My Friend Bob Cringely
The author recounts a 1996 interaction with journalist Bob Cringely, who reached out to praise the author's Java programming book. The story reflects on the early days of the Java ecosystem and the nature of tech industry networking.
Why it matters
It provides a historical perspective on the early adoption of Java and the personal dynamics of the 1990s tech journalism scene.
In 1996, I was a Ph.D. student at Syracuse University. One evening I was sitting in my office and the phone rang,__ “Hello?” “Is this Paul Tyma?” “Yes?”
Bob replied in very fast English. “This is Bob Cringely. I just read 7 Java books and yours is the best.”
My first thought was “Huh. He actually said my last name correctly”.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in