[Coco] Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution

[Boisy G. Pitre]

Speaking of retrocomputing history books and the like, I've heard good stories about "Racing the Beam" about the Atari VCS, and have just purchased it. 

Best Regards,
Boisy G. Pitre

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On Jun 6, 2012, at 11:19 AM, Boisy G. Pitre wrote:

> I agree with John.  I too have this book in my library, and the memoir section was laborious reading.  I felt it was my duty to suffer through it because I didn't want to miss anything relevant to the actual topic, but it really brought down my opinion of the value of this book.
> 
> Still, it has some good information, and if you can find it used at a low ball price (which is how I got it), then go for it.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Boisy G. Pitre
> 
> Join our forums at http://www.tee-boy.com/forums/ to exchange ideas and information with other WeatherSnoop enthusiasts.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Jun 6, 2012, at 8:38 AM, John W. Linville wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, Jun 05, 2012 at 10:49:41PM -0700, Tony Cappellini wrote:
>>> http://www.retrothing.com/2009/05/how-trs80-enthusiasts-helped-spark-the-pc-revolution.html
>> 
>> I happen to be in the middle of reading this book right now.  Parts of
>> it are interesting, parts of it are...less interesting.  There is
>> some cool Tandy history, albeit mostly for the Model I/III/IV line.
>> And there is some interesting insight as to what it was like to be part
>> of the nascent computer industry in the 70's and 80's.  There are also
>> a few bits that I'm fairly certain are factually wrong (and provably
>> so) -- probably any significant work has a few of those too.
>> 
>> What really brings down the value of this book is that are three
>> l-o-n-g chapters in the middle of the book that comprise the authors'
>> (husband and wife team) life stories.  I don't mean their stories
>> as TRS-80 software developers, I mean the stories of going to
>> elementary school, of going to high school and college, of falling
>> in love, getting married, and starting a family, of taking vacations,
>> etc. with just a bit of TRS-80 stuff in their to keep it relevant(?).
>> These parts read like a memoir -- a memoir of someone you aren't
>> surprised that you didn't know existed.  I had to resort to skimming
>> these parts, which consume nearly half the book.
>> 
>> So anyway, I don't mean to discourage anyone from reading the book to
>> gain some insight into Tandy's early years in the computer industry.
>> I just want to warn you to prepare yourself -- the reminiscing is so
>> thick that it puts even a CoCoFEST! to shame... :-)
>> 
>> John
>> -- 
>> John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
>> linville at tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.
>> 
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