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Kevin Savetz

Terrible Nerd Paperback – November 2, 2012

by Kevin Savetz (Author)

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Terrible Nerd is tech journalist-turned-Web publisher Kevin Savetz' biography of personal computing, gaming, and online adventures as a child in the '80s, and follows the author as an Internet pioneer in the early '90s and into his present-day Web success.

Rich in detail and personal memories, this is the story of a boy coming of age in the dawn of home computing. This tech memoir gives readers a front-row seat to a self-confessed geek's early experiences with computers. Accessible to non-techy readers and computer nerds alike, this treasure trove of memories shows how growing up as part of the first computer-native generation shaped friendships, hobbies, and, ultimately, a career.

Terrible Nerd brings to life late nights swapping software, hacking the school computer, causing trouble on college radio, a stint as AOL's Internet AnswerMan, and hosting a team of Microsoft suits in his small-town home office. Kevin brings his experiences to life, writing with insightful candor and historical accuracy.

Terrible Nerd celebrates an era in all its geeky glory. You'll enjoy following along as Kevin flunks out of P.E. class, gets busted for reading the Intellivision game catalog at church, and accidentally crashes the Internet for all of Europe – yet ultimately triumphs and even gets the girl.

"A joyous romp down memory lane for all us nerds who lived through the home computer revolution of the 1980's!" -- David Simmer II, Blogography

"Terrible Nerd is not only fun to read, but recounts some valuable computer history that is mostly overlooked elsewhere. Kevin recalls what it was like to grow up in the era of the first home computers and BBS communities. These were the soda fountains and fishing holes of our generation. Kevin's story will strike a chord with nerds and geeks of all ages. -- Gary Rosenzweig, MacMost

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publication date

November 2, 2012
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.58 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1939169003
ISBN-13

978-1939169006
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A joyous romp down memory lane for all us nerds who lived through the home computer revolution of the 1980's!" -- David Simmer II, Blogography

"A rich chronicle that deftly mixes details of his beloved technologies with the zeitgeist a particular time and space. An entertaining read for technologists and non-techies alike." -- Tom Gellar, Slashdot

"An interesting and highly entertaining read" -- Greg Barbrick, Blogcritics

"A tale to which all retrocomputing enthusiasts can relate." -- Ken Gagne, Juiced.GS

About the Author

Kevin Savetz maintains an extensive online archive of classic computer and gaming magazines at AtariMagazines.com and AtariArchives.org. He owns the free Internet-based faxing solution FaxZero.com, and is the creator of 85 websites under the FreePrintable.net umbrella.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Savetz Publishing (November 2, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1939169003
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1939169006
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.58 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,394,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #738 in Computing Industry History

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55 ratings

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Kevin Savetz

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Kevin Savetz is an online publisher and Atari-loving nerd based in Portland, Oregon. His first modem was 300 bits per second and plugged into the Atari's joystick port. He started using the Internet in 1989 and wrote one of the first books about the 'net in 1994. Kevin has written more than 1,000 articles about computers for a myriad of magazines and newspapers, but today concentrates on creating useful little web sites.

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4 star		17%
3 star		8%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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Bill L.

An Enjoyable Read About The Early Days Of Personal Computing And Beyond

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 8, 2012

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I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and well-paced. With the book rounding out at about 250 pages, I was able to complete it in a one evening, the day it arrived from Amazon.

The first half of the book covers the author's 1980s pre-college technology shenanigans, including some thievery, pirating and phone phreaking. While the author participated in these activities, it seems more of an experimental phase rather than a full-time criminal enterprise that takes place in other books in this genre. The book also details the logistics of living in a broken home, not in a sad, sappy way, but in a "when will I have access to my beloved Atari 800 again" way.

The author talks about various video game systems such as the Channel-F, the Mattel Intellivision and the Atari 2600. He also talks about the computers he had as a child including the Atari 800, the Texas Instruments 99/4A , the Apple IIc and others. He doesn't go into much detail on the hardware, but discusses the software in general and his favorite games in detail such as M.U.L.E. and Jumpman.

The second half of the book covers the author's college days, career in freelance technical writing and later, web publishing. The section on the author's college days is very interesting. The section on the author's freelance career begins to feel like an "Ego Wall" after a while, though being an autobiographical/memoir work, I guess it is appropriate. Even in this section there are good nuggets of historical and biographical information.

A great aspect of this book is that the author injects snippets of source code, programs screen shots, emails, diary entries, letters and school assignments that he has saved from his childhood. It adds a great personal historical facet to the work.

There are a few places in the narrative where the author jumps ahead or back in time which can be a little confusing. For this review, I read the first edition printed version and I didn't find any mistakes. The editing was first rate.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read and well worth the $15.

On a side note, "An Officer and a Gentleman" was a pretty good movie and places that I have worked, such as Bell Laboratories, did ask for a copy of my college transcripts so that they could see my grades.

9 people found this helpful

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Daigs

Enjoyable Trip Down Digital Memory Lane

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 7, 2020

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I've been listening to the ANTIC Podcast on and off for the past couple of years. My 8-Bit Atari days really shaped who I am today and listening to the interviews and info shared on the podcast really brings back memories. After hearing Kevin mention his book on a couple of occasions, I decided to pick up a copy. It was well worth it to me.

What I found most interesting was reading the stories of him getting new machines and the family and friends' interactions around them. It really brought me back to my childhood. Some of the similarities between the author and I are eerily close.

If you're someone who grew up in the 70's and 80's at the onset of Home Computing and Video Games, this is an enjoyable, easy read that I highly recommend adding to your library.

One person found this helpful

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Shawn Collins

We are all Kevins!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 1, 2013

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Terrible Nerd is a fun biography from Kevin Savetz on growing up with computers in the 80′s, pioneering on the Internet in the 90′s, and then up to his current day adventures.

So many of Kevin’s experiences were mine back in the day with the Atari obsession and typing pages of BASIC code from magazines.

But while my story stops with having an Atari 400 in the house in the mid-80′s, Kevin shares his path of nerdy fun the whole time through.

Even if you weren't around or didn't get into games and computers back then, it’s a fun peek into Kevin’s coming of age and hearing all of the experiences in his voice that resulted in friendships, hobbies, and a career.

I have known Kevin for years and didn't realize he was AOL’s Internet AnswerMan – I learned HTML from tutorials on AOL and probably asked him a question or two back then.

And I was absolutely fascinated that he once managed to accidentally crash the Internet for all of Europe.

2 people found this helpful

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Siegfried Lenz

A great trip on memory lane

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 1, 2012

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Sharing my choice of "first computer" with the author, I ordered this book on a whim and found it very entertaining. Stories of early encounters with computers, devouring computer magazines and typing seemingly endless lines of data, the difficulty of obtaining software on an allowance-based budget, studying and modifiying of BASIC code, just to name a few, evoked childhood memories. Despite living halfway around the globe and far away from what we perceived to be "home computer heaven" in California I found many of the author's memories close to my own teenage experiences.

Kevin Savetz biography does not stop at computers but also covers a bit of pre-facebook college life, summer jobs, pre-photoshop darkroom experiences and of course his entry into web publishing..

Spouses of (former) geeks hoarding (Atari or non-Atari) equipment in the basement might find this book valuable in understanding the need to keep that stuff, especially if they don't hold a BASIC programming proficiency card.

I "raced" through this book in a couple of days and did not encounter any dull sections. Enjoy!

One person found this helpful

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momentarydogma

A nostalgic and fun ride for any computer nerd who grew up in the 80's!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 27, 2013

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Had such a blast reading this book! It's fairly short, but just the right length for the subject. Filled with so many great anecdotes about 80's and 90's computing, gaming, Bulletin Board Systems and the rise of the Internet. Anyone who listed computers as a hobby before 1995 will love it-- personally, I found so many parallels between the life of the author and my own (although I was born six years later). It was uncanny at times, though I'm sure any nerdy member of our generation will relate to plenty of the stories presented here in the same way I did. Honestly, I almost felt as if I was reminiscing about the golden age of personal computing with a dear old friend rather than reading the memoirs of a complete stranger (I had never heard of Savetz before, though I'm sure I've ready countless articles he's written over the years). It won't hold wide appeal to some audiences, but for me it's a must-read!

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IX

Enjoyable if you were there

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 21, 2013

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Whilst I'm a little older, I grew up around the same time as the author so a lot of his memories, especially Atari related resonated with me. The stories, background and general vibe of the era came over well. Being written by an American it does tend to also be a bit of an advert for the author full of his achievements but I can live with that.

Mark McDougall

A good yarn if you can relate!

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on November 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

I listen to Kevin on the ANTIC podcast and he's a great communicator; always animated and always interesting, which is what led me to his book. After having read other customers' reviews on Amazon, I'd have to say they all pretty much hit the mark. Like many others, it's a story that resonates with me and I think that's an essential ingredient to enjoying this book - which I most thoroughly did.

Given that Kevin is so heavily into Atari 8-bit, I expected more Atari content and more of an insight into his Atari obsession, but from the book alone you'd be forgiven for thinking he was no more a fan of Atari than Apple for example. That puzzled me a little, though perhaps he purposefully avoided alienating non-Atari fans? Or perhaps that's an unbalanced perspective from someone who lived and breathed nothing but the TRS-80 for almost a decade!

It's a pretty light read - I managed to complete it between Sydney and San Jose. As others have said, there's not a lot to take away from the book, but rather it's one that you enjoy as you're reading. And it's not a book you'd need to keep on your shelf once you're done. For this reason I think it would work very well as an audio book narrated by Kevin himself, especially considering I couldn't quite shake the sound of his distinct voice as I read it!

Definitely got my entertainment value for the (digital download) price, and as an aside I would also recommend his podcast.

Carsten Strotmann

Eine kleine Zeitreise in die 80er und 90er Jahre

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on April 1, 2013

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Kevin Savetz ist ein "schrecklicher" Nerd im besten Sinne des Wortes: Ein Nerd, der eine gute Geschichte erzählen kann. Ich habe mir das Buch gekauft, da ich mich für den ersten Teil, die 80er Jahre, interessiere. Der Atari800 auf dem Cover hat auch in meinem Arbeitszimmer noch einen Ehrenplatz. Der erste Teil des Buches rief vieles aus meiner eigenen Jugend und meinen ersten Erfahrungen mit Homecomputern wieder in mein Gedächnis, aber es war auch interessant zu lesen das einiges in den USA anders funktionierte oder ablief wir hier in Europa. Der zweite Teil des Buches dreht sich um Kevins Erfahrungen mit den frühen Netzwerken und dem Internet. Dieser Teil erzählt von der Zeit, als das Internet noch nicht allgegenwärtig und noch eine neue Technologie war, die erforscht wurde. Kevin war dabei und hat einige interessante Geschichten zu erzählen. Ich kann das Buch allen empfehlen, die entweder selbst die Homecomputer- und frühe Internet-Zeit der 80er und 90er Jahre aktiv erlebt haben, oder wissen möchten, wie es denn "damals so war".

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Tigerduck

Retro-Buch um Erinnerungen aufzuwecken

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on January 24, 2013

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Mittlerweile scheint ja jeder, der mal in den 80zigern ein Computer besessen hat (oder jemanden gekannt, der einen besaß) ein Buch schreiben zu müssen.
Dies hier ist, bist auf einige Längen, eines der Besseren. Das verwendete Englisch ist in Satzbau und Vokabular, auch für nicht perfekt des Englischen mächtigen, verständlich. Grundkenntnisse im amerikanischen Schulsystem sind allerdings nützlich.
Amüsant und teilweise auch lehrreich.

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Canadian_buyer

Boring, may interest you if you were a teenager during 80's

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 1, 2017

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Boring.

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