Great 3 hours show. I am interested in reading your book. I glad someone is finally giving credit were credit is due - Parc Place. I knew about thier research before I even saw a windows or a Mac.

I had problem with Steven Jobs attitude. Has this ever written a program in his life? Smalltalk is the grandfather of all existing OOP languages. NextStep? He should named his company two step or side step.

You said if someone wants to start a computer company to come and talk to you first. Okay. I am listening. I will give stock in this new company. I do have a BS in CS and I write software for a living.

I have had one flop, two success, and I helping people start thier own software companies. Thier system is code name CASPER. That a lot of work, consider I drop out of grad school three years ago, came out to La, and know next to nothing about PCs. My educational background was Unix, C-programming, and mathematic.

I have learned alot about Pcs, LANs, GUI, and business applications since I left school. The hardest users to program for, believe it or not, are Mac users. I don't mean to sound negative; but, Dos users... you can get away sloppy work. Oh and they love it. In regards to Job's remark about MS have third rate products, there is alot truth to that. The user are use to it. The programmers that have been writing programs more than five years on the Pc are use to write code like this.

Anyway, I would love sit, talk, and listen with you someday over lunch or dinner. I will buy.
Thanks, Joseph Dubeau
Sherman Oaks, CA

You've walked the walk, Joseph. Contact me anytime: bob@cringely.com.

I loved you show. You mentioned at the end that a company is going to be changing the future of personal gaming. I was wondering what the name of the company.

Sincerely,
Anonymous

Sorry, that's a secret until September.

I would first like to tell you how much I loved your show; I taped it and have already watched it twice. I am sixteen and a Freshman attending Agoura High School. I am heading a project to put Agoura High on the Internet. I absolutely love computers.

My question is: Which company do you think will dominate in Internet browser software, after the final public release of MS Internet Explorer 3.0, Netscape or Microsoft? Personally, I believe that IE is incredible, and I am confident that Microsoft will again be number one. Also, although it may be much better, do you think that the public will switch to Microsoft's IE, and how long so you think it will take for the public to realise that MS IE is better?

I also have a personal question which is related to the project I am working on at my school. The Los Virgines School district is planning on getting new computers, software, and equipment which will be used basically for the purpose of putting Agoura High on the Net. What type of computers do you think would be best to purchase for the school, and why? Almost all the students know the PC platform and the teachers know the MAC. (What a surprise!)

Thank you very much for taking the time out to answer my questions.
Sincerely, Ryan Armstrong
Agoura Hills, CA

Competition is good because it makes products better. I prefer Netscape 3.0, but what the heck: there's room for both. Now to the hardware choice for your school, I'd recommend using PCs as much as possible while maintaining enough Mac support to allow Mac clients on the net. That should make everyone happy.

My question--you said there was 120 hours of tape done for this show. Will we ever be able to view some or all of the edited portions of the interviews, etc?
Robert Gehringer

It's my understanding that copies will be going to the Boston Computer Museum, but that's only if they get a PAL system (the series was shot in PAL for British TV).

Cable modems are coming, but most cable companies are clueless about the complexity of becoming an Internet service provider.

Thanks for the show. Your bio above indicates that you don't take yourself all too over-the-top seriously, so I don't know how you will react when I tell you I found the show "inspiring".

Anyway... it seems if the issues which helped drive the business to this point were silicon and architecture based, with the "killer app" of standalone (non-networked) applications like spreadsheets and word processors.

I think that the even if the P6 is fast, and the P7 is faster, these are just incramental steps in an already established business.

The new frontier seems to be "content", and even "networked content". This comes in the form of the entertainment and communications apps which are turning computers into household appliances.

There are many areas where you need to go next... from the world of high end visual computing that create the magic you see in the movies to companies like Silicon Graphics that used to make the only boxes on which to make these effects. From a return to Microsoft which now owns SoftImage, a program which will now run under NT, thereby democratizing the visual computing business the way Apple did to desktop publishing, to some of the high end game companies that are creating more than apps with high twitch..

When are you moving on to these areas? I missed their inclusion in "Revenge", but then of course, that's what sequels are for.

(I can offer you a tour of one of the facilities I refer to above.... mail me if interested)
Steve Schklair
Los Angeles, CA

You and I are right in sync. Look for all this and more in Nerds 2.01!

No, it wasn't legal! How could it be legal? They were lucky not to go to jail. Today the phone network is much more sophisticated which means, interestingly enough, that it's too complex for a blue box but that some folks don't need a blue box at all. Confused? So am I.

I found your miniseries very informative and would like to know if you are still working as a columnist and where can I go to read your material (print or electronic media).
Ed Reed
Camarillo, CA

Alas, you'll have to read Japanese, because I'm not appearing anywhere in America.

Evidently you think I am stupid.

I can't afford the memory budget for NT.

I believe Microsoft is putting its name (or allowing it to be put) on some PCs, but it's just a marketing gimmick.

They weren't a big part of the PC revolution, though they have a lot to do with the workstation business -- especially Sun and SGI.

Anyhow, I just wanted to congratulate you on a job well done.

P.S. Watch out, I'll be the one you'll be interviewing in ten years.

I have to wait 10 years?
Alex Liu
Culver City, CA

Buy the system. If Apple ever dies, it will be long after your new system is already obsolete.

The Paul Allen Group invests in lots of software and hardware companies. Search on that name.

I am retired, after working my entire life in the broadcast TV business. The subject was of much interest to me. The production was extremely well done. I was a bit surprised that the Radio Shack TRS-80 never got a mention. As bad as it was it did open the flood gates for the use of home PCs.
Thank you,
Bob Lawson
Santa Maria Ca

Thanks. My mistake on the TRS-80. We ran out of time and money.

First the missing guy, Phillip Taylor Kramer, (has nothing to do with the show but you may be more resourceful that I am) he wrote a remarkable compressioin program. Is there any way I can get more information on it? I have tried several different types of searchs with no luck.

PK-ZIP? Try that.

Second the summery thing on the shakespear play what type of program was that, and where do I get it? It was pretty cool.

I'm not sure you can "get it," but try http://www.excite.com.
Frank Waugh
Pascagoula, MS

Not a lot, but at least $200 million.

NeXT is a grease smudge on the history of personal computing. We didn't have time and Steve didn't seem to be interested in talking about it.

You are right. We ran out of time and money.

"Apple, the company Jobs took from a garage to the Fortune 500 is in trouble. It is now a fading force in the PC marketplace."

Do you seriously think that Apple is "kerput"? I realize that they have problems and may even be purchased by another company someday in the future but to think that a company that makes a computer as functional and usable as the Mac will just "go away" is implausible in my mind.

Everyone will eventually see that because Windows is such a poor ripoff of Macintosh there is plenty of room in the world for both. Great book by the way!
Kent Walker
Anniston, AL

I answered the question several times above. No, Apple won't go kaput. But if people were going to "see that because Windows is such a poor ripoff of Macintosh there is plenty of room in the world for both," wouldn't they have already seen that by now? Dream on....

I am very sorry, Susan, but I simply don't understand your question. It's so damned politically correct that I find it indecipherable.

There will be PCs more and more in other countries, if that's what you are asking about, and Larry Ellison's network computer might have a better shot overseas, just as some third world countries have taken to cellular phones. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. No, your guess is better.

What's your forecast?
frank houston
new york, new york

Adobe and Quark are doing their software development first for Windows NT and then for the Mac, so there goes your market lock. Apple is not dead, but it needs work. Please see some of my earlier answers, above.

My question, is unfortunatly, kind of a critisim as well. I would like to inquire about the noticeable absence, of the great 8 bit computers that pretty much ruled the desk of the average homeowner through the eighty's, The Atari 800, and the Commodore 64. Certainly you would agree that these company's played a very significant role in the acceptance of the computer in the home.

It would seem to me that the program could only be enriched by including a few statements regarding this long forgotton dream, that created some of the most passionate and vocal computer enthusiast ever known.

As I understand the history of computing, one of the computers being presented to IBM during their search to get on the small computer wagon, was the Atari 800. This would have been a great time in the program to at least acknowledge this segment of computing. And to also explain (as I understand it), that it was Bill Gates who strongly opposed this due to the fact that it was based on an 8bit procesor.

Just another sign that the man was able to see clearly what the future of computing needed.

Fantastic program, and eagerly await your responce.
Robert Lloyd

IBM considered OEMing the Atari 800 and Bill Gates did argue against this. However, the decision against Atari was actually made before Bill was consulted, so all he really did was confirm the 16-bit decision.

And yes, we left out those early machines, in part because they were home machines and we were mainly looking (after the Altair) at the business market. Maybe it was a mistake.....

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