Flying high and crash landing into a Pool of Sharks (Or, Will the True "Source" Stand Up, Puh-Leeze!)

Yesterday, I walked away from everything to go see the "Social Network".  As My children are a generation older than the Facebook kids, I expected to be entertained by the movie and not to identify with anything.  But, two thirds of the way in, a disruptive iconic character (Justin Timberlake) was introduced...the IT icon brought some discomfort to my stomach, but I got past that. Then, the Venture Capitalists and their lawyers appeared-Smooth talking, ever upbeat, brilliant, soul-less, conscience-free VCs and their lawyer clones.  My heart was in my throat.

If I can do it without whining-or subjecting myself to a lawsuit- I will publish the story of the skill, joy and naivete of the kopecetic team who created Pages Software; the surprise, instantaneous death of the platform on which the software was developed; and, the home invasion-style tactics of the VC's (and their minion's) resulting in the demise of Mike's company, his vision, his dream, his life's savings and the investment money of just about every member of our family. The typographic world had a few scoundrels in its midst but their shenanigans pale when held up to the latter day Sodom and Gomorrah ethics of Silicon Valley.  Most of these VCs and the revered tycoon are still living.  Whether to write about it here because it is a BIG part of Mike's -and the rest of the Parker family's- story or fictionalize it in a novel is my dilemma.  A 64 year old disabled woman in Maine would be low hanging fruit for these unprincipled, vicious men, and they would not hesitate to squash anyone just to show they can. I must admit I have vitriolic reactions when I remember that time.  The deception, greed and lack of humanity was the most breathtaking abuse I and our family have ever been subject to. If the tycoon is to be believed, Pages never existed until it sprang Athena-like from his head fifteen years after Mike, Vic and the team got it going (1990-1995).  I might have to pray for God to 'bless those Silicon characters and change me' because I just have not been able to forget this---their revision of history aside. I have to run the entry I haven't posted past MY attorney, but I think I know the answer already.  'Get started on the novel simultaneously, Kiddo.'

Pages team celebrating the shipment of software. (1994)

In this photo: Mark Mumford, Kevin Mickey (photos),Peter Linss, Jim Hamerly (photos), Mike Parker, Bruce F Webster (photos), David Krich (photos),
Rebecca Lawson, Bruce Henderson (photos), Jon Wright, Lisa Jurgens, Vic Spindler, Greg Kostello, Cindy Allen Douglass (photos), Rick Gessner, Sue MacIntosh(photos), Larry Spelhaug, Kevin Sven Berg, Sean Church(photos), Susan Peterson (photos), Deborah Haygood(photos), Deirdre Poeltler (photos), Rand Schulman,Nardy Hennigan




However, while I gather my courage and decide which way to go, I want to congratulate and wish my hero since yesterday, David Gelernter, every good tiding, blessing and lucky break for winning one for the rest of us "Gippers".


David Gelernter

"A community is not a community of disembodied spoken statements, in part because the most important aspect of the communication that people have is emotional, and one often communicates emotion not in terms of the text but as a subtext. The physical body is not irrelevant to a human community. The emotional subtext of human communication is crucial to human thought. It isn't a footnote. Too many computer scientists don't understand this."