Table of Contents

The demo-god; the tyranny of the normal distribution; why they don't call it computer valley; amateur hour; role models; Chairman Bill leads the happy workers in song; all IBM stories are true; software envy; clones; the prophet; font wars; on the beach; economics of scale; counter-reformation; future computing; wait, there's more!; do the wave.

Reviews

Rich in relevant, entertaining digressions, this breezy but informative history recounts how gifted, maverick ``nerds,'' ``hippies'' and entrepreneurs like Apple's Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs invented and developed microprocessors and operating systems into today's volatile, ego-driven, highly competitive personal computer industry, in which ever-changing technical standards propel the market. Info World columnist Cringley charges that the astronomical sales of PCs ($70-billion worldwide in 1990) ``both created the longest continuous peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history and ended it.'' While current dominance by IBM spurs competitors to further research and networking, the author predicts that by the year 2000 single chips will render today's PCs obsolete and that of American technology only software will survive. ( Feb. )

Readers of the computer industry journal Info World will recognize Cringely as the weekly columnist who openly solicits industry secrets from readers. Here, he offers an irreverent explanation (he says it's harder to be an explainer than a historian) of the computer culture together with an informative chronology of the major computer companies and the personalities that have shaped the industry. His informal insights presented in a characteristically wry manner will make this a popular book for a wide audience.-- Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.