The inside story of a software company capitalizing on the rapid and ever-accelerating growth of the Internet. The author (who co-wrote Computer Wars, 1993, with Charles Morris) clearly—and gratefully—benefited from the monetary success of the company and product he founded, Vermeer Technologies and FrontPage, respectively. FrontPage was one of the first software programs for producing Web pages. Despite the short time involved in this story—only four years pass from initial idea to the company’s acquisition by Microsoft—there were numerous obstacles to overcome. These included grappling with product conception, finding and managing relationships with partners and employees, and stumbling through the intricate maneuvers employed by venture capitalists. Although these elements are common denominators in most business histories, here the author has done more than merely provide a chronology: He details the methodology and processes so well that this book could be used as a primer for entrepreneurs. This practical value is enhanced by the entertainingly frank descriptions of companies and company leaders who interacted with Ferguson. Not one to mince words or shy away from anyone, he provides skewering assessments, taking as his favorite targets Netscape and Microsoft. The former is seen as a company of “amateurs” with an “intellectual vacuum” at the top; the latter as a predatory giant. This criticism, however, is always presented in descriptive perspective and never without objective praise in balance. Vermeer and its founder are not omitted as subjects of this honesty; mistakes, errors in judgment, fits of temper, and clashes of personality mark the path from inception to product launch, providing valuable insight about the rocky path to success. The sole major criticism of this tome: It’s too long. Instead of ending on an obvious high note, once the company has been sold, Ferguson adds two superfluous chapters of lengthy commentary on the faults of Netscape and Microsoft. Still, a refreshingly candid story about hard work and competition. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8129-3143-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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