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Copywriting
It
seems
far-fetched
now,
but
there
really
was
a
time
before
the
Internet.
When
computers
began
to
move
out
of
the
realm
of
the
think
tank
nerd
and
threatened
to
invade
our
daily
lives,
many
academics
and
intelligentsia
wrinkled
their
noses
and
portended
the
death
of
literacy
when
people
began
communicating
with
the
use
of
machines.
 Balderdash,
many
of
us
said
then.
And
now,
more
than
a
decade
later...Alright,
to
be
fair,
a
cursory
glance
at
your
teenager's
MySpace
page
might
cause
you
to
wonder
if
the
doomsayers
were
right,
but
with
over
100
million
sites
on
the
Internet,
it's
obvious
that
reading
and
writing
haven't
been
completely
phased
out
of
the
curriculum.
In
fact,
with
100
million
sites
competing
for
the
attention
of
a
finite
set
of
eyeballs,
written
communication
has
never
been
more
important.
If
you're
like
many
people,
writing
falls
somewhere
between
dental
surgery
and
cleaning
the
dog's
kennel
on
your
list
of
ways
to
spend
the
perfect
afternoon.
That's
why
I'm
here.
Of
course
the
job
of
writing
has
given
me
my
own
share
of
fits
and
consternation
through
the
years,
but
the
pain
threshold
is
low
enough
that
I
don't
mind
doing
it
to
help
pay
the
bills.
Wherever
you're
at
in
the
process
of
communicating
your
message
to
the
public,
or
even
if
you're
having
trouble
deciding
what
your
message
is,
I'm
happy
to
help
be
your
voice.
Copyright©
2006
-
Bill
Kelter
/
Untangled
Web,
Inc.
-
All
rights
reserved
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THE
OTHER
OTHER
BILL
GATES
In
the
popular
history
of
the
personal
computer,
there
is
one
name
that
is
conspicuously
missing
from
most
discussions,
and
his
name
isn't
Steve,
Steve,
Steve,
or
Paul.
Gary
Kildall
was
a
Navy
veteran
and
computer
science
PhD
who
created
the
first
disk
operating
system,
CP/M,
capable
of
running
the
prototype
microcomputer,
the
Altair
8800.
In
1980,
Bill
Gates
recommended
Kildall's
Digital
Research
Company
to
IBM
execs
who
were
looking
for
an
OS
for
their
new
IBM
PC.
Killdall
skipped
the
meeting
and
left
his
wife,
Dorothy,
to
meet
the
execs
at
their
home/office.
Dorothy,
however,
balked
at
the
IBM
non-disclosure
agreement,
and
the
flummoxed
execs
left.
Kildall
would
eventually
sign
the
NDA,
but
never
showed
much
enthusiasm
for
selling
CP/M
for
use
in
the
IBM
PC.
Amazed
but
seeing
an
opportunity
of
no
less
than
epic
proportions,
Gates
rushed
to
a
small
company
called
Seattle
Computer
Products
and
first
purchased
a
license
for
CP/M
clone
QDOS
for
$25,000
and
later,
for
$50,000,
all
QDOS
rights.
QDOS
begat
PC-DOS
and
MS-DOS,
which
eventually
helped
Bill
Gates
become
worth
more
than
the
GDP
of
some
European
countries.
Kildall
was
reportedly
embittered
at
the
success
Gates
had
with
what
wouldn't
have
been
possible
without
CP/M,
while
he
himself
continued
to
toil
in
obscurity.
He
died
in
1994
under
unusual
circumstances
(variously
described
as
a
heart
attack,
in
a
bar,
or
falling
off
a
ladder).
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