Robert X. Cringely

My version was printed in 1996. It was a set book for an Open University course which I was taking, and is Cringely's own account of how the personal computing industry started up. I was concerned that it would be stuffed with jargon and concepts beyond my understanding, but it wasn't. I found it informative, entertaining, and most importantly, it was easy to read. At times, I found myself laughing out loud- my favourite tale was about dust contaminating silicon wafers used by Intel to make show more their microprocessors. Despite every precaution being taken by the supplier and Intel, Intel were receiving a high proportion of duff wafers. An investigation showed that an Intel shipping clerk had been opening the hermetically sealed boxes as they arrived to count each item inside, which naturally spoiled the product. Cringely tells the story so much better, and he left me with a comic vision which still comes to mind today. show less

Wandering around on the desert plains of Facts, this book desperately requires the oasis of an editor in order to survive. Cringely knows his stuff when it comes to IBM, but the book is written with the assumption the reader knows as much as the author - oftentimes things were referenced obliquely, hinted toward in a further chapter or just missing context entirely. I feel that If I were a regular reader of Cringely's blog (as well as well-versed in IBMemera such as the memoirs of former show more CEOs), the analysis would fit in quite nicely - but then, were I a dedicated reader I wouldn't need the entire last half of the book, which are literally just edited reader comments from various blog posts.

Essentially, the work suffers from a failure of narrative cohesion that leaves the story patchy. This is probably a decent primer to get soundbite-esque gobbits about the current state of IBM, but don't expect much. show less

Lots of good reporting here pretty much predicting that IBM won't be around for much longer, and how it came to be. The book seemed a tad disorganized while I was reading it, and that's especially true in its second half, which consists of many emails or comments from readers of Cringley's blog.

At any rate, things are dire for IBM, and haven't been good for a long time. Cringely details how IBM has dug itself into a deep deep hole, and pretty much doesn't have a plan to get out of it. Kind show more of fun to read, unless you think Americans should be employed in interesting jobs. show less

Wandering around on the desert plains of Facts, this book desperately requires the oasis of an editor in order to survive. Cringely knows his stuff when it comes to IBM, but the book is written with the assumption the reader knows as much as the author - oftentimes things were referenced obliquely, hinted toward in a further chapter or just missing context entirely. I feel that If I were a regular reader of Cringely's blog (as well as well-versed in IBMemera such as the memoirs of former show more CEOs), the analysis would fit in quite nicely - but then, were I a dedicated reader I wouldn't need the entire last half of the book, which are literally just edited reader comments from various blog posts.

Essentially, the work suffers from a failure of narrative cohesion that leaves the story patchy. This is probably a decent primer to get soundbite-esque gobbits about the current state of IBM, but don't expect much. show less