Recently I've been thinking about the nerds/hippie dichotomy from that book. Really missing the anti-authoritarian streak that was so formative in the early computer industry.
Skimming through his posts he was also “back” to writing in 2023. Looks like he wrote 2 things then. Maybe he’ll do a longer run this time, maybe a good half dozen posts before another 3 year break?
Okay, bunch of memories came back of getting PBS's online presence going on AvantGo (one of the predecessors to "mobile web") and getting I, Cringely's column hosted on it...
Including all the mentally unwell people/trolls in the comments who have become obsessed with Bob's Minecraft server project that did not work out.
Their righteous indignation will valiantly carry forth forever! Let them never stop obsessing! "But it matters!" "It's really important!" "He's a liar, and boy our society is collapsing because of liars!". Urghh. They are in the comments here too, riding high white horses.
Sure, it's interesting there are still people out there who want to put him in his place or whatever. I think most people understand that's why you don't lie about the things like I've just learned this guy has. Especially if you depend on your name for your livelihood. or in this case, it's a pseudonym?
Maybe they should get over it but IMO everyone should pick their battles carefully, and just because it looks like they aren't doesn't mean it's worth your time. It's Mr. Cringely's cross to bear.
You can choose not to join the Internet outrage machine. That's a personal choice you can make.
You can choose instead to just enjoy the work and shrug at the terrible injustices and unbelievably bad behavior the trolls want to manipulate you to be mad about, multiplying their power. You don't have to obey the trolls when they instruct you that "this person is a liar!", and "what about the minecraft server!".
I would love to see a follow-up series that covers the dot com bust, the revival of Silicon Valley’s tech industry thanks to mobile and cloud tech, and the modern AI boom, starting with deep neural networks ran on GPUs and culminating with large language models.
For clarity, he has a master's degree, not a Ph.D.
Via NYTime Nov. 16, 1998 article "Compressed Data; Stanford Gave Writer A Start, but Not a Ph.D." -
"The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that Mr. Stephens had not been a professor at Stanford University and had not earned a doctorate there, as he had claimed."
"A university spokeswoman said that Mr. Stephens had worked as a teaching assistant and earned only a master's degree."
''As everyone knows, Cringely is a vital part of the Silicon Valley scene,'' a spokesman for PBS said. ''We feel that the extent to which he completed his doctoral requirements at Stanford and his teaching status there do not affect the stature of his television work.''
The descent into IBM hiring/etc is when I sort of last stopped reading.
Edit: some of these are still up there!
http://feeds.pbs.org/pbs/cringely/pulpit-audio
Their righteous indignation will valiantly carry forth forever! Let them never stop obsessing! "But it matters!" "It's really important!" "He's a liar, and boy our society is collapsing because of liars!". Urghh. They are in the comments here too, riding high white horses.
Maybe they should get over it but IMO everyone should pick their battles carefully, and just because it looks like they aren't doesn't mean it's worth your time. It's Mr. Cringely's cross to bear.
You can choose instead to just enjoy the work and shrug at the terrible injustices and unbelievably bad behavior the trolls want to manipulate you to be mad about, multiplying their power. You don't have to obey the trolls when they instruct you that "this person is a liar!", and "what about the minecraft server!".
I have a list of similar content here:
https://github.com/superjamie/lazyweb/wiki/General-Tech-Ente...
Haven't updated it in a long time but hope you find something nice.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164814/
Via NYTime Nov. 16, 1998 article "Compressed Data; Stanford Gave Writer A Start, but Not a Ph.D." -
"The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that Mr. Stephens had not been a professor at Stanford University and had not earned a doctorate there, as he had claimed."
"A university spokeswoman said that Mr. Stephens had worked as a teaching assistant and earned only a master's degree."
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/business/compressed-data-...
''As everyone knows, Cringely is a vital part of the Silicon Valley scene,'' a spokesman for PBS said. ''We feel that the extent to which he completed his doctoral requirements at Stanford and his teaching status there do not affect the stature of his television work.''