Got quite a shock today. Round about 11pm, everyone started getting up and walking out the office. At first I just assumed many were taking an early lunch. Then got asked whether I was coming to? Being the new boy, and not having email setup properly yet, nobody had though to mention that a talk with Bob Cringely had been set up for everyone. My mouth virtually hit the floor. 'THE Bob Cringely?' I had to ask.
Bob is someone I've admire for many years and is a great speaker, with some brilliant anecdotes to tell. Some of you may recall his 'Triumph Of The Nerds' & 'Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet' TV shows several years ago. Along with several books. He's has become infamous for not accepting shares from Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in the early days of Apple, and instead held out for the money. Something his mother still reminds him about even now apparently :)
For more Bob info go here: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/
I wouldn't exactly say he was a hero or anything [0], but it was certainly nice to meet one of the early pioneers of home computing.
[0] Being asked to do lights [1] for Debbie Harry is the closest I've ever come to hero worship. And she was lovely.
[1] Aside from being a Perl programmer, I'm also a profession lighting engineer :)
