours ago
EDIT: There's a version of it here: https://youtu.be/3Q6Fzbgs_Lg?si=Sjlu7QOiQJ5e-1ZJ
linguae | 22 hours ago
nmdeadhead | 5 hours ago
Nice to see Bob back, especially after the gut punch of Cleve Moler's death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACt6xsMt5Uk&t=456s
cube00 | 5 hours ago
Triumph of the Nerds (1996) - https://archive.org/details/triumph_of_the_nerds
Nerds 2.0.1 - A Brief History Of The Internet (1998) - https://archive.org/details/nerds-2.0.1-a-brief-history-of-t...
acomjean | an hour ago
The story of how MS got the operating system contract told by Gates/Balmer and the IBM executives. (MS at the time didn’t have an operating system, just software)
Also includes the Apple tour of Xerox research told by Steve Jobs and some of the xerox folks.
Worth a watch. Transcripts if you want to read: (part 2 is the IBM entering the business)
https://www.pbs.org/nerds/transcript.html
calmbonsai | 23 hours ago
TruffleLabs | 22 hours ago
Via NYTime Nov. 16, 1998 article "Compressed Data; Stanford Gave Writer A Start, but Not a Ph.D." -
"The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that Mr. Stephens had not been a professor at Stanford University and had not earned a doctorate there, as he had claimed."
"A university spokeswoman said that Mr. Stephens had worked as a teaching assistant and earned only a master's degree."
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/business/compressed-data-...
calmbonsai | 16 hours ago
sph | 6 hours ago
How do you like them apples?
calmbonsai | an hour ago
Mr. Cringely, on the other hand, overtly lied (for years in widely published writings, videos, and in public corporate filings) about having a PHD which is legitimately even worse than lying about having an MS.
tomhow | 14 hours ago
geocrasher | 23 hours ago
tjansen | 22 hours ago
robterrell | 18 hours ago
andrekandre | 15 hours ago
thought_alarm | 22 hours ago
raugustinus | 22 hours ago
rglover | 20 hours ago
jmspring | 19 hours ago
The descent into IBM hiring/etc is when I sort of last stopped reading.
zoenolan | 19 hours ago
brk | 22 hours ago
ChrisArchitect | 22 hours ago
trollbridge | 22 hours ago
Edit: some of these are still up there!
http://feeds.pbs.org/pbs/cringely/pulpit-audio
lorecore | 21 hours ago
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164814/
tptacek | 21 hours ago
UncleOxidant | 21 hours ago
zombot | 14 hours ago
wewewedxfgdf | 20 hours ago
Their righteous indignation will valiantly carry forth forever! Let them never stop obsessing! "But it matters!" "It's really important!" "He's a liar, and boy our society is collapsing because of liars!". Urghh. They are in the comments here too, riding high white horses.
arvid-lind | 18 hours ago
Maybe they should get over it but IMO everyone should pick their battles carefully, and just because it looks like they aren't doesn't mean it's worth your time. It's Mr. Cringely's cross to bear.
wewewedxfgdf | 17 hours ago
You can choose instead to just enjoy the work and shrug at the terrible injustices and unbelievably bad behavior the trolls want to manipulate you to be mad about, multiplying their power. You don't have to obey the trolls when they instruct you that "this person is a liar!", and "what about the minecraft server!".
arvid-lind | 17 hours ago
calmbonsai | 16 hours ago
It’s simply inexcusable (and criminally fraudulent in many jurisdictions) to lie about your academic credentials—especially when it involves other people’s money.
specialist | 6 hours ago
kittikitti | 17 hours ago
oneeyedpigeon | 11 hours ago
garyrob | 15 hours ago
nibblecid | 14 hours ago
johnohara | 13 hours ago
Same skill, same desire, same willingness. But the same energy is difficult to find.
donatj | 9 hours ago
sumedh | 7 hours ago