The bulk of the material for this book comes from hundreds of hours of interviews I conducted with the individuals whose lives and work are chronicled in the preceding pages. For the most part, the reader can assume that direct quotes of individuals in the text are drawn from those interviews. Where that is not the case or the context might invite confusion between secondary and primary source material, the origin of the quotation is identified below.
Introduction: The Time Machine
Bill Gates’s defense: Manes & Andrews, Gates, p. 361.
Didn’t even patent: “Xerox Won’t Duplicate Past Errors,” Business Week, 9/29/97, p. 98.
The Alto failed: Stross, Randall E., “Mr. Gates Builds His Brain Trust,” Fortune, December 8, 1997.
Chapter 1: The Impresario
The notion of a human: Palfreman & Swade, The Dream Machine, p. 97.
“The Computer as a Communications Device”: Science & Technology, April 1968.
That made me nervous: Licklider Oral History, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota.
I did not feel: Ibid.
Chapter 2: McColough’s Folly
McColough thought: George White, 10/6/97.
If we’re going to be big: McColough, quoted in Jacobson & Hillkirk, Xerox: American Samurai, p. 214.
Peter turned over: White.
He should have known: Goldman, 11/6/97.
The only ballgame: Jacobson & Hillkirk, p. 214.
determined to make a deal: Palevsky, 4/21/98.
very, very short: Los Angeles Times, 2/11/69.
It had been making profits: Jacobson & Hillkirk, p. 214.
It was a great phrase: David Liddle, 6/17/98.
He was talking: Richard Jones, 3/10/98.
He never tired: White
If the new research center: Goldman, Proposal for a New Corporate Advanced Scientific & Systems Laboratory, 6/23/69.
Chapter 3: The House on Porter Drive
I’m one of the oldest: Wes Clark Oral History, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota
That of a very large: Clark, “The LINC Was Early and Small” in Goldberg (ed.), A History of Personal Workstations, p. 357. (Italics in original.)
Time-sharers were still: Clark oral history.
At that time computers: Severo Ornstein Oral History, Charles Babbage Institute.
During his time at ARPA: Robert Taylor, J. C. R. Licklider oral histories, Charles Babbage Institute
Taylor conversation with Herzfeld: Taylor oral history; Taylor to author, 9/10/98.
I blackmailed: Ibid.
It was ridiculous: Ibid.
Taylor visits to Vietnam: Taylor, Wessler interviews; Taylor oral history.
the White House got a single report: Taylor oral history.
Chapter 4: Utopia
Xerox’s “lost decade”: Jacobson & Hillkirk, p. 69.
Goldman’s meeting: Thornburg interview 9/12/97; Perry & Wallich, “Inside the PARC: The ‘Information Architects,’” IEEE Spectrum, October 1985, p. 72.
PARC pay scale: Frank Squires, 1/8/98.
Engelbart first encountered: Engelbart, “The Augmented Knowledge Workshop,” in Goldberg, p. 234.
No one is quite sure: Ibid., p. 196.
We built special electronics…Don’t tell me!: Ibid., p. 203.
a prophet of biblical dimensions: Kay, The Early History of Smalltalk, p. 7 (in manuscript) (henceforth Smalltalk).
rats running in his maze: Smokey Wallace, 11/16/97.
Chapter 5: Berkeley’s Second System
The second is the most dangerous: Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month, p. 55.
Chapter 6: “Not Your Normal Person”
Alan believed his role: Harrold, “The Organ at the Alan Kay & Bonnie MacBird Residence,” in The American Organ Academy Newsletter, Winter 1996.
Computers’ use of symbols: Kay, “Microelectronics and the Personal Computer,” Scientific American, Sept. 1977, p. 244.
By the time I got to school: Shasta and Lazere, Out of Their Minds (1995), pp. 39–40.
As he toiled in Chippewa: Kay, Smalltalk, p. 4.
Take this and read it: Ibid., p. 5.
you had to understand that: Shasta and Lazere, p. 42.
like seeing a glimpse of heaven: Palfreman & Swade, p. 96.
Minsky’s “terrific diatribe”: Kay, p. 9.
The best outputs: Kay, “Microelectronics and the Personal Computer,” p. 127.
If the medium: Kay and Goldberg, “Personal Dynamic Media,” in Goldberg (ed.), A History of Personal Workstations, p. 256.
users found repellent: Kay quoted in Rheingold, Tools for Thought, Chapter 11 (Internet version, unpaged).
The big whammy: Kay, The Early History of Smalltalk, pp. 9–10.
Chapter 7: The Clone
I must be on every sucker list: New York Times, 6/26/72.
We sold them a dead horse: DeLamarter, Big Blue, p. 100.
He denied: Palevsky interview, 4/21/98.
Palevsky fantasizes about IBM: “Xerox-SDS: Marriage That Was Meant to Be?” Los Angeles Times, 2/11/69.
Telling McColough what he wanted to hear: Palevsky interview, 4/21/98.
IBM and competitors’ financial results: Delamarter, p. 352.
Intel’s problems with the 1103: Jackson, Inside Intel, p. 79.
Pake memo to management: Smith & Alexander, Fumbling the Future, pp. 145–146; Pake interview, 5/19/97.
Chapter 8: The Future Invented
The IMPs formed a subnetwork: Hafner & Lyon, Where Wizards Stay Up Late, p. 80.
Jerry was not universally liked: Severo Ornstein Oral History, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota.
Pendery really didn’t understand…to invent it: Kay, Smalltalk, p. 13.
Chapter 9: The Refugee
A bunch of horse’s asses: Perry & Wallich, p. 67.
It was Monday night: Goldman interview, 5/6/97.
Jack Lewis saving the 9700: Harold Hall, personal communication.
Chapter 10: Beating the Dealer
continuous form of peer review: Thacker, “The Alto and Ethernet Hardware,” in Goldberg, p. 268.
Chapter 11: Spacewar
I recall almost a sadness: Perry & Wallich, p. 72; Thornburg, 9/12/97.
Chapter 12: Thacker’s Bet
Thacker-Lampson-Kay conversation: Kay, Smalltalk, p. 18.
Origin of “Smalltalk” name: Ibid., p. 14.
Kay meeting with Elkind: Ibid., p. 16.
What’s a budget: Ibid., p. 19; English, 5/21/97.
Chronology of the Alto design: Kay, Smalltalk, p. 19; Thacker, in Goldberg, p. 274.
Ron Rider…put it together himself: Perry & Wallich, p. 66. The manager quoted was Bert Sutherland.
quality of man-machine interaction: Thacker in Goldberg, p. 272.
Chapter 13: The Bobbsey Twins Build a Network
He padded over: Metcalfe, “How Ethernet Was Invented,” in IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 16, no. 4, p. 84.
The first time I ever heard: Ted Kaehler, 4/18/97.
The ultimate 29-Nova: Metcalfe, p. 83.
too many moving parts: Ibid.
luminiferous aether: Ibid.
There was no chip…every piece of it: Ibid., p. 84; Metcalfe, 9/15/97.
Ethernet was up against: Ibid., p. 86.
One after another of my colleagues: Ibid., p. 87.
Chapter 14: What You See Is What You Get
All this was very exhilarating: Lammers, Programmers at Work, p. 9.
with an incredible headache: Ibid., p. 8.
Chapter 15: On the Lunatic Fringe
The graphics researcher…e-mail message: Perry & Wallich, p. 68.
Warren Teitelman once returned: Ibid., p. 68.
Millions of people: Lampson, guest editorial in Software-Practice and Experience, vol. 2, pp. 195–196.
With as much panache: Kay, Smalltalk, p. 18.
Article in New West: Johnston, “Will Your Next Home Appliance Be a Mini-Computer?” in New West, 3/14/1977, p. 50. Goldman’s memo was dated March 1, 1977.
Chapter 16: The Pariahs
Here’s our stuff: Perry & Wallich, p. 68; Alvy Ray Smith, 12/5/97.
Chapter 17: The Big Machine
friendly, direct: Hall, personal communication.
Its target users: “The New Lean, Mean Xerox,” Business Week, 10/12/81, p. 129.
We’ll just lose: Spinrad, 10/16/97.
Committee for Green Foothills: “Xerox Deal May Settle Dispute on Coyote Hill,” Palo Alto Times, 9/21/72, p. 1.
The local newspapers: “Xerox Scientists in Palo Alto Preparing for Office of Future,” Palo Alto Times, 1/24/75, p. 6.
The stock: Kearns & Nadler, Prophets in the Dark, p. 88.
Corporate legend has it: Currie, 6/2/97.
Odyssey’s conclusion: Kearns, p. 87.
Chapter 18: Futures Day
Potter’s visit to PARC: Smith and Alexander, Fumbling the Future, p. 168.
huge blow: Kay, Smalltalk, p. 32.
Ellenby responded: Geschke, 10/16/97.
Moses was supposed to: Jacobson & Hillkirk, p. 75.
We are being out-marketed…within this company: Smith & Alexander, p. 197; Kearns & Nadler, p. 100.
The architecture of information: Smith & Alexander, p. 201.
this part of the demonstration: Ellenby, 10/15/97.
Chapter 19: Future Plus One
The small fonts: Kay, Smalltalk, p. 35.
The place…just sort of drifted: Kearns & Nadler, p. 103.
He’d come into my office: McCreight, 10/7/97.
He chose to buy time: Smith & Alexander, p. 244.
Carter would hop…we don’t act on hunches: Kearns & Nadler, pp. 40–41.
Wenrik tested it against the judgments: Smith & Alexander, p. 213.
Chapter 20: The Worm That Ate the Ethernet
The black hole of computer science: Bert Sutherland, 4/14/97.
PUP “inspired” TCP/IP: Hafner & Lyon, p. 237.
In the middle of the night…vampire: Shoch & Hupp, “The ‘Worm’ Programs—Early Experience with a Distributed Computation,” in Communications of the ACM, March 1992, p. 173.
Profoundly antisocial act: Ibid., p. 173.
workers running around: Ibid., p. 176.
The embarrassing results: Ibid., p. 176.
Chapter 21: The Silicon Revolution
Create some havoc: Perry & Wallich, p. 73.
This worked fine: Mead, Carver, & Ivan Sutherland, “Microelectronics and Computer Science,” in Scientific American, Sept. 1977.
to perform individual steps: Ibid.
Their collaboration: The Mead-Conway text was published in 1979 by Addison-Wesley as Introduction to VLSI Systems.
I love the metric: Goldberg, Michael, “Fire in the Valley,” in Wired, June 1994.
Chapter 22: The Crisis of Biggerism
I counted…know them: Kay, Smalltalk, p. 27.
For any given pursuit: Ibid., p. 26.
As Adele kept reminding: Ibid., p. 27.
A remarkable number…feeling it: Ibid., p. 28.
There were no shouting matches…professional imperatives: Ibid., pp. 29–30.
a 747 taking off: Thacker in Goldberg, p. 285.
He was the son of…on geology: Hafner & Lyon, p. 95.
Look, Severo…lie to them: Ornstein, 4/15/97.
it’ll be a long time: Tesler, 4/23/97.
It was easy to set: Sosinski, Charles, and Herb Yeary: “Flaming Dorados and Other Stories” in The Analytical Engine 2.1, February 1995 (Computer History Association of California).
Cost of Dorado and comparison to VAX: Thacker in Goldberg, p. 285.
Cost of VAX: Bell, Gordon, in Goldberg, p. 45.
It was difficult to think: Thacker in Goldberg, p. 285.
They were such an efficient heater: Sosinski.
Xerox executives made: Perry & Wallich, p. 73.
Chapter 23: Steve Jobs Gets His Show and Tell
You can have your Lufthansa heist: Steven Levy, Insanely Great, p. 78.
Joe Wilson had predicted: Jacobson & Hillkirk,, p. 58.
The answer was to create: George White, 10/6/97.
When the company raised $7 million: Michael Moritz, The Little Kingdom, p. 271.
Raskin recollection of Jobs and Wozniak: Raskin, “Mac and Me,” in The Analytical Engine 2.4, November 1995 (Computer History Association of California).
Chapter 24: Supernova
you gotta be here in Connecticut: Pake, 5/19/97.
office systems will never amount: Hall, private communication.
my junior on the board: Smith & Alexander, p. 216.
I projected supreme confidence: Simonyi, 12/4/97.
Bill has to see this: Manes & Andrews, p. 166.
Gates at PARC: Ibid., p. 167.
Gates could read the program: Ibid., p. 167.
messenger RNA: Simonyi, 12/4/97.
Chapter 25: Blindsided
I had not spent…marketplace: Smith & Alexander, p. 229.
I think we have another 914: “The New Lean, Mean Xerox,” in Business Week, 10/12/81, p. 132.
When everything in a computer system: David C. Smith in Jeff Johnson et. al., “The Xerox Star: A Retrospective,” in IEEE Computer, September 1989, p. 15.
It’s a good product: Business Week, 10/12/81, p. 132.
Everything you’ve ever done: Belleville in Manes & Andrews, p. 224.
Chapter 26: Exit the Impresario
My response…not me: Taylor, 5/1/98.
Most people spend: Smith & Alexander, p. 253.
You can fucking resign/: Sosinski & Yeary.
Olson conversation with Kearns: Kearns & Nadler, p. 104.
Epilogue: Did Xerox Blow It?
Xerox could have owned: Triumph of the Nerds, broadcast on PBS 6/12/96.
We didn’t want: Stross.