Computer chips are an almost invisible part of our modern lives, and yet they make much of what's "modern" in them possible. Even the tech-averse and the tech-opposed among us depend on their hidden capabilities. From today's automobiles, medical scanners, and DVD players to annoying musical greeting cards, space travel, and movies like The Lord of the Rings, microelectronics are everywhere-and taken for granted. But how did this revolutionary technology emerge? Microchip tells that story by exploring the personalities behind the technology. From the two pioneering men who invented the integrated circuit, Nobel Prize winner Jack Kilby and Intel founder Robert Noyce, to luminaries like Gordon Moore and An Wang who put the chip to work, Jeffrey Zygmont shows how the history of the microchip is also the story of a handful of visionaries confronting problems and facing opportunities. A compelling narrative about the germination and advancement of a single technology, Microchip is essential reading about the now-ubiquitous integrated circuit and its outlook for the future.
I write for free people who possess rebellious impulses. My stories tell about independent characters in conflict with collected groups and their constraining beliefs. Since we all belong to groups, I expose the conforming dogmas we embrace unconsciously in any organization: faith or zealous movement, political party (either), business corporation, labor union or professional association, social club, charitable organization, television audience ... the list is very long.
That theme underlies three novels: I Am Bill Gates' Dog, available now, and Ad Man in the Games of 2046 and The Dropout, to be published early in 2012. The pioneering web publisher Online Originals named The Dropout its "Featured Selection" in July 2002.
I have published short fiction in the anthology The Literature of Work, and in periodicals ranging from New Hampshire Journal to the magazine Twin Cities Business Monthly. My poetry has appeared in the journal Not Just Air. Two of my poems received nominations for the annual Pushcart Prize, a respected literary award. They are Wife Poem XXVII, nominated in 2008, and Menopause, nominated in 2009.
As a journalist, I have published articles in many magazines and newspapers, including Boston Magazine, Boston Woman, Business Week, CFO Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, Cigar Aficionado, Gannett Newspapers, Inc Magazine, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and Robb Report. I was the automobile columnist for Omni Magazine, a technology columnist for PC Computing Magazine, and an editor and staff writer for High Technology Magazine.
My non-fiction books are Microchip; An Idea, Its Genesis and the Revolution It Created, and The VC Way; Investment Secrets from the Wizards of Venture Capital, which was translated into Chinese for sale in the Orient.
My early career in journalism and non-fiction writing gave me knowledge and insight into so many of our muzzling institutions. Today I convert that education to literature that exposes the built-in biases we embrace in our allegiances to groups, while it also entertains and engages you.
