The new book in Albert Cory’s acclaimed fictionalized account of the rise of Silicon Valley and those who lived and worked there. 

Welcome to the ‘80s! The Xerox Star may have failed but our characters are on the move, building lives in the new frontier of technology. While the internet is just ‘some academic thing’, all eyes are on IBM and Microsoft – and the upstart Apple. 

It’s 1985. For Janet, Dan, Matt, and Cassie, the internet is just some academic thing in universities. They’re engineers working at 3Com, building their lives in the new frontier of Silicon Valley. Everyone’s watching Microsoft and IBM nervously — will networking be just one more business that they own? 

The internal email system that powers 3Com is run by Dan, who inadvertently starts one of the world’s first social networks by creating a want ad system. A single listing becomes pages of off-topic debate. All the while, the Internet is slowly, imperceptibly gaining momentum. 

Cassie works for Janet. She and the others work behind the scenes to wrangle happiness for Janet, despite being told not to. When Cassie’s nemesis mysteriously quits, apologizing for his inappropriate email, no one has any idea what he’s talking about. Can anyone track down what really happened?

About the Author 

Albert Cory is the pen-name of Bob Purvy. After graduating with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science at the University of Illinois, his first job was at Burroughs in Irvine, California. After three years there, he was hired at Xerox to work on the Star (the subject of Inventing the Future).

After the Star, he worked at 3Com, Oracle, Packeteer, and Google, among others. At Oracle he led a Working Group in the Internet Engineering Task Force, which produced RFC 1697. At Google, as a patent expert, he published an article on Software Obviousness which was cited in an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court in the pivotal CLS Bank v. Alice case. He also single-handedly prevented Google Maps from being shut down in Germany, which was about to happen when Microsoft won a temporary injunction in a patent suit. 

He now lives in San Jose, California.