

Thoughts on the culture that gave birth to the personal computer (2013) - hoggle
http://www.bricklin.com/cultureandpc.htm

======
fjarlq
Isaacson's sketch has been deleted from medium.com, but this appears to be a
copy:

[http://kielarowski.net/2013/12/20/the-culture-that-gave-
birt...](http://kielarowski.net/2013/12/20/the-culture-that-gave-birth-to-the-
personal-computer/)

I hope Isaacson doesn't overlook J.C.R. Licklider's contributions. M. Mitchell
Waldrop wrote an excellent book about that called _The Dream Machine_ ; here's
a review:

[http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/9.10/streetcred.html?...](http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/9.10/streetcred.html?pg=2)

------
jonjacky
Paul E. Ceruzzi's A History of Modern Computing does a good job of filling in
the story, as Bricklin wishes here that someone would do. It is especially
good on the 1950's, 60's, and 70's, and the origins and legacy of DEC
(Digital) and other companies and people that loomed large at the time, and
were influential in creating our present world, but are not so well remembered
nowadays.

~~~
zafiro17
I just read it last week by chance and second the recommendation. It's not as
good a book once the DEC era ends (I think Ceruzzi kind of loses interest in
the modern era) but his coverage of mainframes and minicomputing era are
really fantastic. I also highly recommend "DEC is dead! Long live DEC" as a
good history of DEC's rise and fall.

~~~
hoggle
As to the "Long live DEC!" I know of a company here in Austria which still
deploys VMS machines (albeit not any more on Alpha but Itanium/HP Hardware
iirc). Thanks for the book recommendation!

------
hoggle
On a tangent - if you didn't like the Isaacson biography (it's pretty ...
lacking ... isn't it?) and you haven't read the stuff on
[http://www.folklore.org](http://www.folklore.org) or the book
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_in_The_Valley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_in_The_Valley)
\- go do it, it's intelligently written first hand anecdotes from the
beginning of the 80s at Apple.

Let's read up on history - Dan Bricklin certainly has wet my appetite for a
book on Digital (even as a Unix guy ;) as well as the origins of VisiCalc and
"spreadsheet" programs respectively (IMHO the closest tools non-programmers
have to achieve programmer like powers and problem solving satisfaction).

~~~
walterbell
A few books on computer / computing / internet history:

1953, Faster Than Thought, B.V. Bowden (British 1940s & 50s)
[https://archive.org/details/FasterThanThought](https://archive.org/details/FasterThanThought)

1984, The Home Computer Wars (Commodore, Atari, Apple)
[https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Wars](https://archive.org/details/The_Home_Computer_Wars)
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Home-Computer-Wars-
Commodore/dp/09...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Home-Computer-Wars-
Commodore/dp/0942386752)

1985, History of Computing Technology, Michael Williams (Abacus to IBM360)
[http://www.amazon.com/History-Computing-Technology-2nd-
Editi...](http://www.amazon.com/History-Computing-Technology-2nd-
Edition/dp/0818677392)

1985, The Great Telecom Meltdown, Fred Goldstein (USA deregulation)
[http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-
archives/TELECOM_Digest_On...](http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-
archives/TELECOM_Digest_Online2005-1/3458.html)

2001, The Universal History of Computing, Georges Ifrah (Egypt to 1970s)
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Universal-History-Computing-
Comput...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Universal-History-Computing-
Computer/dp/0471441473)

2002, Electronic Brains (UK, US & Ukraine soon after WWII)
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/electronicbrains.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/electronicbrains.shtml)
[http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Brains-Stories-Dawn-
Compute...](http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Brains-Stories-Dawn-
Computer/dp/0309096308)

2008, Geeks Bearing Gifts, Ted Nelson (rants & factoids)
[http://www.amazon.com/Geeks-Bearing-Gifts-Ted-
Nelson/dp/0578...](http://www.amazon.com/Geeks-Bearing-Gifts-Ted-
Nelson/dp/0578004380/)

2010, Commodore, A Company on the Edge, Brian Bagnall (war stories from 6502
through C64, no Amiga) [http://retroasylum.com/commodore-a-company-on-the-
edge-revie...](http://retroasylum.com/commodore-a-company-on-the-edge-review/)
[http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian-
Bagnall/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian-
Bagnall/dp/0973864966)

2011, The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design,
1945–1976, John Harwood [http://www.west86th.bgc.bard.edu/book-
reviews/interface-ibm....](http://www.west86th.bgc.bard.edu/book-
reviews/interface-ibm.html)

~~~
hga
_The Home Computer Wars_ is _excellent_ , great insight into Tramiel, his
various experiences prior, and how he made Commodore so successful during that
period.

At this level in this subtree, hoggle's recommendations of _Accidental
Empires_ is strong endorsed, if for no other reason than the anecdote about
how Intel, by then a very big company in revenues, possibly Fortune 500, was
almost killed by a single well intentioned low level employee. Emphasizes how
much more fragile tech companies are than old fashioned Fortune 500 companies.

 _The Cuckoo 's Egg_ is a fantastic story in and of itself, about how a
starving astrophysics grad student given a temporary sysadmin job went from a
less than $1 accounting discrepancy to nailing down a KGB plot. One of the
more interesting things is how the always publicity oriented FBI (best known
way back when for bank robberies and kidnappings, infamous but easy to solve
crimes), under who's remit this sort of counterintelligence was/is, wouldn't
give the author the time of day (it didn't meet their $100K lost threshold).
His best government contact was a delightfully colorful CIA guy (you'll love
his snail mail address), who could only supply advice and connections.

