Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can t Get a Date

CDN$ 25.95

This is NOT a funny book - Now, I ve read a lot of books and taken something from all of them, good or bad. However, I would have to say this is the only book I ever regret having read. Being in the business and half decent at my work (ego driven dictator in Cringley speak), I found the 300 odd pages of his ranting and raving against anyone with talent and vision a little hard to swallow. Don t get me wrong, it s a fascinating story, but ruined by his poorly camouflaged bitterness at his own failings as an engineer. And no, I m not Steve Jobs.

Stories of techies and profiteering - ",Accidental", refers to the fact that a lot of these guys really just loved to play with electronics and computers but for the few for whom everything fell into place perfectly, the reward was wealth beyond their wildest imagination. Read about how incompatible some true tech personalities can be with the mundane reality of the business world, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of the guy who held up the completion of a pivotal product so that he could measure the reflectivity of the ceiling tiles in his office. Contrast with the ego-driven salemen and capitalists who were there simply because there was money to be made and you may find yourself more appreciative of the genuine nature of the ",average", brainiac. This book was really written before the dot-com era, but likely the same dramas were played out then and will be played out again some day, with only the names and subject matter changed.

Stories of techies and profiteering - ",Accidental", refers to the fact that a lot of these guys really just loved to play with electronics and computers but for the few for whom everything fell into place perfectly, the reward was wealth beyond their wildest imagination. Read about how incompatible some true tech personalities can be with the mundane reality of the business world, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of the guy who held up the completion of a pivotal product so that he could measure the reflectivity of the ceiling tiles in his office. Contrast with the ego-driven salemen and capitalists who were there simply because there was money to be made and you may find yourself more appreciative of the genuine nature of the ",average", brainiac. This book was really written before the dot-com era, but likely the same dramas were played out then and will be played out again some day, with only the names and subject matter changed.

Funny and Informative - Crigenly tells the compelling story of the uprising of a small company becoming a million dollar businesss. He is very informative on the histroy of the computers in a different tone and style of writing that is easily understandable.

National Inquirer into Computerdom - The book begins by claiming that personal computers and spreadsheets made leveraged buy-outs, and looting company pension plans, possible (p.4). But the PC was only a means to an end, not the end in itself. Look up Credit Mobiliere, and the many scams in late 19th century railroads (the high-tech dot-coms of that day). Look up the changed laws, and accounting methods, from the late 1970s for fixing these deals. RXC claims it happened more or less by accident - not true, they met a need. The personal computer is to mainframe computers like the personal automobile is to railroad trains.Page 9 notes that Wozniak, Jobs, and Gates were college dropouts who disdained academia. Didn t Edward Land also do this? Page 40 says Noyce expanded production and not prices to grow volume and profits, ever hear of the Ford Model T? Page 43 tells a story about teleprocessing, but RXC doesn t understand the AT&T monopoly and 1200 baud modems of 40 years ago. Page 58 explains the invention of the BIOS. Pages 77-80 explains the difference between basic research and research and development, and what it means.The concept of metaprogrammer (nee Chief Programmer in 1966 Poughkeepsie) is discussed on pages 108-110. It gets the job done, but has a great political problem. If control is localized, so is blame. Most projects are decreed by upper management, but blame descends on the lower orders. Need I say more? Page 110 says this is like collective farming which didn t work well. Doesn t it work when it is voluntary, but not when imposed from above? Collective farming does away with owner operated units and turns them into wage earners, this is how our agribusiness works today. Did RXC ever personally investigate this? Page 113 tells of the problem in making all decisions at the top. First, it restricts parallel operations by creating a bottleneck. Then it prevents making decisions at the appropriate level. It doesn t distinguish between technical and political or design problems (which must be solved at a higher level). But if only inexperienced programmers are wanted, that creates a self-limiting environment as well. Page 124 says Ross Perot left IBM because he filled his sales quote in January, wasn t there some conflict of interest caused by his second job? Page 128 tells a story about Digital Research in July 1980 that may be incomplete. Page 166 explains the reason for PC-compatible, and why other computer manufacturers foundered. Page 261 tells how Aldus was suckered into not producing a word processor for Windows in 1989. Page 268 tells how Apple s money paid for Microsoft s international expansion. Page 281 explains how Microsoft takes a stab at new technology. Page 303 says Sun practically gives away system software. Since 1961 the Federal Govt. paid for Multics (and its clones), and ordered this for computer science s on-line needs. What would Sun charge if it had to build it all itself? RXC predicted the death of mainframes on 12/31/99, but I missed reading the obituary notices. There have been great changes since 1999, but not as predicted in this book. Page 307 has other predictions! Page 315 mentions the software studio model, but doesn t ask who on Wall Street will put up the venture capital to make Rocky 1010? RXC did NOT predict the INTERNET, a kinder, gentler version of Orwell s 1984 that allows Big Brother to spy on activity in your home (p.350)! Page 322 describes the value of being late and over budget. Chapter 17 makes predictions again.