http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0812928512/forkrecommendedrA/
Amazon's review:
> Jim Carlton's Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and
> Business Blunders is a worthy offering in the ever-growing genre of
> "boardroom thrillers"--or tragedies, as the case may be. The book traces
> the history of this Cupertino company that brought the personal computer
> to the masses, emphasizing Apple's downward spiral of the last
> decade. Carlton's thesis--that Apple's downfall in the eighties and
> nineties was the result of bad decisions, missed opportunities, and
> personnel problems--may be old news to many. However, Carlton's
> research is top notch and the specifics of each case are fascinating and
> insightful. Required reading for anyone interested in the business of
> technology, Apple is an uncomfortable lesson in how brilliance and
> ingenuity can create incredible products, but not necessarily success.
Sounds like it would be less biased toward its subject than Randall
Stross was in _The Microsoft Way_:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0201409496/forkrecommendedrA/
and less biased toward its subject than Julie Brick in _All I Really
Need to Know in Business I Learned at Microsoft: Insider Strategies to
Help You Succeed_:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0671009133/forkrecommendedrA/
Harumph. Tis the season to be cynical, falalalala lala lala.
Still, if anyone recommends the Apple book, let me know and I'll buy it...
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
Still, there are some things a big company can do that a small band of
programmers could never hope to accomplish. This was best shown to me
this week by reader Brian P. McLean, who points out that according to
his Microsoft Outlook 97 scheduling/datebook application, Thanksgiving
falls this year on Wednesday, November 26. Thanksgiving has always
fallen on Thursday before. Wednesday may be an improvement. I don't
know.
-- Robert X. Cringely, 'I, Cringely' 11/7/97