August 2, 2001
Untitled
Due to a lucky find on one of the discarded item tables at the local public library, I have been reading Robert X. Cringley’s 1992 book Accidental Empires. It’s a bluntly opinionated, painfully true, and oh-my-spleen-hurts funny account of how the whole computer industry schtick took off like it had firecrackers in its pants back in the late seventies. Coincidentally, as I was finishing the chapter on how IBM managed, somehow, to actually ship its first personal computer, I heard via DaveNet that this week is the 20th anniversary of said fugly box. Whoa. That means that my original Apple II is going to be 25 in a year. Only a small part of me is shocked by the large amount of time that has passed since I shelled out $1649 CND for the little slab of beige plastic. For the most part. I’m thoroughly enjoying reading about the escapades and in-fighting of the people who brought these tools and toys to life in the first place. I’m glad I started reading Accidental Empires when I did. Comparing its stories to recent accounts about the same period by people such as Dave Winer, Dan Bricklin, and Woz is filling in a lot of blanks. Those guys were nuts. Damn, how I wish I had been there.
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