Dan Bricklin on Technology, the 30th Anniversary of Visicalc, and Social Computing

There isn't a computer product vendor on the planet that doesn't claim to be innovative. And every vendor has some chief technologist who their marketing folks tout as a visionary, a thought leader, an expert on some topic.

There are few people in the annals of computer industry history who actually live up to those descriptions. There's Charles Babbage, who invented and built the first computing machine.

There's Vannevar Bush who, in an article for The Atlantic in 1945 entitled "As We May Think," fortold hypertext and the World Wide Web. This in an era when the first electronic computers had less power than a digital pocket calculator, and no connectivity.

There's Grace Hopper, who created the first high-level programming language, COBOL, and coined the term "bug" to describe software defects.

The list also includes the creator of the minicomputer, Ken Olsen; the father of the microprocessor, Ted Hoff; the inventor of the microcomputer, Ed Roberts; the father of the Internet, Vinton Cerf; the creators of the first successful personal computer and the first successful GUI, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak; the man behind the original IBM PC, Don Estridge; and of course, the team that put a computer on every desk and in every home, Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

And no list of computing's true innovators would be complete without mentioning those guys who started Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and the gent who ginned up a little thing called the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee.

I'm sure I'll receive my fair share of angry e-mail for failing to tickle other pivotal personalities who were instrumental in bringing us the digital world we live in today (Robert Noyce, Gordon Bell, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, Nolan Bushnell, Linus Torvalds, James Gosling, Marc Andreesen, to name a few, in no particular order).

The purpose of this post is not to provide a complete chronology of the industry's inventors, but rather, to provide the context for introducing today's special guest on PC TALK: Dan Bricklin, the man who, along with partner Bob Frankston, created the first spreadsheet.

That product, Visicalc, became the first killer app, and transformed the personal computer business from a hobbyists's pursuit to a mainstream industry.

Too much of a drum roll? I don't think so. There were several pivotal applications that helped computing evolve from an interesting curiosity into a central component of our lives and careers. All the novel hardware in the world is worthless without great apps that people can understand, use, and benefit from.

Visicalc heads the list, followed by several other pivotal applications that, even today, continue to define what we use computers for, and how we use them -- apps such as Wordstar, dBase, Sidekick, Turbo Pascal, and later, Navigator.

So it was with great anticipation and excitement that I hosted a call with Dan Bricklin. It's not often you get to interview one of your heroes. But there were several reasons why I felt I should reach out to Dan and see if he would be willing to appear on PC TALK.

First up was the 30th anniversaty of Visicalc, which debuted publicly at the West Coast Computer Faire in May of 1979 (incidentally, just three years after I first used a computer). Coinciding with the anniversary, Dan unveiled the beta of SocialCalc, his 21st century take on the spreadsheet. And Dan also has a new book, Bricklin on Technology, which we also talk about.

Interestingly, Dan says in the interview that he never wanted to build a another spreadsheet. Ever. Yet here he is pushing the envelope (and product) again, with SocialCalc. Find out the interesting (and funny) reason why when you listen, as well as Dan's views on the state of computer technology, where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed.

I apologize for the telephone-quality sound of my voice on this interview, but I was testing Google Voice's ability to record calls. Dan sounds great; I sound a little thin. And if I asked any stupid questions, well, I was talking to one of my heroes, after all. The adrenalin can do strange things to your ability to tee up a question.

I'll have Dan back at some future point, and I promise to record the interview in my studio. :-)



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How to Slash Your Mobile Phone Bill in 90 Seconds

It's not often that the average consumer gets a chance to level the playing field with towering corporate giants. It's rarer still when taking on the corporate machinery can be done without hiring a room full of lawyers. But a new Web site, ReviewMyBill.com, appears to put a little power back in the hands of consumers.

With a few clicks, the service promises to analyze your mobile phone bill, and tell you what you can tweak to cut the cost without cutting capabilities. I interviewed Nick Lindwedel, the president of ReviewMyBill.com, to find out exactly how the service works, what makes it tick, where's the catch, and what happens if something goes wrong.

In addition to promising to save people money, the site also has a referral plan that claims to pay up to $300.00 per referral. Sound too good to be true? Listen in and decide for yourself.



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The Official Agent of Change

Mobile phones are changing the way we communicate and compute. They truly are the official agents of change for the 21st century.

And Wirefly might just be the official agent of change for how we buy mobile phones. I spoke with Scott Ableman, Chief Marketing Officer at Wirefly, about the company's recently released list of what they say are the industry's "top 10 best camera phones."

We also talk about the latest trends in mobile phone technology, how to choose a camera phone, and how buying a phone online (and through Wirefly) differs from dealing with your neighborhood mobile phone store.



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Twitter Nation

A recent study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds we're quickly becoming a nation of tweeters. Depending upon whose numbers you believe, the microblogging system now has over 10 million users, and is now the third largest (read: most popular) social network, behind MySpace and Facebook.

Twitter is popular among techies and media types, but is it really a useful tool for the average user? I asked PC Magazine editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff that question, and that sparked a discussion about Twitter and the latest social media trends.

Tune in to PC TALK to hear what the sage of PC Magazine thinks about Twitter, the basics of social media, and where all this tweeting might be taking us.



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Consumer Reports Picks the Best Digital Cameras of 2008

The editors of Consumer Reports made some surprising discoveries in their recent test of 77 digital cameras on sale this holiday season.

In this edition of PC Talk, Terry Sullivan, associate editor of Consumer Reports, shares the test team’s findings, and provides buying advice for anyone giving or angling for a new digicam this year.

Here’s a peek: One of the best digital point-and-shoot cameras costs under $150, and comes from a company nobody associates with photography. More startling still, one of the most expensive famous-maker digital SLRs produced the worst images of all cameras tested.

Capture some bottom-line take-aways in my interview with Terry Sullivan, and then read the December issue of Consumer Reports for the full test results.



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A Captivating Approach to E-Learning

When Adobe asked me if I'd like to take a look at their new 3.0 version of Captivate, I assumed I'd be testing a tool that captures screen output and saves it as a Flash video. That's because, when I glanced at Adobe's Web page for Captivate, I saw it described as a tool for "screen recording and demos" and "presentations."

It turns out Adobe Captivate 3 is that, and a lot more. While you can use it to create screen videos and demos, you can also use it to create simulations, interactive computer-based training sessions, tests and quizzes, and more -- without having to learn scripting or video editing skills.

I spoke to R.J. Jacquez, Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe Systems, about this new Captivate release, as well as how Captivate works with Adobe’s other e-learning solutions (such FrameMaker, RoboHelp, and Acrobat, Presenter, and more).

If you only think of PDFs or Flash when you think of Adobe, you'll enjoy this expansive interview with Jacquez, which explores reasons for using an e-learning platform over traditional video capture for training and demos.

We also touch on the broader Adobe story, e-learning in general, and the mythology of competing against Microsoft and Apple.



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From Pen Computing to the Computerized Pen

Are you ready for a new computing paradigm? The folks at Livescribe think so. Their new Pulse pen goes beyond pen computing, tablet computing, and PDAs to usher in an entirely new way to work: the computer pen.

Instead of creating a computer capable of dealing with digital ink (such as a tablet PC or smartphone), Livescribe’s Pulse is a pen that’s capable of dealing with data. The user interface is paper, and you can program the pen by tapping on icons printed on special paper or cards.

In addition to being able to record everything that’s written with it, it can index the data, attach audio files to hand-written notes (e.g., meeting or lecture audio can be connected to notes), and much more. It’s the physical manifestation of some really big thinking by Livescribe’s engineers.

But does it work in the real world, or is the Pulse simply a cool gadget that nobody really needs? Listen to my interview with Livescribe founder and CEO Jim Marggraff, who fields some tough questions based on my experience with the Pulse.



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How to Get a FREE College Education

Instead of sitting on your butt playing Halo and slugging Mountain Dew, you could be collecting thousands from wealthy benefactors who want to foot the bill for your college education.

My next guest, scholarship coach Ben Kaplan, qualified for over two dozen scholarships totaling $90,000, and used the cash to cover the cost of his Harvard degree. He says his technique can work for anyone, even those whose grades aren’t the greatest.

Tune in to find out what you need to do to kick your college fund into high gear.



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The Many Nuances of PDF Converter Professional

There are many ways to produce PDFs, but only one that balances the power of Adobe Acrobat with the ease of use and low cost average knowledge workers need: Nuance’s PDF Converter Professional, recently upgraded to version 5.

Nuance says it’s “the only complete PDF solution designed specifically for business users,” and I think they’re right. I spoke with Mike Angelo, senior product manager for PDF Products in Nuance's Imaging division, about the new PDF Converter Pro, and how it’s used to create, convert, and edit PDF files.



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