Average customer rating:
- perfectly organized for bedtime
- Great content, awful format
- Interesting Read
- As Good as Everyone is Saying...Just Buy It!
- Better than the 7 Harry Potter books together
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Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days
Jessica Livingston
Manufacturer: Apress
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ASIN: 1590597141 |
Book Description
For would-be entrepreneurs, innovation managers or just anyone fascinated by the special chemistry and drive that created some of the best technology companies in the world, this book offers both wisdom and engaging insights—straight from the source.
— Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, and author of The Long Tail
"All the best things that I did at Apple came from (a) not having money and (b) not having done it before, ever." —Steve Wozniak, Apple
Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company.
Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover?
Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. For them, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup, to learn how it's done.
But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businessesdo—create value—more intensively than almost any other part of the economy. How? What are the secrets that make successful startups so insanely productive? Read this book, and let the founders themselves tell you.
Customer Reviews:
perfectly organized for bedtime.......2007-10-20
i open it up before bed, and one section is just enough to read by the time I am tired enough to sleep. I am not saying this book puts me to sleep - it's really good, but I like that you can read it in little chunks.
Great content, awful format.......2007-09-20
There's plenty of great information here, as all the other reviews said. But this interview format is really excruciating to read. Casual speech is very hard to transcribe in such a way that it becomes readable. This is why journalists and other writers are trained in how to reduce a long, tangential speech into something meaningful and clear. These interviews tend to run on and on and on, with the subjects jumping around, sometimes contradicting themselves, or misspeaking; all the stuff we do when talking, but which doesn't really matter in conversation, where other cues like body language make up for it. It really takes a lot of work to read this stuff, you're constantly having to hear the subject "out loud" in your head for it to make sense.
This book's easily twice as long as it could be if these interviews were edited down to a few really useful pages each. Or better: rewritten as short essays.
Interesting Read.......2007-09-19
Founders at Work is a fairly interesting read but lacks some depth. I'm the founder of a startup at the moment and am always keen to learn more about other founder's stories. The structure of this book is more like an interview with the interviewer rarely delving into the deeper human emotions, problems, issues, feelings etc of the founders. This really gives a basic "guided story" approach about each of the founders without any "pearls of wisdom" or "lessons learned".
Good for a single read or the average person who has an interest in technology startups from a founder's perspective, not worth being made into a hardcover.
As Good as Everyone is Saying...Just Buy It!.......2007-09-16
Loved this book. The interviewer asked a similar set of questions for all participants yet improvised when needed to follow an interesting train of thought to it's natural conclusion. All of the participants were refreshingly candid. Almost as if they were unloading on a therapist. Each interview is just long enough to feel complete but not so long as to feel redundant. On another note, I'm pretty anal when it comes to the physical presentation of a book and this one passes all my criteria: Decent margins, pleasant type face, good line space and font sizes, flexible spine stays open easily without trying to close itself, and easy to browse logical organization. If you're an entrepreneur working on tech start up this is one of the few "must read" books.
Better than the 7 Harry Potter books together.......2007-08-12
Better than the 7 Harry Potter books together (wich is a bad comparison as I didn't like them that much). The book is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days and later. Within each interviews, you'll catch dozen of interesting infos. Believe me , when you start it, you'll finish it within the week.
Book Description
Announcing an all-new MCSA/MCSE Training Kit designed to help maximize your performance on Exams 70-292 and 70-296, core exams for IT professionals already certified on Microsoft Windows- 2000 who want to upgrade their credentials for Windows Server 2003. Covering two exams and two certification tracks, this kit provides excellent value. It packs the tools and features exam candidates want most#151;including in-depth, self-paced training based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review; exam tips from an expert exam-certified author; and a robust testing suite. It also provides real-world scenarios, case study examples, and troubleshooting labs for the skills and expertise you can apply to the job.Ace your exam preparation by working at your own pace through the lessons, hands-on exercises, and practice tests. The flexible, best-of-class test engine on CD-ROM features 425 practice questions and pre- and post-assessment capabilities. Choose timed or untimed testing mode; generate random tests or focus on discrete objectives or chapters; and get detailed explanations for right and wrong answers#151;including pointers back to the book for further study. You also get a 180-day evaluation version of Windows Server 2003 software#151;making this kit an exceptional value and a great career investment.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for real world and exams.......2007-03-17
Having achieved NT, 2000, and now 2003 MCSE certification, I've found the Microsoft Press books to be mixed bags. This one, however, is excellent. Weighing in at nearly 1500 pages, it covers a lot of ground. If you read (and re-read) the entire book, as well as ALL of the test questions in the included Measure Up sample test, and follow up on unclear information/answers with the TechNet website, and of course have real-world experience, then you'll have excellent preparation for the exams.
When reading this book, I kept admiring the editing. Most tech books have some serious editing problems - unclear wording, dubious or flat-out incorrect information. With this one, I was continually impressed with how each sentence was written to say precisely what was intended, with not too many or too few words. That's not to say it's pithy - writing "Windows Server 2003" repeatedly takes up space - just that it's very well written.
The glossary and included ebooks are helpful as well. Only bummer is that you can't print from the ebooks, so when you're studying, you'll need to apply pen to paper, or go to TechNet and do some printing.
The Measure Up practice test is not nearly as well written as the book - some dubious wording, typos, and incorrectly scored questions (like the answer is A, you put A, and the test scores it wrong). However, the practice test covers topics not included in the book (!), so it's worthwile to go through it.
Oh, and Microsoft even managed to inject a bit of humor here and there.
If Microsoft Press continues publishing books like this, they'll be a strong alternative to Sybex and others.
Nearly perfect, and surely the best prepguide there is available.......2006-09-30
I've used two preparation guides, this one and the one from Sybex. MSPress is definitely the best of these two books. Covers it all, the sybex version is too superficial and just does not cover it all, it actually lacks some important material.
This book contains lots of exercises, so you get hands on experience with all kinds of tools. Believe me, you are going to need it! The actual exam contains several simulations, so just reading about the available tools, options and functions is just not enough.
Futhermore every chapter ends with a small case study with some questions all of course regarding to stuff outlined in the chapter.
Without this book I would not have passed, both exams.
Best Comprehensive Book Available but not without faults.......2006-08-31
I used this book as a primary study guide for the 2003 upgrade exams and although it doesn't cover all the material, it is an excellent book and in my humble opinion the single best source of prepartion.
From what I've gathered, the exams changed sometime in late 2005 and some of the content is dated. That however is not the fault of the authors and unlike many of the "Microsoft Press" books, I found this an enjoyable and easy read.
The book is not indended to deeply review the "Core MCSE Curriculum". Its' audience is expected to be familiar with Windows 2000 engineering and administrative principles as well as a practicing administrator. The text will present content that is now covered under the exam (ie: high availibility services and certificate services)and features that are differential to the old product line. So do not expect this to be your sole source for content, at best it covers 80% of the exam's breadth. If you feel in the learch, I can only suggest brushing up on your 2000 or 2003 core infrastructure notes especially dealing with the subjects of GPOs and Site design\ AD-replication.
Subjects that are missing from the book that require research are EMS (in-band\ out of band services), Role Separation for Cerificate services and WIFI GPO administrative practices. A list of references to supportive documentation can be found in the study notes at [...] . The webpage's host has done an admirable job of putting them together.
In final preparation for the exam, I can only suggest Transcenders as a simulation software...accept no other. CBT nuggets has some great multi-media presentations available through their website to aid in reviewing the material and their content is first class.
Good Luck
Good book.......2006-06-30
This book covers the essentials skills to upgrade to your certification to Windows Server 2003. However, it does cover many topics that you already knew from your Windows 2000 experience, which sometimes are topics you don't want to read about because for the most part, you expected to read only about the improvements and changes from Windows 2000 to Windows 2003. In spite of this, it is a GREAT source of information for people with little experience with Windows 2000.
Very boring to read, reads more like a reference book..........2006-05-31
There are not many pictures, and the content is brought out in a very slow way. In other words, the material is mostly there, but you fall asleep reading all the fluff before getting to what you actually need to know. I love reading, but the format of this book makes the content difficult to swallow. I would suggest to get a different book.
Book Description
Now anyone can be an online millionaire! These days it's easier, cheaper, and safer than ever to start an Internet business using readily available technology and turnkey opportunities. In this strategy-packed guide, Scott Fox reveals the powerful but simple methods he and thousands of others have used to strike it rich on the Net. Exclusive interviews with "mom and pop" entrepreneurs prove how easy it is to get started and build a million-dollar enterprise. Readers get:
* a guide to e-business opportunities, including "instant e-businesses" that require no start-up capital * strategies for making money from home and turning hobbies into businesses * marketing and product tips * legal and financial advice * a list of recommended vendors * years of expertise and experience in one easy-to-use book
Internet Riches also features an action plan for brainstorming new business ideas, and exercises to help readers determine the best moves for their particular situations. Filled with practical pointers and inspiring interviews, it's the most powerful book ever on starting and enjoying a million-dollar online business!
Customer Reviews:
Just what I needed.......2007-09-21
Practical advises and ways to make it on the cyber commerce.
Dr. Israel King, Ph D, Author of How To Keep A Man
book millionair.......2007-09-12
brillant brillant i thought colgate was good but this author leaves a smile on my dial
The only book you need!.......2007-09-10
This book teaches that even if you are not the next Amazon, ebay, or Google, you can still make a million on the internet. You just need to find a niche that is underserved.
I purchased "Starting an Online Business for Dummies" and the reviews were mixed. In someone's reviews, they mentioned this book and said it was much better. They suggested buying this book instead of the Dummies book. I took the advice, and am glad I did!
The book is great because it helps you understand that you don't need to be a billion dollar business to start with. Even small, underserved niche markets can earn a million.
I highly recommend this book if you are considering an ebusiness. It is well worth the money. I have been talking about this book to many people who have asked to borrow the book. I keep telling them to pick up their own copy because I am still using it as a reference! It is a great book!
Good Starter.......2007-09-10
This should be the first book you pick up on your way to an internet millionairehood.
Kishore Dharmarajan
Author of EIGHTSTORM: 8-Step Brainstorming for Innovative Managers
Do no give your money to this Author.......2007-09-08
If you already know what a "blog" is and you're fully proficient in searching the internet with google or yahoo, you're probably too sophisticated for this book. Fox's target are people with very little education (He introduces us at one point to the fancy MBA word, "business plan"). Fox also uses the website he started for his wife and mother as case studies. I guess I should have known better. After all, it is called 'Internet Riches" and has a picture of some guy driving in a brand new convertible on the cover.
Book Description
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? sums up Lou Gerstner's historic business achievement, bringing IBM back from the brink of insolvency to lead the computer business once again.Offering a unique case study drawn from decades of experience at some of America's top companies -- McKinsey, American Express, RJR Nabisco -- Gerstner's insights into management and leadership are applicable to any business, at any level. Ranging from strategy to public relations, from finance to organization, Gerstner reveals the lessons of a lifetime running highly successful companies.
Download Description
"
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? sums up Lou Gerstner's historic business achievement, bringing IBM back from the brink of insolvency to lead the computer business once again.Offering a unique case study drawn from decades of experience at some of America's top companies -- McKinsey, American Express, RJR Nabisco -- Gerstner's insights into management and leadership are applicable to any business, at any level. Ranging from strategy to public relations, from finance to organization, Gerstner reveals the lessons of a lifetime running highly successful companies. "
Customer Reviews:
Great leader.......2007-08-27
When I started the book, I have no idea about the history of IBM. I am not an IT person, so I have heard IBM but that is basically it.
I learned a lot from the book about IBM, what they did wrong and how he changed it.
But besides everything he revised the company culture and organizational structure. I think that is the hardest thing a CEO can achieve. His vision, his attention to details but still seeing the big picture amazed me. No wonder they picked him as the great saver of the IBM legend.
The book is long and sometimes repeats itself, without going into details.
The part I enjoyed the most was his e-mails. How encouraging was he after 9/11, he mentioned employee names and all the things they did both to help and also to get their business going. He sent e-mails to his 300.000 employees. His tone and the things he mentions, his clarity was amazing. He is an excellent leader. IBM is very lucky to have such a good CEO.
What Life at the Top is Really Like--As Told By a Superb Leader.......2007-08-16
Having spent twenty-three years in management before I became an entrepreneur, I recognize that moving from one side of the desk to the other side may be the longest journey a professional person ever makes. When we shift into a leadership spot, not only do we find that our prior perceptions might have been totally inaccurate, we have to address personal and professional challenges we would have never imagined.
I applaud this book as one man's record of what life at the top is really like. He won me over immediately when he decided to wear a blue shirt because everyone else was wearing white. Thoreau would have applauded his individualism.
With my current profession dedicated to improving individual and corporate communication, I agree with Gerstner's assertion that "No institutional transformation takes place, I believe, without a multi-year commitment by the CEO to put himself or herself constantly in front of employees and speak in plain, simple, compelling language that drives conviction and action throughout the organization."
Another striking bit of Gerstner wisdom: "Success in a company comes foremost from success with the customer, nothing else."
He's right on target again when he observes that "lack of focus is the most common cause of corporate mediocrity."
Yet Gerstner goes beyond mere platitudes: "Execution--getting the task done, making it happen--is the most unappreciated skill of an effective business leader."
Possibly two of Gerstner's words capsule his approach to awakening IBM to its possibilities: "constructive impatience."
In my judgment, Louis Gerstner should rank alongside Jack Welch as a take-no-prisoners leader. Read this book, and you will agree that he was the right man at the right time for IBM.The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!
Where Were the Details?.......2007-06-06
Throughout this book Gerstner discusses the changes IBM made and how he helped turned the company around. I have no doubt that he was a large part of the dynamic shift at IBM to again make it the successful, global company that it is today, but I felt that I went through the book without completely understanding what those changes were. There was a lot of discussion of how IBM was operated and managed when Gerstner took control of the company in 1993 as it was falling apart before the public's eyes, and there was a lot of explanation of how IBM was successful and reborn when he stepped down from the CEO position in 2002. But there was little substance in between. I am not sure if that is because the day-to-day steps taken throughout the mid and late 1990s are too mundane for the average business reader, of if the details were just left out. Gerstner does share some insight into leadership skills and his management style, but IBM as is left in the shadows. All in all, this is not a bad book, but be aware that the reader is left wondering exactly how IBM regained its dominant position in the marketplace.
A leader thru change.......2007-05-17
Mr. Gerstner provides his story of when he took over the reigns at IBM and brought the company back on its feet. This is a strict business book with internal memos and charts at the end so it can lend itself to being a bit boring in some parts. However, when the authir describes how he was able to navicate thru the huge complexity of all the different divisions, then this book becomes a valuable reference for any business leader who needs to go thru the same process.
smooth transaction, exact product, nice&easy supplier.......2007-05-14
exact product at an affordable price w a smooth transaction
Average customer rating:
- Instructive biography of tech pioneers Hewlett and Packard
- Learn about how Bill & Dave built HP, but also about the role of personal character in long term success
- Once upon a time, in a garage....
- Great Book
- Review of Bill & Dave: How Hewlett & Packard Built the World's Greatest Company
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Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company
Michael S. Malone
Manufacturer: Portfolio Hardcover
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Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard
ASIN: 1591841526
Release Date: 2007-04-05 |
Book Description
The definitive history of Hewlett-Packard and its legendary founders, based on unprecedented access to private archives
This is the most authoritative version ever of the most famous start-up story in business history. In 1938, working out of a small garage in Palo Alto, California, two young Stanford graduates named Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built their first product, an audio oscillator. It was the start not only of a legendary company but of an entire way of life in Silicon Valley—and, ultimately, our modern digital age.
Others have written about the rise of Hewlett-Packard, including Packard himself in a bestselling memoir. But acclaimed journalist Michael S. Malone is the first to get the full story, based on unlimited and exclusive access to corporate and private archives, along with hundreds of employee interviews.
Malone draws on his new material to show how some of the most influential products of our time were invented, and how a culture of innovation led HP to unparalleled success for decades. He also shows what was really behind the groundbreaking management philosophy—“the HP Way”—that put people ahead of products or profits.
There have been attempts in recent years to discredit the HP Way as soft and outdated. But Malone argues that the HP Way was a hard-nosed business philosophy that combined simple objectives, trust in employees to make the right choices, and ruthless self-appraisal. It created an innovative and ferociously competitive company—arguably the world's greatest company.
This business adventure story will be perfect for entrepreneurs, young managers, and students, not to mention the tens of thousands of current and former HP employees.
Customer Reviews:
Instructive biography of tech pioneers Hewlett and Packard.......2007-07-27
This is a book about the ability of corporate culture to preserve a company through hard times and periods of transition. The case in point is Hewlett-Packard. Michael S. Malone's solid corporate biography skirts hagiography as he covers the business that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built, and why and how they built it. Malone only touches upon their personal lives in relation to the company's development. He doesn't deal much with the nitty-gritty of their problems, but he does set out the broad picture of where they succeeded (often) and tripped up (rarely). A nice feature of the book is the use of stars in the text that refer you to a section in the back of the book that summarizes the lessons illustrated by that part of the story. At times Malone brings up object lessons maybe once too often (for example, the buyout and hiring of Tektronic's sales reps). Still, we find that his many valid, interesting insights counteract that issue, and recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of technology.
Learn about how Bill & Dave built HP, but also about the role of personal character in long term success.......2007-07-23
This is an excellent biography of the Hewlett-Packard Company. Obviously, it is impossible to tell that story without telling something of the William Hewlett and David Packard, but it does not delve into every aspect of their personal lives. The author keeps things squarely focused on the founding and building of the company and the character of that company.
Michael S. Malone does a fine job of showing us how the character of the Hewlett-Packard company flowed directly from the personal character of Bill & Dave. This is a great lesson for today's business men and women. The old saying about bad businesses is that a fish rots from the head. It is absolutely true. It is not possible to have a long term organization this is simultaneously financially successful, competitive to dominant in its market space, with a great workforce, and is widely admired, on a long term basis without a strong example from its leaders. The organization always takes on the characteristics of its leaders, for good or ill. The fact that so many people talk about the experience of working at Hewlett-Packard under Bill & Dave as a privilege speaks libraries of volumes about what they achieved and why.
We get a brief treatment of their youth and how they each met Fred Terman at Stanford. This was a pivotal relationship for all three men. The relationship that Bill & Dave kept with Terman and Stanford is also a testament to their character. Yes, the great company did have its origins in that dirt floor garage on Addison Avenue, but rather than simply retell that myth, Malone shows us what the physical reality of the garage meant to Bill & Dave (nothing) versus the use they made of the myth to build their corporate culture (everything). Malone also shows us what the post-Bill & Dave leaders did in restoring the garage as a symbol of a corporate heritage they paid lip service to while they were actively throwing away.
I loved learning about the product development discussed in the book. Obviously, only a few of the major products could be discussed because HP did so many hundreds of great products over the year. The whimsical reasons chosen for some of the names is great. For example the HP 35 calculator was given the number based on the number of keys it had.
Malone is at his very best in showing us how the culture of HP developed at its founding, what put stresses on it as they company grew, and how Bill & Dave successfully adapted it during their tenure as it became a public and global organization. Frankly, few entrepreneurs have managed to take a startup to successful global enterprise. Where Bill & Dave ran into some difficulties was in handing over the leadership of the company to others. Not that they weren't good people, but the HP Way is such a part of the character of Bill & Dave that it is hard to have that same mix in anyone else. Even they required the pair of them to have it.
This book makes no apologies about considering the Fiorina years a disaster and Malone shows why he believes this. She considered the HP Way anachronistic and was bringing her dot-com CEO as rock star credentials to this venerable firm. Luckily, the culture resisted her efforts. While she won a major battle in the Compaq acquisition, she ended up losing the war because she could generate almost no internal support. And Bill & Dave had used the employee stock purchase program to put a large chunk of the company in the hands of those who had made the company a global success.
I hope that more of today's business people can learn from these legends of business and learn the real lessons of what makes a company great. Of course, boards will have to set aside the sensationalists, the fabulists, and look for men and women of real substance and character to run their corporations. Maybe more of them should go back to being private if being public is what puts pressure on companies to do the Enron, Adelphia, WorldCom, and Tyco stupidities. Remember, stressful situations don't test character, they reveal it. Start with character and you will always do better than finding out about the lack of it when disaster strikes.
This should be considered a business classic.
Once upon a time, in a garage...........2007-06-07
Most (if not all) of the "Fortune 100" companies began as very small operations and that is certainly true of Hewlett-Packard which William Hewlett and David Packard co-founded with $538 in 1938, literally in a garage in Palo Alto, California. Their first product was an audio oscillator and one of their first customers was Walt Disney Studios which purchased eight of them to use during the creation of Fantasia. The company's subsequent growth is largely explained by sales of H-P's testing equipment during World War II (revenue grew from $34,000 in 1940 to almost $1-million in 1943) and expansion accelerated 50-100% throughout the 1950s.
What we have in Michael S. Malone's biography, Bill & Dave, includes a thorough (at times obsequious) account of how Hewlett and Packard led their company's growth until their successor, John Young, became president in 1977 and CEO the following year. In later chapters, Malone shifts his attention to events which resulted in Carleton S. ("Carly") Fiorina's appointment as president and CEO in 1999 and then as chairman in 2000. She was forced to resign in 2000.
Although I greatly admire what William Hewlett and David Packer accomplished throughout the establishment and development of the company whose name properly honors them, I do not share other reviewers' high regard for Malone's discussion of them. Before I even began to read this book, I was put off by the subtitle's assertion that Hewlett and Packard "built the world's greatest company." To the best of my knowledge, neither ever made that claim and it seems to me (one man's opinion) that it is both presumptuous and incorrect for Malone or anyone else to do so. If Malone is to be believed, Hewlett and Packard almost never did anything wrong whereas Fiorina, for example, almost never did anything right.
Malone's perspective is understandably subjective (another person's opinion, fair enough) but his judgment seems biased. Others who had a close association with both Hewlett and Packard throughout the 1940s and 1950s all agree that they were exceptionally intelligent, thoroughly decent human beings. Their talents, skills, and (yes) qualities of character are the core values of what is frequently referred to as "The H-P Way." But they were not deities and would be the first to point that out in no uncertain terms.
My rating of this book is explained by the fact that Malone provides a wealth of historical information about an especially important era (i.e. the birth and adolescence of high technology) and a wealth of biographical information about two men who were among the most effective business leaders during that era. I am grateful for what I learned.
That said, I regret that Malone's perspectives are not more circumspect and his judgment more balanced. In the final section of his book, he provides an especially sentimental account of what occurred on December 6, 2005, in a quiet Palo Alto neighborhood. Here's how he concludes the book: As older visitors to the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley" passed through the garage "like pilgrims at a holy shrine, [they] looked as much at the lovingly restored but still worn and uninsulated plank walls as at the historic items. After all these years, after all that has happened, it is still here, they told themselves. Together, we have survived." The tone of reverence and adoration in this and other passages in the book, in my opinion, compromises the authentic significance of who William Hewlett and David Packard were as well as the authentic importance of what they achieved.
Great Book.......2007-06-04
Very well written, good empathy with characters as they are well described, fascinating time period starting with the invention of the radio and running up to modern days. Good look at the development of Silicon valley and how the culture of universities like Stanford has changed over the last 100 years.
Review of Bill & Dave: How Hewlett & Packard Built the World's Greatest Company.......2007-05-14
I had the preveledge of working at HP from 1963 to 2001. Michael Malone did a great job of capturing the true charter and greatness of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard and the way they pulled together a group of people that did in fact built the worlds best company. It was a hard working group of individuals that became " family " that believed that collectively they could accomplish almost anything. He captured the spirit of HP through the glory years and the tough times. But through it all it is a testomony to The HP Way and the HP people that kept the company from coming apart. It came colse to losing it's way but it is now begining to find it's way back to the greatness that it is capable of becoming. This is a must read for any student of HP and The HP Way and should be read by anyone wanting to build a truly great organization.
Bruce Myers
Book Description
Electronic Commerce 2004 describes the essentials of electronic commerce—how it is being conducted and managed as well as assessing its major opportunities, limitations, issues, and risks. It is a clear, simple, well-organized book, and provides all the basic definitions as well as logical support. Using extensive, vivid examples from large corporations, small businesses, government and not-for-profit agencies from all over the world, it makes the concepts presented come alive for readers.
Beginning with a comprehensive introduction to E-commerce, the book explores internet marketing, B2B and C-commerce, E-marketplaces and internet consumerism, E-government, mobile commerce, auctions, security, electronic payment systems, and strategy and implementation to launch a successful E-commerce business.
Written by experienced authors who are well-versed in real-world practices, this book will prove invaluable for managers and professional people in any functional area of business; as well as those in government, education, health services, and other areas that can benefit from a knowledge of e-commerce.
Customer Reviews:
Well written and referenced...........2005-01-02
I used this book for a CTUonline.edu class and have found it to be very well written. I am already familiar with how the e-commerce world works, but for those that are not, it does a great job of explaining just about everything. Plenty of website references and case studies so that you understand HOW businesses are implementing various e-commerce strategies.
Book Description
Building on previous editions, this third edition of the Smart Card Handbook offers a completely updated overview of the state of the art in smart card technology. Everything you need to know about smart cards and their applications is covered! Fully revised, this handbook describes the advantages and disadvantages of smart cards when compared with other systems, such as optical cards and magnetic stripe cards and explains the basic technologies to the reader. This book also considers the actual status of appropriate European and international standards.
Features include:
New sections on:
- smart card applications (PKCS #15, USIM, Tachosmart).
- smart card terminals: M.U.S.C.L.E., OCF, MKT, PC/SC.
- contactless card data transmission with smart cards.
Revised and updated chapters on:
- smart cards in the telecommunications industry (GSM, UMTS, (U)SIM application toolkit, decoding of the files of a GSM card).
- smart card security (new attacks, new protection methods against attacks).
- A detailed description of the physical and technical properties and the fundamental principles of information processing techniques.
- Explanations of the architecture of smart card operating systems, data transfer to and from the smart card, command set and implementation of the security mechanisms and the function of the smart card terminals.
- Current applications of the technology on mobile telephones, telephone cards, the electronic purse and credit cards.
- Discussions on future developments of smart cards: USB, MMU on microcontroller, system on card, flash memory and their usage.
- Practical guidance on the future applications of smart cards, including health insurance cards, e-ticketing, wireless security, digital signatures and advanced electronic payment methods.
“The book is filled with information that students, enthusiasts, managers, experts, developers, researchers and programmers will find useful. The book is well structured and provides a good account of smart card state-of-the-art technology… There is a lot of useful information in this book and as a practicing engineer I found it fascinating, and extremely useful.” Review of second edition in Measurement and Control.
'The standard has got a lot higher, if you work with smart cards then buy it! Highly recommended.’ Review of second edition in Journal of the Association of C and C++ Programmers.
Visit the Smart Card Handbook online at www.wiley.co.uk/commstech/
Download Description
"Building on previous editions, this third edition of the Smart Card Handbook offers a completely updated overview of the state of the art in smart card technology. Everything you need to know about smart cards and their applications is covered! Fully revised, this handbook describes the advantages and disadvantages of smart cards when compared with other systems, such as optical cards and magnetic stripe cards and explains the basic technologies to the reader. This book also considers the actual status of appropriate European and international standards.
Features include:
New sections on:
- smart card applications (PKCS #15, USIM, Tachosmart).
- smart card terminals: M.U.S.C.L.E., OCF, MKT, PC/SC.
- contactless card data transmission with smart cards.
Customer Reviews:
Just Worth the Price.......2006-12-12
The book is well written and clear. I must say one thing this is physically the heaviest book I have ever felt for its size. It appears to have very good quality paper. The photos, drawing, and unique diagrams are superb in understanding. The Handbook provides a comprehensive coverage of card components; best I've seen explaining contactless card operation; operating system workings; and data transmission protocol. Of course the details of data transmission are not necessary to know unless you cover how coding of APDU (e.g., Java) which is needed. The discuss on the types of memory used on Smart Card (ROM, EEPROM, FRAM, Flash Memory, RAM) and its use could provide a summary table at the end similar to GSA report Government Smart Card Handbook found free on the Internet.
The section on Java Card (5.14.1) starts well but falls short in providing next logical part of discussing the coding process and how the card protocol relates to its use. I expected Java Card programming model to be discussed with sample applet and its components. I'm not looking at this to me some sort of programming book. However, technical people are reading this book and those that are not can stop short of reading on. Java Card programming model discussion material is found in a lighter book titled "Smart Cards the Developer's Toolkit" by Timothy M. Jurgensen which is more like this book but fails to be a programmer's book. It also covers Multos model as well. For this Handbook, there is practically no information on Multos model and the author uses the excuse that this is proprietary. Anyhow the Java Card seems to be the standard, explaining the programming process and the anatomy of a Java Card applet relating to operation (see Sun Microsystems article on net "Writing a Java Card Applet") brings to light the understanding on how it all works and what's involved in programming for this device. It makes sense to discuss this since the book discusses such details as the EF file structures to store data which is very well done.
The Handbook concentrates on Smart Cards for telecommunication, payment systems, and health insurance information. No reference is made of Smart Card for use in physical and logical access such as ID Badges which is becoming a base for all other uses. However, a small section does provide a summary paragraph for sample applications including personal identification; not much use, but nice to have.
Very little coverage is made of Card Management Systems (CMS). In fact the author groups Application (Applet) Management Systems (AMS) and CMS into Card Management System (CMS). The fact is that a CMS concentrates more on card inventory and issuance, while AMS is used for personalization and its application management. A little more than two pages on this subject is needed. It would be nice to see a discussion on the integration of a CMS-AMS and its relationship to Card Life Cycle Phases 3, 4, and 5. The book gives the impression that personalization is done at the manufacturer or a service facility when it could be done at the issuer's location using an integrated CMS-AMS.
The book is 1066 pages of which 170 pages are useful appendices. Even though it was rather expensive, missing a discussion on card programming and CMS, I think I still got my money's worth.
This books is worth its price ... technically sound.......2006-03-20
Technically sound contents, deep review and knowledge, no beating around the bush. A must reference for engineers who work with smartcards, its application and develop related systems. This book covers broad range of topics within smartcard technology. It is worth the price.
SmartCard Bible.......2003-08-01
This is really a bible. It includes everthing you need to know about smart cards. If you can read German order the new edition of "Handbuch der Chipkarten" that was published in September 2002. However if you are new to that field or starting to develop or maintain desktop applications that use smartcards and you need quick introduction to smartcards' inner details you should buy "SmartCards, the Developer's Toolkit, 2nd edition".
Superb.......2002-10-07
Extremely broad and deep review of smart card technology. This is an essential item on the bookshelf of any engineer, designer or architect of smart card systems. Exhaustive material on card technology, security applications, production.
It is a kind of worth to buy book in spite of its price........2000-01-20
Buying a book without having a glance in it is a high risk for me. But I found this book worth to buy. I would recommend it for all interested people in all categories. The negative site is, you have to order free SW by filling and posting a form given in this book. I did it. Publishing house sent me the URL address instead of a CD or diskette. I had to DL from there. I did it again. But unfortunately, I had to format my PC without backing it up urgently. So, I've lost everything, even the URL address. It is not possible to find it again. I'll do the same what I did before, or somebody will send me the simulation SW by mail.
Average customer rating:
- Came in well
- Describes more than Explains
- Advances the field of game design knowledge
- Review: Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams On Game Design
- Essential reading for anyone interested in game design
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Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design
Andrew Rollings , and
Ernest Adams
Manufacturer: New Riders Games
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ASIN: 1592730019 |
Book Description
How often have you heard "anyone can design a game?" While it seems likean easy job, game ideas are cheap and plentiful. Advancing those ideasinto games that people want to play is one of the hardest, and mostunder-appreciated, tasks in the game development cycle. Andrew Rollingsand Ernest Adams on Game Design introduces both students and experienced developers to the craft of designing computer and video games for the retail market. The first half of the book is a detailed analysis of thekey game design elements: examining game concepts and worlds,storytelling, character and user interface design, core mechanics andbalance. The second half discusses each of the major game genres(action, adventure, role-playing, strategy, puzzle, and so on) andidentifies the design patterns and unique creative challenges thatcharacterize them. Filled with examples and worksheets, this book takesan accessible, practical approach to creating fun, innovative, andhighly playable games.
Customer Reviews:
Came in well.......2005-09-22
The book was great in condition and looked new and it came in fast like promissed.
Describes more than Explains.......2004-01-21
This book is enjoyable for anyone interested in computer game design. However, enjoyable and illuminating are two different things. Beginning with the obviously misguided analysis that computer games are not an art form because the process of designing them is not all a matter of creativity, but that of skill and calculation as well (which is the way it is for any art form), the authors begin a journey of, well, describing what computer games are like.
Overall, the book seems more to describe than explain, more to report than interpret. There arises no general, well defined thesis from its 500+ page volume. At best, this book can be said to raise a lot of issues which a designer ought to have in mind when designing a game.
However, the vast majority of the issues raised are either of secondary importance or generally irrelevant. It breaks down the process of game design into topics in a way which is neither natural nor logical, and proceeds to pursue a rather sizyphusian discussion of each of these topics in turn. These are: What is Game Design?, Game Concepts, Game Settings and Worlds, Storytelling and Narrative, Character Development, Creating the User Experience, Gameplay, and The Internal Economy of games and Game Balancing.
This division makes very little sense. These topics are all so closely related, some to the point of overlapping, that attempting to develop a theorem which deals with each of them separately would result in exactly the kind of negligible book we have before us.
Actually, it would be impossible for the authors to develop any meaningful discussion of their subject, because they fail to define a) what we are trying to create and b) how do we measure our success. Nor can such a definition be induced from this overflous and superficial book. Without this definition, there is nothing that binds the book's pieces together (and, actually, had the authors bothered to provide a rigorous definition, they would have realized that no reasonable definition could be found for the garbled mess they've created), and it remains a pile of expressions in the spirit of "some people did this in some games, and some people did that in some other games". In short, the book does an admirable job in showing how NOT to perform a critical analysis of a subject, not to mention attempt to construct a wholesome theory.
While the book can be interesting at times, mainly because it makes one think on how such a book SHOULD be written, it is chuck full of assertions obviously made on the basis of misunderstandings, like the authors' curious misuse of the term Suspension of Disbelief, or their suggestion of the Hero's Journey narrative template as an object of imitation rather than a tool for analysis.
The authors' goal with this book also seems questionable. At one point, they assert that, even were it possible, we wouldn't like our player to be tormented by remorse after taking an immoral action in the game. Why? isn't moral education one of the most important and unique roles of art? If it were indeed possible, and I'm sure it is, it would've been a glorious achievement for this medium, one which would put all its previous achievements far behind.
Or are the authors only interested in computer games as a source of pure fun? If so, I suggest they invest their impressive talent and enthusiasm in cooking or adult toy design - a medium's greatness lies not in the fun it offers, and these repeatable fields are all about fun.
An interesting book for raising a large scale discussion, but one which falls short of grasping the deeper principles of its subject, and is, therefore, unimportant.
Advances the field of game design knowledge.......2003-07-13
The first half of this book is great, and the chapter on *What Gameplay Is* alone makes this book more than worth it. Rollings and Adams propose a new definition of game - to replace Sid Meier's off-the-cuff definition "A series of meaningful choices" - that is more general, more liberating, and more true. So anyone who is annoyed by the fact that their favorite linear platformer supposedly isn't a game by the Meier definition can turn to this. It sounds like a small thing, but so many designers quote the Meier definition so often I expect that this small pebble will create ripples that will effect the kinds of games we see in the future. By focusing on challenges rather than choices, Rollings and Adams have changed the way I think about game design.
Also, while Rollings' other book is most suited for people making strategy games, this book really is general enough to be a worthy read for anybody working on any kind of game.
I only gave it four stars because, for me, the last half of the book--summary chapters of different game genres--was mostly throwaway, rarely going into very much depth or telling me information I didn't know already.
Review: Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams On Game Design.......2003-06-29
In writing a book review, it's important to realize the importance of "cover previews." In essance, the cover previews provide a contract for either what a book is about or what information the book will provide.
For instance, the back cover of the book On Game Design posits: "How do you turn a great idea into a game design? What makes one design better than another? Why does a good design document matter, and how do you write one? This book answers these questions and stimulates your creativity?"
It is important to note that the book does not limit itself to console video games or computer games. The essence of the rules discussed in this book are those of creating any type of game. Right away that should tell you whether or not you're going to find the book useful. Are you looking for a book that tells you, in general and abstract terms, what concepts are involved with creating a game, or are you looking for a book that actually works examples of concepts?
While this book does a good job of providing many checklists for consideration, advice for certain conditions, and a dictionary of possible ways to view game design, the writers do not follow through. There are few solid examples of checklist scenarios or of worked-through versions of a game scenario which a game designer would find helpful. Without a practical means to an end, there is little purpose in reading these examples except for reassurance that you're facing the same problem that other people have faced. There are many psychology texts available for that situation already.
If you're used to reading programming books, like I am, you're probably aware that they follow a standard format: Propose a problem, choose a method of solution, work through several to many versions of the solution, solve the problem. With only a proposal, it is rather unhelpful to not see why one solution is better than another when it comes to game design. For that matter, as you might have guessed, the level of abstraction to design presented in this book leaves no space for any code examples.
While the advice given in certain situations might be helpful to someone who knows nothing about game design, it is highly likely that whoever reads this book will have little need of it since the advice is so much common sense that a gamer of several years would already be aware of much of this. It's like a senior in college having to take freshman seminar.
But, aside from this little discussion of fault, there is much to be savored in this book. Don't let this review scare you off! Get a copy of the book. Read it. Keep it as a reference for when you might need a more formalized way of presenting a problem you face in game design.
And as I'm sure you know, once you've found a way to state a problem, you're almost ready to find a way to solve it.
Essential reading for anyone interested in game design.......2003-06-17
As the global computer games industry becomes bigger business, and games are increasingly recognised as an art form, it seems surprising that the process of game design is so misunderstood. Books like Rollings and Adams on Game Design help clarify the process of game design, and as such are a vital step in clarifying game design, and providing guidance as to what that process entails.
Rollings and Adams on Game Design (hereafter, `the book') covers in broad strokes the elements of game design, both in general terms, and in connection with specific genres. The book begins by identifying the common elements of games of all kinds, and then moves on to discussing the many different classes of game, and what they have in common.
The first section, The Elements of Game Design, is an excellent treatment of the broad-strokes components of game design - a novice designer will find much to educate in this section, and even an experienced pro will find wisdom and opinion well worth the time and money. Topics such as narrative design and game balancing - often ignored - are dealt with in a generalised but comprehensive fashion, and as such this section also serves as an excellent introduction to the role of a game designer.
The main body of the book is in the second section, which consists of individual chapters covering various game genres. Because no single standard for game genre exists, the choice of genres may raise some eyebrows with some people, but within the context of the book the genre choices are very sensible and provide a good framework.
The quality of the genre chapters is variable, but generally of an excellent standard. Some are truly exceptional however, in particular that on Sports Games and the sub-section on Games for Girls contain information very hard to gain from another source. Chapters on Action, Strategy, Vehicle simulations and Construction/Management sims provide a solid discussion of the key features of these genres, although Action has been defined in such a way as to seem biased towards shooters and against platform games. It may have been worth considering these two largely divergent genres as separate forms - but to do so would have been to risk fragmenting the focused nature of the material.
Chapters on Adventure Games, A-life and other minority pursuits are quite possibly the best summary of the forms available anywhere, and the chapter on online games (written with the assistance of Raph Koster) is a superb précis of a notoriously difficult to summarise area.
There are some drawbacks, but mostly due to the generalised nature of the work. Because the book must cover everything, it necessarily covers everything briefly. Many of the chapters end when you are just beginning to get a taste for the details. As the authors note, an attempt to cover everything in detail would be the work of several volumes.
Similarly, although much is said of the process of game mechanic design and game world abstraction, little is said of the process of design where it relates to the involvement of the team as a whole. Game design is often a process of `game design co-ordination' - managing the design of the game through the changing world of the development cycle. The book provides no help for this challenging task - which again would need a book of its own to cover thoroughly.
That aside, this book is an essential reference for any game designer with less than ten years of experience, and especially for anyone new to the practice of game design. People with an interest in games will learn a tremendous amount about the underlying mechanisms of game design, and need not worry about complex mathematics or other technical detail, as most of the book is written in very easy-to-follow prose.
For anyone who has started on the path of a game designer, or who is interested in game design, Rollings and Adams on Game Design offers a superb breadth of information and should be considered an essential purchase.
Book Description
Ask consumers and users what names they associate with the multibillion dollar personal computer market, and they will answer IBM, Apple, Tandy, or Lotus. The more knowledgable of them will add the likes of Microsoft, Ashton-Tate, Compaq, and Borland. But no one will say Xerox. Fifteen years after it invented personal computing, Xerox still means "copy."
Fumbling the Future tells how one of America's leading corporations invented the technology for one of the fastest-growing products of recent times, then miscalculated and mishandled the opportunity to fully exploit it. It is a classic story of how innovation can fare within large corporate structures, the real-life odyssey of what can happen to an idea as it travels from inspiration to implementation.
More than anything, Fumbling the Future is a tale of human beings whose talents, hopes, fears, habits, and prejudices determine the fate of our largest organizations and of our best ideas. In an era in which technological creativity and economic change are so critical to the competitiveness of the American economy, Fumbling the Future is a parable for our times.
Customer Reviews:
solid book on a gigantic missed opportunity.......2007-01-10
This book tells the story of the greatest failure of a corporation in our time to create marketable products from truly great research. It starts by telling the story of how PARC was conceived and how it operated.
In 1973, a number of researchers at Xerox PARC demonstrated the "Alto". The Alto was the first "personal computer" designed not only on a human scale for a single individual but supported by a number of improvements that rendered it "instantly responsive to the user's demands", each of them revolutionary in the computer field. They included: a graphics-oriented monitor with "icons" and overlapping "pages" on the screen that was coordinated by the "mouse" input device; a word-processing program "for nonexpert users"; a local area network, the "Ethernet"; and an object-oriented programming language that combined data with certain commands, which hugely simplified computer operations.
These attributes represented nothing less than a paradigm shift for the computer industry, away from the punch cards, unwieldy printouts of results, obscure programming codes, and the awkward time-sharing arrangements that were the hallmarks of mainframe computers. At that moment, Xerox had a full five-year head start over its future rivals. (Amazingly, PCs have changed little. with the exception of incremental improvements, from this fundamental prototype.)
Unfortunately, few at Xerox headquarters understood the importance of these developments. From its beginning, many executives at Xerox headquarters viewed PARC as a kind of uncontrollable island of insolence and arrogance. When Xerox managers visited PARC, they were struck by the rudeness and counter-cultural feel of the place. For their part, PARC researchers viewed headquarters with open disdain at the leadership's inability to understand not only what PARC was doing, but the jargon they were forging.
The mutual distrust between headquarters and its Palo Alto lab neither encouraged Xerox executives to learn about how PARC's inventions might fit into the modern office nor allowed PARC's managers to sell their inventions to the company's manufacturing units. Even worse, PARC had no one in Xerox's top leadership to champion their product ideas or even to get things done - at the moment when PARC's technological innovations were ready for commercial development, the Xerox Corporation was entering a prolonged period of crisis, the "lost decade" of the 1970s.
To the shock of many Xerox leaders, Japanese manufacturers came up with a number of basic innovations in design, greatly enhancing the reliability and performance of their copiers while reducing their cost. With this stunningly executed strategy, the Japanese manufacturers succeeded in turning Xerox's supposed comparative advantages (of a huge sales force and repair facilities and patented technolgies that were being squeezed of every last drop of their value) into unsustainable liabilities.
It was in this context - a crisis of rapidly diminishing market share, with financiers and accountants ascendant within the Xerox bureaucracy - that PARC managers were attempting to sell their revolutionary inventions. Unfortuately, the top leadership at Xerox had turned its attention to investigating the methods of Japanese companies, in particular the techniques of total quality management, which would occupy the attention of David Kearns, the new Xerox CEO, into the 1980s.
Beyond the numbers, PARC was pitting itself against the corporation's incentive system: because the Xerox manufacturing divisions had quarterly targets it had to meet, adding an entirely new line of products threatened to disrupt the flow of revenues, which meant they wouldn't get their bonuses.
Moreover, as an embryonic business that could only promise growth somewhere in the future, the Alto III attracted little attention at headquarters - Xerox managers had long grown accustomed to massive returns rung up at the click of a button on a leased machine, in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In light of this expectation, the Alto III appeared too small to bother with.
In December 1979, Steve Jobs had visited PARC and was working to incorporate the software capabilities he had observed into the first mass-market personal computers. In addition, Jobs, Bill Gates, and others had begun to hire researchers away from PARC: disgusted by the obtuseness of Xerox headquarters regarding their work, many of them were yearning to move to more entrepreneurial environments. They felt that they had accomplished virtually all that they could at PARC.
Nonetheless, with approval from headquarters, a number of PARC's best engineers had begun to develop the Star workstation. Unveiled at a computer trade show in April 1981, the Star generated great excitement. Packed with many of PARC's best features, such an as-it-would-print document screen and electronic mail, the Star was unlike anything that had ever been sold in the industry. However, once on the market, the Star quickly revealed a number of drawbacks. First, with so many features that required processing power, it was extremely slow. Second, it was also too bulky for many offices. Third, it retailed at over US$16,000, pushing it out of reach of all but the richest of corporations. Fourth, the Star lacked a spread sheet, which many office executives wanted, and its "closed" software system would not run those offered by other companies.
While criticized as a typical engineering product with an over-abundance of esoteric features, the Star was far more a reflection of Xerox headquarters: recalling the runaway success of the 914 monopoly, they had assumed that the Star would set the de facto standard for an entirely new industry, which Xerox would again dominate - regardless of the price. Even worse, they had failed to appreciate that this time, the company faced some extremely nimble and hungry competitors.
Xerox had also failed to train its copier salesmen regarding the vision behind, and unique features of, the Star: it was supposed to be the first step in Xerox's re-making of the office environment. Unfortunately, accustomed to selling copiers to lower-level managers, Xerox salesmen understood little of this and many had no idea who to approach within corporations with this revolutionary new product. From their experience with the blockbuster early copier 914, they - along with the leaders in their company - were accustomed to marketing hardware, whereas the Star's principal advantages came from its software. Talk about implementation failure!!
In August 1981, IBM introduced the personal computer (PC). While far more primitive and less user-friendly than the Star - with no mouse, no Ethernet capability, no icons, no multi-tasking windows - it was priced at less than US$5,000. Quickly surpassing the Star in sales, the IBM PC set the standard for the emerging market of affordable personal computers. For all intents and purposes, Xerox would view the PC revolution, which it had virtually created, from the sidelines - it had squandered a lead of over 5 years!!!
Following the failure of the Star workstation, morale at PARC plummeted. To make things worse, in 1981 Xerox appointed a new director at PARC, Bill Spencer, who failed to grasp the unique chemistry of the computer lab. Spencer immediately locked horns with Bob Taylor, who resigned and took most of his top staff with him to DEC. This marked ended Xerox's effort to fundamentally reinvent the modern office.
Nonetheless, PARC could boast a few commercial successes. Most prominent of these was Gary Starkweather's laser printer, which he had moved to PARC to develop in 1971. After a few years of work perfecting the device and a long and difficult period of promoting it from within Xerox, Starkweather was able to convince the company to manufacture a version of his machine in 1977. Though Xerox had barely beaten IBM to the market with the product in spite of a three-year technological lead, its laser printer became one of the best selling Xerox products of all time, eventually becoming a US$2 billion business per year. Its acceptance within the company was made easier by the fact that it was largely a hardware product, with technology familiar to Xerox.
This is meaty stuff, and the authors cover it well and the book is very very well written. It is best when telling the story of the disconnect between PARC and Xerox HQ in an effort to explain the failure, though the technical aspects of how PARC operated are summarized well (and never in excessive detail). This is at heart an organizational behavior book, not a how-to (or how to not) innovate book.
Recommended.
Something fascinating about train wrecks.......2003-12-30
As most people in the computer industry know Xerox pioneered many of the key breakthroughs in the computer industry, but then they were not able to capitalize on the technology they developed. Many, many other companies have made billions of dollars; however, Xerox just couldn't figure out how to reap the benefits.
The authors of "Fumbling the Future" go into this history in great detail. They first set the stage by describing Xerox's early history, how Xerox invented a copier, and for a number of years they were so successful that they were able to basically print money. Many of the major players in the industry are mentioned, their goals and interests. Xerox was very aggressive, and in some ways they were also a bit lucky, with the copier. Then Xerox decided they needed to also get into the computer industry.
Next the authors talk about how the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) was created, how George Pake selected various key people to help staff the research center, and the charter PARC was given. The book goes over who was hired, what they did, and how the groups at PARC worked together, and sometimes didn't work together.
Here is where you can start to see the train wreck. The first President of Xerox, Joe Wilson, seems to have been a very gifted leader. In terms of "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, Joe Wilson was a level five leader. Unfortunately Joe Wilson dies, and the next president of Xerox, Peter McColough, was at best a level four leader. Peter decided to spend almost a billion dollars for a niche science computer company which Peter then tried to force out into the general computer market, going up against IBM. Peter also took Xerox into Medicine and Education. And Peter got involved in Politics and Charities. Peter McColough was not focused on Xerox, and let several problems simmer.
We get some insights into what drove the researchers at PARC to develop the first personal computer, the Alto, and many of the reasons why it was revolutionary. The authors chart the destruction of the potential of the Alto, largely because of various managers at Xerox not catching the vision, or those who caught the vision not being able to work well with upper management.
One thing which would have improved the book was to have some pictures. It would have been nice to have some pictures of the early copiers, the Alto, and some of the major players.
It was a well written book, with a lot of good history, and some important lessons. Even though you know how it will all turn out, this was a hard book to put down.
My Life at "Brand X".......2003-11-04
I lived through these years on the 10th Floor at Xerox Corporation Systems Headquarters, El Segundo, California - as a Systems Administrator for New Product Development and Training. The book is accurate, but misses one very, very important point: The "Leadership" at Xerox Corporation at this time did not, repeat not, have the "best intentions". On the contrary, they were "Box People" (copier people) who did not have a clue about how to take advantage of this technology. In 1984 we did an internal survey of middle and upper management regarding use of the applications for the Star/Distributed Net (specifically email and Viewpoint software applications for those of you "in the know"). It found that while 76-percent of first and second level management used these applications on a daily or multiple-weekly basis, less than 10-percent of upper and executive management did so (the figure was under 5-percent on returns from Rochester and Stamford). Is this evidence of knowledge or having the "best intentions"? Those of us who did have the knowledge of the potential benefits were in middle management and could see those benefits to our own organisations at that time. We reported on these benefits, talked about them, begged people to come and see for themselves...for years...nothing happened. Many of us grew so frustrated we left (I was one, in 1989), although we still loved (and love) our exciting times at "Brand X". Some stayed, and watched Xerox "retreat" back to a primarily copier/printer company (and in doing so it crushed many a spirit). Most of us have wonderful, amazing, funny and frustrating stories to tell about those times (how about two trips in a single day to PARC from El Segundo just prior to the release of the 6085PCS?...or when the training Manager for New Produce Development left...only to turn up at Apple the following month...with all his notes and records?...Or producing training films for new releases with comedy sketches on the tail end for raising salespersons morale...). This book is too high level stuff for that...but it does reflect the failure of the top at Xerox...although it doesn't quite come out and say that...The top did not have a hint about these advances because they were from another world (Rochester, Copiers, not PARC/El Segundo and GUI/Ethernet). Read the book, but remember, no matter how hard those in middle management yell...if the top does "not have ears to hear" - it will not hear! ETW, Los Angeles, CA, now a retired TRW Employee
Fascinating Business Case Study.......2003-05-27
This book tells the fascinating story of the invention of the first distributed personal computer systems at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), and how a copier company that had grown to over $1 billion in revenue in less than 10 years based on a single new technology (photocopying) was unable to capitalize on a new technology again, despite the best intentions of its leaders.
The really innovative work at PARC was done under the direction of Bob Taylor. When Taylor was forced out, he started DEC's Systems Research Center (SRC) (later acquired by Compaq, and then HP), and he brought much of the top talent along with him.
I read this book on Bob Taylor's recommendation when I first joined DEC SRC as a researcher. But I decided to read it again recently before attending a talk by George Pake, the founding director of PARC. Pake's history of PARC agreed with the book, but he drew very different conclusions about the overall benefit of PARC's inventions to Xerox. In particular, Pake gave far more credit to PARC for contributing to Xerox, but all the examples he gave related to how computer technology has come to be used in photocopiers, which entirely misses the point. As the book's subtitle suggests, most of PARC's astounding computer innovations were largely squandered by Xerox (and "borrowed" by Steve Jobs to create the Apple Macintosh).
The first time I read the book, I was fresh out of school and didn't have much experience in the business world, so the parts of the book dealing with business issues were mostly a mystery to me. This time, it made much more sense, and I actually found the business aspects of the story more intriguing than the technical ones. Even so, the story of the first bit-mapped display, laser printer, ethernet, personal computer, and WYSIWYG editing software -- innovations we take largely for granted today -- is quite interesting!
A must Read.......1999-12-16
If innovation is in any way your concern read this. It memorializes fluently almost all the things a management can do to kill creativity.
Customer Reviews:
Wow... I read this in 5th grade and it was worth it!.......2003-05-10
Wow... I read this in 5th grade and it was worth it! And then I read it again in eigth grade... The reason i love this book so much is that i won the contest for Nintendo with the information in this book. (animal crossing pioneer)
Well, I can't say enough for this book. I own the hardback, and plan to get the updated paperback soon!
An Nsider Delight.......2000-03-31
This is ONE book that I just can't get out of my mind! This book is a must get for gamers & Nsiders (The Official On-line Nintendo Club)!
Game Over gave a near-perfect insite to Nintendo's beginning of a handfuda card company (Japanese cards), develop into a game / toy company, & eventually entering the Video Game company.
David Sheff did an excellent job in writting this book & does go in depth into things as well as actual translation of the name ("Leave Luck to God" is my favorite).
If the Nsiders is a cult/ religion, this would be our bible!
This is a great book to read, even though there are slight minor flaws & this version only goes up to 1993. It's a must read good & would Highly suggest picking up the revised sequal, "Game Over: Press Start to continue"
Excellent handbook on Nintendo's past........1999-12-11
Game Over is a terrific account of Nintendo's past, and is must reading for video game enthusiasts and historians. Mr. Sheff had what seemed to be unparalleled access to Nintendo's inner workings, and brought back a fascinating story on a family business made good in the international community. Unfortunately, the book falls for Nintendo's predictions for the future (many of which were designed by Nintendo solely to draw attention away from its rivals rather than to provide insight into their future business plans.) As long as the last parts of the book that attempt to chart the future course for video games and Nintendo are ignored, the book stands as an important work in video game journalism.
I do have a few complaints with the contents and focus of the book; there are the usual small factual errors which may obscure future historical video game research; there are the regurgitations of various industry spokesmen without proper interpretations; and there is the unwavering focus on Nintendo which tends to downplay the parts played by their competitors/rivals in the industry. I have yet to read the updated version of Game Over (Press Start to Continue), and the new version may rectify some or all of these shortcomings. Regardless, Game Over stands as a slightly flawed, but amazingly useful research tool and entertaining book.
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