I loved this magazine - could not afford a subscription but our uni had it but you could not take it out - many hours spend reading and making photocopies of the articles.
The NextCube , Transputer and the wacky Linn CPU.
The NextCube , Transputer and the wacky Linn CPU.
Or some company would give him their $10,000 top end computer system and he'd state that the fact it was given to him didn't affect his opinions about the system, because he really used the system and that it was he, a power user, who was doing the company a favor by shaking the bugs out of their systems. I didn't buy it for a second.
Perhaps it is like some podcasts where you like it or dislike it more based on the personalities of the hosts more than the content. Because I have never been a reader of science fiction, I saw Pournelle as just a privileged curmudgeon and wasn't tickled that a famous SF author was sharing his personal life with me.
I was in the men's room at the West Coast Computer Faire, and Jerry walked up to the urinal next to me. We made some small talk (not Smalltalk!) while we did our business, and I quickly realized he was drunk as a skunk.
There was a moment of panic when I thought to myself, "Please, let his aim hold true!"
It did, and we both left unscathed and unsplashed.
Pournelle was never reluctant to criticize. He discussed the Epson QX-10 because he really wanted to like the bundled Valdocs software, but repeatedly excoriated over several versions its horrible performance. Pournelle was always scathing about copy protection, even if he otherwise liked the software. When discussing CP/M transportables, Pournelle preferred the super-expensive Otrona but rightly said that the Osborne and Kaypro were the Volkswagen better suited for most people in terms of price/performance. Etc., etc.
A parody:
I called Jan Toady, president of Hyena, who indicated that a helicopter
of ground-assault technical assistants was hovering near Fractal Manor
24 hours a day and that all I had to do was give the word and they'd
parachute in. (Based on my own experience, I think Hyena offers the
best service in the business, and not just because I mention their
products every month in my column which millions of avid computer
buyers read either. I bet you'd get the same service I do. Recommended.)
I chuckled and said I'd try to puzzle it out a little more myself. He
said okay and then talked me into accepting a free laptop with
holographic display and telepathic mouse. A nice guy.
Jerry Pournelle (nee POURNE@MC) was a belligerent alcoholic and an over-entitled far-right-wing nutcase (which naturally go hand in hand), who would not only extort companies with computer hardware and software he wanted for free, but even blackmail university research labs "run by a bunch of communists" to give him all the free products and priceless personal support and services that he demanded, otherwise he would drunkenly threaten (and carry through) to publically badmouth them, not only in his Byte article and BIX, but also (in the case of the MIT-AI Lab providing him with his precious free ARPANET access in the early 80's) to his "Pentagon friends" and "reporter friends" and "even the House Armed Services Committee".
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/text/pourne-smut.html
>"I find this thoroughly distasteful. If you have some authority to order me off the net, do so. If not, leave me alone." -Drunk Jerry Pournelle from his free POURNE@MIT-MC account generously provided by the MIT-AI Lab
>"I'm almost tempted to let him take his marbles and floppy disks and go home." -Glenn S Burke from GSB@MIT-MC
>"Personally, I'd just turn off his account. It's not like it's the first time, and he not only flaunts his use of our machines but stabs us in the back with grumblings about why he doesn't like this or that program of ours when he gets a chance. (Am thinking particularly of an article he wrote which condemned Lisp for reasons amounting to little more than his ignorance, but which cited Teach-Lisp in a not-friendly light... The man has learned nothing from his presence on MC and sets a bad example of what people might potentially accomplish there. I'd rather recycle his account for some bright 12-yr-old...)" -Kent Pitman from KMP@MIT-MC
>"I don't know whether you guys have read Niven and Pournelle's _Oath_of_Fealty_, but "Think of it as evolution in action." is their thinly disguised rallying cry for do-it-yourself social Darwinism. It would be so, so sweet to shove it back in his face." -John G. Aspinall from JGA@MIT-MC
>"I.e., little jerry isn't going to get my sympathy if big bad leigh klotz picks on him." -Glenn S Burk from GSB@MIT-MC
>"KLOTZ: 5'8"? POURNE: >6'4" Fuck it. Flush him." -David Vinayak Wallace from GUMBY@MIT-MC
>"It's funny this should appear in my mail to-day. I had lunch this afternoon with McCarthy, and in the course of conversation (we were discussing SF) he mentioned that someone at MC had flushed Pournelle... As for pournelle himself: He really thinks that WE are trying to annoy HIM??? Of course if he's vitriolic enough and all the obnoxious turists vanish (leaving the nice ones of course) then he may have atoned without realising it..." -David Vinayak Wallace from GUMBY@MIT-MC
>"You might consider contacting Byte about publishing some note from us to appear simultaneously with this. This is only important if pournelle is going to say what I think he is going to say (what JMC [John McCarthy] told me pournelle was claiming), which is that the reason his account was flushed was because he favors the Strategic Defense Initiative, and MC is run by a bunch of communists. This will no doubt please darpa immensely." -Patrick G. Sobalvarro from PGS@MIT-MC
>"One thing that is known about ARPA: you can be heaved off it for supporting the policies of the Department of Defense. Of course that was intended to anger me. If you have an ARPA account, please tell CSTACY that he was successful; now let us see if my Pentagon friends can upset him. Or perhaps some reporter friends. Or both., Or even the House Armed Services Committee." -Drunk Jerry Pournelle in ARPA-Exile on BIX
I wonder how many taxpayer's dollars Jerry Pournelle wasted trying to get the House Armed Services Committee to fix his IT problems.