Robert X. Cringely

Last updated
Robert X. Cringely
Robert X Cringely keynote 2006-10-05.jpg
Stephens (as Cringely) delivers the keynote speech at the 2006 CODI Conference in Salt Lake City.
Born
Mark Stephens

(1953-01-28) January 28, 1953 (age 70)
Education BA, College of Wooster, 1975
MA, Stanford University
Occupation(s) Journalist, Technology writer
Known for InfoWorld column
Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date
SpouseMary Alyce
Website www.cringely.com

Robert X. Cringely is the pen name of both technology journalist Mark Stephens and a string of writers for a column in InfoWorld , the one-time weekly computer trade newspaper published by IDG.

Contents

InfoWorld

Mark Stephens contributed to InfoWorld under the Cringely pseudonym. During Stephens' lengthy tenure (1987–1995), the character of Cringely changed dramatically (morphing from a private eye type to a slick, womanizing tech insider) and became an increasingly popular tech pundit after he published the book Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date (1992, ISBN   0-88730-855-4).[ citation needed ]

After a financial disagreement in 1995, Stephens was dismissed from InfoWorld and was promptly sued by IDG to prevent him from continuing to use the Cringely trademark. A settlement was reached out of court that allowed him to use the name, so long as he did not contribute to competing technology magazines.[ citation needed ]

Mark Stephens

Biography

Stephens was born in 1953, in Apple Creek, Ohio. [1] [2] He earned a bachelor's degree from the College of Wooster in Ohio [1] in 1975 and a Master's degree in Communication from Stanford University in 1979, where he also pursued work toward a doctorate. He served on the "Public's Right to Information Task Force" as part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. [3] [4] He has claimed he was employee #12 at Apple, Inc., [5] though Daniel Kottke also claims this number. [6]

Stephens' writing as Robert X. Cringely regularly appeared in publications such as Forbes , Newsweek , Success , The New York Times , Upside , and Worth . Stephens has also appeared as Cringely in two documentaries based on his writings: Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires (1996) and Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet (1998) and in a three-part documentary on PBS called Plane Crazy, in which he attempted to build an aircraft in 30 days and fly it when completed. The project quickly fell behind schedule and he became angry with the film crew. Eventually, he admitted defeat and the aircraft was cut up by Cringely. In the final episode, he builds an existing kit designed and assisted by Fisher Aero.

As Cringely, Stephens produced and hosted an Internet television show called NerdTV (2005–06) for PBS and, until late 2008, wrote an online column for the PBS website called I, Cringely: The Pulpit. On November 14, 2008, Stephens announced that he would stop contributing columns to PBS as of that December 15. He indicated that the move was his own decision "and not that of PBS, which has been nothing but good to me these many years". [7] He also blogged for the Technology Evangelist site during 2007. [8]

Today, his writings can be found at his own I, Cringely site. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osborne Computer Corporation</span> American portable computer maker

The Osborne Computer Corporation (OCC) was an American computer company and pioneering maker of portable computers. It was located in the Silicon Valley of the southern San Francisco Bay Area in California. Adam Osborne, the founder of the company, developed, with design work from Lee Felsenstein, the world's first mass-produced portable computer in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John C. Dvorak</span> American journalist and radio broadcaster

John C. Dvorak is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. He was vice president of Mevio, and has been a host on TechTV and TWiT.tv. He is currently a co-host of the No Agenda podcast.

Macworld/iWorld was an information technology trade show with conference tracks dedicated to Apple's Mac platform. It was held annually in the United States during January. Originally Macworld Expo and then Macworld Conference & Exposition, the gathering dates back to 1985. The conference was organized by International Data Group (IDG), co-publisher of Macworld magazine.

<i>Pirates of Silicon Valley</i> 1999 American biographical television film

Pirates of Silicon Valley is a 1999 American biographical drama television film directed by Martyn Burke and starring Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates. Spanning the years 1971–1997 and based on Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine's 1984 book Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, it explores the impact that the rivalry between Jobs and Gates (Microsoft) had on the development of the personal computer. The film premiered on TNT on June 20, 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Hertzfeld</span> American programmer (born 1953)

Andrew Jay Hertzfeld is an American software engineer who was a member of Apple Computer's Macintosh development team during the 1980s. After buying an Apple II in January 1978, he went to work for Apple Computer from August 1979 until March 1984, where he was a designer for the Macintosh system software. Since leaving Apple, he has co-founded three companies: Radius in 1986, General Magic in 1990, and Eazel in 1999. In 2002, he helped Mitch Kapor promote open source software with the Open Source Applications Foundation. Hertzfeld worked at Google from 2005 to 2013, where in 2011, he was the key designer of the Circles user interface in Google+.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Levy</span> American journalist

Steven Levy is an American journalist and Editor at Large for Wired who has written extensively for publications on computers, technology, cryptography, the internet, cybersecurity, and privacy. He is the author of the 1984 book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, which chronicles the early days of the computer underground. Levy published eight books covering computer hacker culture, artificial intelligence, cryptography, and multi-year exposés of Apple, Google, and Facebook. His most recent book, Facebook: The Inside Story, recounts the history and rise of Facebook from three years of interviews with employees, including Chamath Palihapitiya, Sheryl Sandberg, and Mark Zuckerberg.

Triumph of the Nerds is a 1996 British/American television documentary, produced by John Gau Productions and Oregon Public Broadcasting for Channel 4 and PBS. It explores the development of the personal computer in the United States from World War II to 1995. It was first screened as three episodes between 14 and 28 April 1996 on Channel 4, and as a single programme on 16 December 1996 on PBS.

PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online-only publication.

<i>Accidental Empires</i> 1992/1996 nonfiction book by Robert X. Cringely

Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date, is a book written by Mark Stephens under the pen name Robert X. Cringely about the founding of the personal computer industry and the history of Silicon Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Pogue</span> Technology writer, journalist and commentator (born 1963)

David Welch Pogue is an American technology and science writer and TV presenter, and correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning.

The Apple community is a group of people interested in Apple Inc. and its products, who report information in various media. Generally this has evolved into a proliferation of websites, but latterly has also expanded into podcasts, either speculating on rumors about future product releases, simply report Apple-related news stories, or have discussions about Apple's products and how to use them.

<i>InfoWorld</i> Information technology media business

InfoWorld is an American information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its sister publications include Macworld and PC World. InfoWorld is based in San Francisco, with contributors and supporting staff based across the U.S..

<i>NerdTV</i> American TV series or program

NerdTV was a technology TV show from PBS. NerdTV was not aired, instead each episode was released as a MPEG-4 video file, freely downloadable and licensed under a Creative Commons license. Transcripts and audio-only versions of the released episodes were available as well.

Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet – also known as Glory of the Geeks – is a 1998 American PBS television documentary that explores the development of the ARPANET, the Internet, and the World Wide Web from 1969 to 1998. It was created during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. The documentary was hosted and co-written by Robert X. Cringely, and is the sequel to the 1996 documentary, Triumph of the Nerds. It was first broadcast as Glory of the Geeks in three episodes on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, and as Nerds 2.0.1 by PBS in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anina (model)</span> American-born/Paris-based international fashion model/blogger

Anina, also known by the pseudonym Anina net, is an American-born German international fashion model, conference speaker, blogger, wearables developer, and event producer. She is listed as #7 in the Top 100 Women in Wearable and Consumer Tech and is the CEO and founder of 360 Fashion Network. Anina progressed from being a model to a fashion industry pioneer when she developed Intel Curie-powered shape-shifting robot dresses, which were showcased on ABC7News. She developed for Intel the 360 Fashion Network's smart gloves worn by 162 dancers on CCTV's Chinese New Year Festival Gala show, "Spring Wind" performance. The gloves were powered by Intel's Curie, with the LED light pattern generated using gesture recognition. PBS Television shot a documentary about Anina, who was interviewed by Robert Cringely at the start of 360Fashion Network as the first fashion blogger network. PBS Television's Nerd TV interviewed Anina as the ninth guest and the first woman in the series about the future of mobile technology. CRI Radio in China filmed a documentary titled "My China Life". CNet wrote, "In blogs, and Anina, we trust" citing her as one of the star attractions at Les Blogs 2.0.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Kottke</span> American computer engineer

Daniel Kottke is an American businessman known for being a college friend of Steve Jobs and one of the first employees of Apple Inc.

<i>Welcome to Macintosh</i> (film) 2008 American film

Welcome to Macintosh is a 2008 documentary film focusing on computer company Apple Inc. and its Macintosh line of computers. The title comes from the original welcome message shown during the start-up of Macintosh computers.

<i>Jobs</i> (film) 2013 American biographical drama film by Joshua Michael Stern

Jobs is a 2013 American biographical drama film based on the life of Steve Jobs, from 1974 while a student at Reed College to the introduction of the iPod in 2001. It is directed by Joshua Michael Stern, written by Matt Whiteley, and produced by Stern and Mark Hulme. Steve Jobs is portrayed by Ashton Kutcher, with Josh Gad as Apple Computer's co-founder Steve Wozniak. Jobs was chosen to close the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

<i>Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview</i> 2012 American film

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview is a documentary released to theaters in 2012. It consists of the original 70 minute interview that Steve Jobs gave to Robert X. Cringely in 1995 for the PBS documentary, Triumph of the Nerds.

References

  1. 1 2 Liesl Schillinger (December 1998). "The Double Life of Robert X. Cringely" . WIRED . Vol. 6, no. 12.
  2. Robert X. Cringely at IMDb
  3. President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (1979-10-30). Report of The President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island (Report). p. 166. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  4. "Three Mile Island Lessons for COVID-19: FEMA and Me". I, Cringely. Cringely.com. April 15, 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  5. "Triumph of the Nerds: Q & A with Bob Cringely". PBS .
  6. "Interview: Apple Employee No. 12 Dan Kottke on Company's Earliest Days and the College Steve Jobs". 25 November 2011.
  7. "Now For Something Completely Different". PBS. 2008-11-14. Archived from the original on 2008-12-05.
  8. "Cringely blogged for this site during 2007". Technology Evangelist. 2007. Archived from the original on 2013-02-04.
  9. "Cringely's official website". I, Cringely.