Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (Paperback)

by Michael A. Hiltzik (Author) "The photograph shows a handsome man in a checked sport shirt, his boyish face half-obscured by a cloud of pipe smoke..." (more)
Key Phrases: computer science lab, bitmapped screen, microscopic transistors, Palo Alto, Bob Taylor, Alan Kay (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Throughout the '70s and '80s, Xerox Corporation provided unlimited funding to a renegade think tank called the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Occupying a ramshackle building adjacent to Stanford University, PARC's occupants would prove to be the greatest gathering of computer talent ever assembled: it conceptualized the very notion of the desktop computer, long before IBM launched its PC, and it laid the foundation for Microsoft Windows with a prototype graphical user interface of icons and layered screens. Even the technology that makes it possible for these words to appear on the screen can trace its roots to Xerox's eccentric band of innovators. But despite PARC's many industry-altering breakthroughs, Xerox failed ever to grasp the financial potential of such achievements. And while Xerox's inability to capitalize upon some of the world's most important technological advancements makes for an interesting enough story, Los Angeles Times correspondent Michael Hiltzik focuses instead on the inventions and the inventors themselves. We meet fiery ringleader Bob Taylor, a preacher's son from Texas known as much for his ego as for his uncanny leadership; we trace the term "personal computer" back to Alan Kay, a visionary who dreamed of a machine small enough to tuck under the arm; and we learn how PARC's farsighted principles led to collaborative brilliance. Hiltzik's consummate account of this burgeoning era won't improve Xerox's stake in the computer industry by much, but it should at least give credit where credit is due. Recommended. --Rob McDonald --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Anyone who uses a personal computer is familiar with technologies pioneered by Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), which started operation in 1970. The received wisdom is that Xerox muffed the chance to dominate the personal computer era by allowing revolutionary technologies developed at PARC to be snatched up by strangers and rivals (most famously, Apple, which took the mouse and the graphical user interface from PARC). L.A. Times reporter Hiltzik argues that the received wisdom is wrong. He expertly situates the story of which products actually made it to market for Xerox (e.g., the laser printer) and which technologies Xerox leaked away (WYSIWYG word processing, hypertext, Ethernet and TCP/IP, to name a few) in a broader analysis of the role of basic science research in business. He praises Xerox execs for understanding the difference between basic research and product development and for exempting PARC from the stultifying effect of having to do the latter. Among the many facts of life on the cutting edge that Hiltzik makes abundantly clear is that very bad decisions are often made for very good business reasons. While granting that Xerox could certainly have better exploited the new technologies issuing from PARC, he emphasizes that the company brought together "a group of superlatively creative minds at the very moment when they could exert maximal influence on a burgeoning technology, and financed their work with unexampled generosity." This is a top-notch business page-turner. Unburdened by any gee-whiz jaw-dropping, yet fully appreciative of the power of creative minds, it is informed by a sure understanding of the complex relationship between business and technology. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (April 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887309895
• ISBN-13: 978-0887309892
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #135,019 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Being There at the Dawn of the Computer Age, December 29, 1999

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (Hardcover)

What I really appreciate about Dealers of Lightning is that, for the first time in a single volume, there is a comprehensive analysis of the legendary Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). Its brilliant young inventors produced a number of breakthroughs in office technology. Hiltzik examines each of the key scientists, led by Bob Taylor, as well as Steve Jobs and others who visited to observe and to learn... and departed with information without which they probably could not have succeeded. This is a riveting account of collaborative genius. It has the colorful characters and multiple of plots (and sub-plots) one encounters in a novel written by Dickens or Balzac. Bennis and Biederman devote one chapter in Organizing Genius to the PARC operations. For those who desire a complete account of those memorable years, here it is...well-told.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read about software history, April 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (Hardcover)

This is a gripping history about key software innovations that underlie much current US economic success. These software technologies are now deeply embedded in everyday business practices and they formed a launching pad for today's computer-based communications and the Internet. As traditional US manufacturing declines in competitiveness, it is hard to imagine that the US would be enjoying its current prosperity if basic innovations like those developed by PARC and by early ARPA research had not occurred when they did.

As a technical participant in the Xerox Star commercialization effort, I worked with many of the PARC researchers described here. Hiltzik tells a very balanced and nuanced story that certainly captures the concepts, dynamics, and conflicts of that time. One can quibble with whether the participants' recollections are always fair, but Hiltzik's story about these exciting times is basically accurate with respect to the personalities and events that I knew, and he fills in a wealth of background and details that I didn't know.

This book corrects a lot of misinformation about PARC research and Xerox commercialization efforts. It is a good read for anybody interested in the history of technology. It should be required reading for everybody in research management--for many examples of what to do and what not to do. This history should also be read by anyone who believes another big leap in software technology can be achieved while research funding is cut back, universities are drained of their talent, and almost everyone competitively focuses on six month commercialization goals.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad but entertaining, April 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (Hardcover)

I'm pleased to say that this is one of the worst books that I've actually enjoyed. The author, Michael Hiltzik, has an engaging and genial style and seems to be someone one would like to know. His command of technology however is dim at best and his explanations of computer technology are often absurd or hilariously confused. This is especially true with respect to software and programming, where he is really in at the deep end of the pool.

One example: He apparently believed some of Xerox's promotional literature about the nature of the Xerox Star. It is described as not for secretaries and typist but rather their bosses and professionals. In actuality is was a very sophisticated publications system, clearly designed for publishing personnel. It couldn't do much else since it came with only token software for other common applications. (I had one.)

Further, the Star is compared and contrasted with the IBM PC as if they competed head to head, where in reality they did not complete at all. (The Star is a multi-workstation system supporting up to five users, albeit slowly.)

More serious, however is his historiographic method or lack of it. He breaks the cardinal rule by accepting the hearsay of participants in the events he's relating, so that he writes a story instead of history. But worse, he is unwise or gullible enough to accept as his two principal informants men who were notorious for their ambition, egoism, and willingness to generously apportion praise where it belonged, at their own feet.

As a result, the really bright shining lights, especially if of a modest nature, get short shrift or no shrift at all. Take for example Adele Goldberg who is characterized as "Kay's learning expert" with Kay as the "creator" of Smalltalk. The author notes at least twice that she was pregnant at some point or nursing her baby at work at some other time. What an insane role to assign to a woman whose professional and scientific credentials stand with the best in the world and whose insight into the nature of programming languages was profound.

There are quite a few things that should have been said about the effect that Goldberg and others had on the graphical user interface developed at Parc ("PARC" was not much used in-house). This is likely the case because the conceptual contributors were not hardware engineers, for whom the author has great reverence. After all it's the "things" they make that count, no?

Steven Jobs, the ultimate connosieur of talent, never made the mistake of not knowing who the player were. When he raided Parc with his technological stormtroopers, he twisted arms to have Adele Goldberg as his tour guide over the protests of at least one of the author's main informants. (Arm twisting was Steve's second great forte.) The author says the picture is very confused since accounts vary so much, but it's all on a (well-researched) PBS video so how confusing can it be?

The book seems good concerning the internal Xerox wars, though I have no personal knowledge of such except for the relationship between SDS/XDS and Xerox, which the author gets about right. All that said, I'll pass the book on to a friend who has no cause to be finicky and can enjoy the well-told (if largely incorrect) story.