Robert X. Cringely

Wandering around on the desert plains of Facts, this book desperately requires the oasis of an editor in order to survive. Cringely knows his stuff when it comes to IBM, but the book is written with the assumption the reader knows as much as the author - oftentimes things were referenced obliquely, hinted toward in a further chapter or just missing context entirely. I feel that If I were a regular reader of Cringely's blog (as well as well-versed in IBMemera such as the memoirs of former CEOs), the analysis would fit in quite nicely - but then, were I a dedicated reader I wouldn't need the entire last half of the book, which are literally just edited reader comments from various blog posts.

Essentially, the work suffers from a failure of narrative cohesion that leaves the story patchy. This is probably a decent primer to get soundbite-esque gobbits about the current state of IBM, but don't expect much.… (mer)