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Q & A WITH BOB CRINGELY: CONTINUED
Hi Bob, I thought TOTN was great! Usually history, technology, and documentaries are dry, boring subjects. But you managed to make it all interesting, informative, and fun. I bought your book the very next day I saw the show and I can't wait for more. Are you planning another book and/or show based on networking or the Internet? Keep up the good work! At least one more show will follow and I am working on another book. But I write slowly, so be patient.
Loved the series! You sort of asked this question to Steve Balmer. Microsoft seems to have evolved into an IBM-like "clever imitator" rather than inovator. Witness Windows 95 being like Mac OS of the 80s. Also Netscape seems to be driving innovation on the Internet.
Is there any hope for innovation from Microsoft?
Or are they just too big and too $$$-oriented
to try anything different/interesting? Microsoft has to be scared into innovation and Netscape has them pretty darned scared, so watch out!
Somewhere in your show you mentioned an address where the summaries of different documents and written works could be had. As a teacher I feel this could be a good thing to pass along to the students. How can I find the URL I am searching for? (I am about 83% sure I heard about this during your special, if I am wrong - please forgive me). Thanking you in advance for your help, Donald J. Armstead II Philadelphia PA You mean Architext (now Excite). They do summarization and search software, but don't maintain a central database that I am aware of. However, you can try them at http://www.excite.com.
How much blame for the fall of Apple should be attributed to former CEO John Scully? Anonymous Plenty. Sculley reaped for a couple years too long. Then he declared himself to be Apple's Chief Technical Officer, which was a joke. He hired badly and the result we see today is mainly his fault.
Wozniak some years ago promoted rock concerts. Is he still doing that stuff? Also, what is his current marital situation. Several years ago the police blotter of my parents local (Sarratoga) newspaper cited him and his wife for "domestic disturbances." Eric Tescher West Lafayette, IN Woz promoted two US concerts at a cost of at least $15 million. No more of that. He and his second wife are now divorced. But he's a GREAT dad.
I thought the series is great. The only things missing were the TRS-80 and Timex computers and their impact on the market place if any.
See your series was like going to a High School or College reunion. Yeah, there just wasn't time to include the TRASH-80. Sorry.
Bob: With the almost total (and unfortunate) domination of the Intel/Microsoft Hegemony, do you think there's a place still for innovation in the personal computer field?
Specifically, do you think that groups trying to market new platforms,
like Be, Inc., stand a chance, when a one-time juggernaut like Apple is staggering? There is always a chance for a new platform if it offers enough power at the right price. Unfortunately, Be is already dead as far as I can tell. Too late.
Much was said in the program about the differences among the main people (IBM, Apple, Microsoft) that were inmersed in the turmoil of personal computers' development. What about the joint ventures between Apple and IMB that never saw the light? (The Power-PC that would run either Apple or PC software) Wouldn't this benefit IBM, Apple and Microsoft? Wouldn't this stop the clonning that so much hurt IBM and give Apple a broader horizon? Horacio Elizondo Monterrey, Mexico Yes, the Common Hardware Reference Platform still exists, but IBM now says they won't build any computers that use it. Oh well....
Will the Mac OS survive alongside Windows as Windows continues to catches up? Why or why not? How does the intense loyalty of Mac users factor into this? Chuck Lerch Westbrook, ME Loyalty has nothing to do with it. Performance, installed base, and available applications have to do with it. IF Apple can deliver Copland and it blows Windows 95 out of the water and IF Motorola and IBM can sublicense enough cheap Mac clones, THEN the Mac platform has a good chance. Lotta IFs there.
So why did Microsoft/Bill Gates relocate to Seattle? Was it to get away from you? *B-) Aidan Murphy San Francisco, CA Bill Gates was raised in Seattle, silly. What incidents stand out most with your experience as a columist? Wendy Larsen Minneapolis Minnesota Incidents? Columns are for wrapping garbage the next day, so I generally don't remember them. But I WAS excited the day a floppy disk came in the mail containing Apple's product plans for the next two years.
Hey, Is there some way to contact Bill Gates over the internet??? Michael Flory Troy OH, 45373 Try BillG@microsoft.com, but don't expect a reply.
I love the Apple Mac and everything about it. I would like to know to know what do you think the future holds for Apple. Also do you think Steve Jobs would want to come back to Apple and if not what about this Gil Amilio? John Castelhano Greenwich, CT. I've already written a lot about Apple, above. As for Steve Jobs returning, I think Apple would have to be crazy to invite him at this point. Steve is brilliant, but dangerous.
Is Low of IBM the same Low who ran IBM's Essex Junction microchip plant in the early 70's? If so the man brought Vermont into the 21st century with something to offer other than milk. Great Show, please let us know about Steve Jobs and NeXT and why the other Steve left Apple. Sally Hand Falls Church, VA Yes, it's he same Bill Lowe. We may cover NeXt in a future series. And Steve Wozniak left Apple after he was seriously injured in a plane crash in 1983 (he was the pilot). Woz recovered, then went back to college and got his undergraduate degree. Today he is an Apple fellow, which means he gives four talks a year to company groups.
Hi Bob, That was an excellent production,very complete. I was wondering if Steve Wasniak is still associated with Apple? If you ask me, S.W. is the inventor of modern PC, what a master of digital engineering, and at such a young age. Where does he teach? I'd like for my children to learn computer science from him.
Thanks, Most of your answer is above. Yes, Woz teaches, but only 5th and 6th graders in the Los Gatos public schools.
Dear Bob (or whoever you are), I loved Triumph of the Nerds. I'm the Director of Clinical Information Management at the American College of Physicians and I was surprised how many not computer-types saw TotNs and really enjoyed it. Good journalism. Good historical documentary. Good production. Good work. I would like to contact one of the guys that you interviewed about using his text summary technics on medical literature. This is the guy who produced a 5 sentences summary of Hamlet. I did not get his name and I could not find it in the transcript you posted on your web site.
Can you help me out with his name and how I can contact him? Try http://www.excite.com.
Bob, I know you are getting overwhelmed with mail from this show. I wonder how you dealt with the jet lag you probably suffered? My real question is this. As a computer teacher, I eat, drink and breath the MAC. I can cope better with a PC. Why did'nt anyone mention the role that computers(MACS) play in the education of our young ones? Obviously, thanks to Apple, education got a good deal. What should we as educators tell our students? I would like to communcate with Steve Wozniak via e-mail. Is that a possibility?
Thankyou I will forward your message to Woz. He may or may not reply. As for why we didn't do X, we had only three hours.
While in school,I used an HP machine, 98?? in 1976 which used BASIC. While limited, I think about 4 or 8k of code, calculator like display, I would think that this machine should qualify as an early PC. John Vasilakos Arlington Virginia It cost $5000, which qualified it as a VERY expensive calculator, not a PC.
In Part 3 of the TV Transcript, you make the following statement: Cringely's Third Law of Personal Computing was right again - to succeed, a PC must have an application which alone justifies buying the whole box.
Would you please give us ALL if Cringely's Laws of
Personal Computing? It would be greatly appreciated. Now I'm really on the spot! I'm not sure how many there are or even if they are in correct numerical order. Let me look...... Okay, I found two more: "Moore's Law says that the number of transistors that can be built on a given area of silicon doubles every 18 months, which means that a new generation of faster computer hardware appears every 18 months too. Cringely's Law (I just thought this up) says that people who actually rely on computers in their work won't tolerate being more than one hardware generation behind the leading edge. So everyone who can afford to buys a new computer when their present computer is three years old. But do all these users get totally new software every time they buy a new computer to run it on? Not usually, because the training costs of learning to use a new application are often higher than the cost of the new computer to run it on. " "One of the many things that Steve Jobs didn't know in those days was Cringely's Second Law, which I figured out one afternoon with the assistance of a calculator and a six-pack of Heineken. Cringely's Second Law states that in computers, ease of use with equivalent performance varies with the square root of the cost of development. This means that to design a computer that's ten times easier to use than the Apple II, as the Lisa was intended to be, would cost 100 times as much money. Since it cost around $500,000 to develop the Apple II, Cringely's Second Law says the cost of building the Lisa should have been around $50 million. It was."
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