I’m writing again

https://www.cringely.com/2026/05/21/im-writing-again/

by dan_hawkins • 2 months ago

175 50 2 months ago

cringely.com

homarp• 2 months ago

baal80spam• 2 months ago

I absolutely loved his "Triumph of the nerds" trilogy. It's my childhood!

suprjami3• 2 months ago

Me too!

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.

vibbix• 2 months ago

Thank you for sharing this! Its always fun to realize when either friends or fellow nerds happen to share a MASSIVE intersection of entertainment.

zeafoamrun• 2 months ago

You're missing Dealers of Lightning, a great book about Xerox PARC

wyclif• 2 months ago

Heads up, the link to "The Internet's Own Boy" says it's unavailable because whoever uploaded it changed the setting to private. Which is a shame, because it's a good bio.

EDIT: There's a version of it here: https://youtu.be/3Q6Fzbgs_Lg?si=Sjlu7QOiQJ5e-1ZJ

linguae• 2 months ago

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.

nmdeadhead• 2 months ago

For Triumph of the Nerds, Bob spent hours interviewing a few of us at ARDI, my Macintosh emulation company. Mat's is the only voice that made the cut. Our fridge got more air time than I did, but I'm juggling and riding a unicycle for a few seconds. "Those were fun days."

Nice to see Bob back, especially after the gut punch of Cleve Moler's death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACt6xsMt5Uk&t=456s

cube00• 2 months ago

I used love watching these over and over again as a kid, taped off TV on VHS, now both up in excellent quality on IA.

Triumph of the Nerds (1996) - https://archive.org/details/triumph_of_the_nerds

Nerds 2.0.1 - A Brief History Of The Internet (1998) - https://archive.org/details/nerds-2.0.1-a-brief-history-of-t...

acomjean• 2 months ago

They’re “triumph of the nerds”really good. Really gets to the pivotal points in business.

The story of how MS got the operating system contract told by Gates/Balmer and the IBM executives. (MS at the time didn’t have an operating system, just software)

Also includes the Apple tour of Xerox research told by Steve Jobs and some of the xerox folks.

Worth a watch. Transcripts if you want to read: (part 2 is the IBM entering the business)

https://www.pbs.org/nerds/transcript.html

mixmastamyk• 2 months ago

Looks like it is better quality than the dvd I have. Says upscaled to 4k but not sure if from original.

calmbonsai4• 2 months ago

[flagged]

TruffleLabs• 2 months ago

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."

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/16/business/compressed-data-...

calmbonsai4• 2 months ago

Thanks for your research and correction of my error.

tomhow• 2 months ago

Can HN be a bit better than to sneer about transgressions that go back nearly three decades and had no real victims? I would have hoped so.

geocrasher• 2 months ago

   memories of slashdot rush in

tjansen• 2 months ago

I wouldn't be here if I hadn't somehow obtained and read Accidental Empires as a kid. Still no empire of my own though :(

robterrell• 2 months ago

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.

andrekandre• 2 months ago

  > Really missing the anti-authoritarian streak that was so formative in the early computer industry.

problem is there wasn't any money in it

thought_alarm• 2 months ago

It's always fun when an old relic pops up in ye olde RSS reader. His feed would have been one of the originals I started following 25 years ago or so.

raugustinus• 2 months ago

Dang we're getting old ey?

rglover• 2 months ago

Not old. Experienced.

jmspring• 2 months ago

I’m not going to be able to find the reference in my head, but I thought there had been a couple Bob’s over the years.

The descent into IBM hiring/etc is when I sort of last stopped reading.

zoenolan• 2 months ago

https://apple.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely

brk• 2 months ago

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?

ChrisArchitect• 2 months ago

Link to actual post: https://www.cringely.com/2026/05/21/im-writing-again/

trollbridge• 2 months ago

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...

Edit: some of these are still up there!

http://feeds.pbs.org/pbs/cringely/pulpit-audio

lorecore• 2 months ago

He's best known for Triumph of the Nerds but I really liked Plane Crazy, where he tries to build an airplane while basically having a breakdown:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164814/

tptacek• 2 months ago

Neat, maybe he can do a followup on how OrangeDAO X Press Start Cap Fellowship Program for new Web3 entrepreneurs is going.

UncleOxidant• 2 months ago

From reading that it seems that he and his crew are working on an AI chip?

zombot• 2 months ago

I have to warn you that it might just be sarcasm.

wewewedxfgdf2• 2 months ago

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.

arvid-lind2• 2 months ago

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.

wewewedxfgdf2• 2 months ago

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!".

calmbonsai4• 2 months ago

Projects fail all the time. It happens.

It’s simply inexcusable (and criminally fraudulent in many jurisdictions) to lie about your academic credentials—especially when it involves other people’s money.

specialist• 2 months ago

I cannot fathom why his comments section isn't moderated. Principles?

kittikitti2• 2 months ago

This reading like an em-dash enthusiast wrote it.

oneeyedpigeon• 2 months ago

Two emdash phrases in 4 paragraphs is hardly excessive.

kittikitti2• 2 months ago

There is at least 5 emdash's in the post. Perhaps your AI psychosis needs to be checked.

garyrob• 2 months ago

This goes back a LONG way for me. I really enjoyed his Notes From The Field column in InfoWorld, which was both reliably funny and reliably interesting, from around 1987-1995.

nibblecid• 2 months ago

I just discovered this and I want to learn more about the AI job you guys are doing! I’ll subscribe!

johnohara• 2 months ago

Michael Swaine tried to restart a few years ago as well. Not easy being the same you 20+ years later.

Same skill, same desire, same willingness. But the same energy is difficult to find.

flopsamjetsam• 2 months ago

I loved Swaine's Flames from DDJ. Shame I missed his revival.

donatj• 2 months ago

Oh, nice! I have been wondering what was going on with Cringely for years. I was worried it was a health issue and am relieved to hear that that seems to not have been the case.

sumedh• 2 months ago

If I am not mistaken he had predicted that IBM will go bankrupt, did that prediction come true?

I’m writing again

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