In 1978, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston took out a loan to fund development of "Calcu-ledger," the very tool that could project if taking out a loan were fiscally prudent. In 2025, VisiCalc still has the necessary precision to express the hundreds of billions in spreadsheet profits generated since.
In the 70s and 80s, the "office of the future" remained tantalizingly close, ever slightly out of reach, but definitely almost here. I'll commandeer the family C64 and rebuild my business into a "paperless office," if a certain surprise mystery villian doesn't foil my plan. (dramatic musical sting!)
A disillusioned filmmaker turned beach bum turned a hobby project into millions by creating the first word processor for home computers. His creation was so compelling a jewelry salesman reinvented himself as a software publisher just to keep it alive. Let's see what all the fuss was about.
Back when EA was cool, they packaged their software in album-style sleeves and promoted their developers like rock stars. I was a Dan Silva groupie.
A blog about the productivity software of the 8/16-bit era. No games, just work.