A trip down memory lane.
My first computer? An IBM XT. The real deal.
The second one? An AT clone. From Compaq if I recall correctly, and from a computer store here in Israel called Computerland. That was… 20-something years ago. First thing I did on that machine was play a few games, program in Logo and Basic. It defined my future.
I forgot all of that, and more – my lost youth. Bob Cringley reminded me of all that with his Accidental Empires book.
One of the blogs that I read – and by read I mean every written word, is Bob Cringley‘s.
What I didn’t know about him, was that he has written a very interesting book – a history book – about my history. He recently decided to publish the book through his blog, which is by now old, online – as a beginning of a project of his. Two chapters a week gets published, which makes me a busy reader, and keeps me going back to my childhood explaining a lot of the things in ways that a 12 year old couldn’t fathom:
- I now understand what a PC clone means – how that happened
- How I dabbled with applications like 1-2-3, dBase II, Novell Netware – the works
- I see now that startups today aren’t different than their earlier counterparts – if any, we’ve become less bold with our ideas and execution
You can read it online, on Cringely’s blog. You can start here at part 1. Alternatively, you can just order Accidental Empires in full from Amazon – or any other store.
I also made sure to add it to my Books of the Trade list – under “Management”.