Whatever Happened to… Robert X. Cringely? - Company Business and Marketing

Industry Standard, The, Feb 19, 2001 by Leslie Gornstein

What's Robert X. Cringely up to these days? Depends on which Cringely you're talking about.

Cringely, a former tech columnist, made headlines in 1996 when he and former employer IDG (publisher of The Industry Standard) had a legal falling-out over whether he could continue to use his pseudonym. From 1987 to 1995, Cringely, whose real name is Mark Stephens, had penned the "Notes From the Field" column for InfoWorld, creating a smooth, sexy, gossipy persona that combined geekdom with glamour. Stephens and IDG eventually settled, though the terms were never disclosed. What we do know is that Stephens still writes and appears as Cringely for PBS. And someone else -- maybe even a whole bunch of people -- is still writing as Cringely for InfoWorld. Follow?

Stephens' Cringely says he is in postproduction for a PBS documentary entitled Electric Money. The five-year project, which will be accompanied by a book, deals with how digital currency is slowly replacing hard cash. The subject wasn't his first choice ("Some other guy came up with the idea," he shrugs), but Cringely hopes to see the program air this fall.

The clued-in will know that this is just Cringely's latest such project. In 1992, he earned praise for his bestselling book Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date. The book was later developed into Triumph of the Nerds, a 1996 documentary about the rise of Silicon Valley, which aired in 30 countries. That was followed by more PBS specials including Nerds 2.0.1 and Y2K: The Winter of Our Disconnect. Fans of his original column may remember that Stephens prefers not to be addressed by his given name. Asked what friends are calling him today, Cringely responds, "My friends call me lots of things."