• Dealers of Lightning

  • Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age
  • By: Michael Hiltzik
  • Narrated by: Forrest Sawyer
  • Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (311 ratings)

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Dealers of Lightning  By  cover art

Dealers of Lightning

By: Michael Hiltzik
Narrated by: Forrest Sawyer
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Publisher's summary

Dealers of Lightning is the riveting story of the legendary Xerox PARC - a collection of eccentric young inventors brought together by Xerox Corporation at a facility in Palo Alto, California, during the mind-blowing intellectual ferment of the '70s and '80s. Here for the first time is revealed in piercing detail the true story of the extraordinary group that aimed to bring about a technological dawn that would change the world - and succeeded.

Based on extensive interviews with scientists, engineers, administrators, and corporate executives who lived the story, Dealers of Lightning takes the listener on a journey from PARC's beginnings in a dusty, abandoned building at the edge of the Stanford University campus to its triumph as a hothouse of ideas that spawned not only the first personal computer, but the windows-style graphical user interface, the laser printer, much of the indispensable technology of the Internet, and a great deal more. It shows how and why Xerox, despite its willingness to grant PARC unlimited funding and the responsibility for developing breakthroughs to keep the corporation on the cutting edge of office technology, remained forever unable to grasp (and, consequently, exploit) the innovations that PARC delivered, and details the increasing frustration of the original PARC scientists, many of whom would go on to build their fortunes upon the very ideas Xerox so rashly discarded.

(P) and ©1999 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved, Harper Audio, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"...for any student of business or technology, Dealers of Lightning offers a gem of a story that has never before been so well told." (The New York Times Book Review)

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Audio quality is bad, story is awe inducing

You'll need to power through the terrible audio quality, but I found it well worth it to gain a glimpse into PARC.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

the jurassic age of computing

xerox parc was the fertile crescent of modern computing gadgetry. everything we use today seems to have roots going back to that time and that place. this is an enthralling book for students of technology. well worth a look!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible sound quality

This book has very poor sound quality. As an abridged version, a lot of the personality nuances of the characters are lost. Not recommendable...

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting but a bit tedious

This book provides a great history lesson in technology, however, its main focus is on the individuals that developed the technology, not the technology itself. It can be pretty tedious to listen to, but there is some good suff in there if you can hang in there.

It is absolutely amazing how many modern technologies spawned from the developments made by the visionaries at PARC such as the computer mouse, the GUI interface, ethernet, the laser printer, etc. Its even more amazing that Xerox capitalized on virtualy none of these inventions.

In the interest of full disclosure, I had a unique interest in this book due to the fact that have been a Xerox employee for over a decade, and have actualy had the opportunity to visit PARC (long after its inovative heyday of course).

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Enlightening and Entertaining

The book's clear and fluid narrative accounts the rise and fall of Xerox PARC in a way which seems to touch on every major segment of hi-tech from VLSI circuits and Intel to Ethernet and 3COM. I was surprised to learn that even more had been invented, tinkered with and implemented at PARC than I could ever have imagined- with very little of it becoming a comercial product. This was a fascinating tale and is perfect for any person in high tech, printing or technical sales.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome Book, Crap Production

The books and resder are great, the recording is muffled and sounds like a cassette tape.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Ironic that book about computer innovations suffers from terrible audio quality

It’s like I’m listening underwater. Worst audio production quality. Not sure if they were going for the “1960s” sounding theme.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating look back

This book dispels, the myths surrounding Xerox PARC research, it’s accomplishments, and missteps by its corporate leadership.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Creep of technology

One does not get the impression that the anecdotal style of this storytelling is even true let alone comprehensible. Feels like classic ancestor worship. It must be pointed out that the author is a thief journalist who has been in trouble most of his career. His chief research method involves reading colleagues emails. He is currently writing propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party at the LA Times.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible audio quality, good story

Audio quality is not up to expectations, but the PARC story/book are great. Ideally this gets re-recorded.

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