Dan Bricklin: The personal web site of the co-creator of VisiCalc

This is a personal web site that I maintain myself. It has historical information I've accumulated (including about VisiCalc), some of my thoughts and writings, material from others that I find of interest, and material specific to me for reporters and researchers. It has thousands of unique pictures of interest to people in the computer industry!

See the Disclaimer at the bottom of this page.

This section lists major additions and changes to this web site. Changes to the Personal Log are not usually listed since they are so frequent.

Dan's Book:

Bricklin on Technology book cover linked to Amazon

Published

by Wiley and in bookstores now!

See the Book Web Site for details about the book and companion material or buy now.

Revenge of the CLI: A transformation through voice and AI was added to the Writings Section (1/26/18)

The story behind my TEDx Talk was added to the Writings Section (1/10/17)

Rethinking Forms in the Age of Tablets and Amazon S3 was added to the Writings Section (8/18/15)

How Alpha WatchBench Came About was added to the Writings Section (6/4/15)

How Alpha Anywhere supports offline mobile apps was added to the Writings Section (9/7/14)

Dealing with Disconnected Operation in a Mobile Business Application: Issues and Techniques for Supporting Offline Usage was added to the Writings Section (7/15/14)

AlphaRef Reader: Tablet-first design of an app for reading reference material was added to the Writings Section (5/20/14)

Thoughts on the culture that gave birth to the personal computer was added to the Writings section (12/23/13)

Responsive Web App Design was added to the Writings section (10/17/13)

How HTML wins was added to the Writing section (7/1/13)

Video of Bob Frankston's tour of the WWW in 1994 added to the Writings section (6/29/13)

Why Alpha Anywhere matters added to the Writings section (6/26/13)

Joining Alpha Software as CTO added to the Writings section (6/19/13)

An Overview of HTML 5, PhoneGap, and Mobile Apps added to the Writings section (5/2/13)

More...

The Sections

Dan's Personal Log	This blog covers my thoughts on making web sites, the computer industry, digital photography, PC history, conferences I attend, and people I know or run into. Posted more frequently than the rest of this web site.
Writings	Comments from me and others. Includes an article on "Why VisiCalc wasn't patented", popular pages like "What will people pay for?", "The Cornucopia of the Commons: How to get volunteer labor", "Copy Protection Robs The Future", and "Installing Verizon FIOS fiber-optic Internet service to my house".
Podcasts and Videos	Recordings of interviews, meetings, and other events. Includes Toby Redshaw of Motorola discussing their use of wikis and blogs, Vice Admiral John Morgan explaining the 1000-ship Navy, Vern Raburn giving a tour of the Eclipse Aviation factory, and much more.
History	Historical information, including photos and a working copy, about VisiCalc, companies I've worked for, and other old stuff.
Photo Albums	Pictures from computer industry events I've attended and trips I've taken.
Book Web Site	Information about Dan's book, Bricklin on Technology, including additional material for readers.
Resources	Links, book reviews, and more.
Background Info	My resume, photos of me, and other material for reporters.

About the author

Who is Dan Bricklin? I'm best known as the co-creator of VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet as we know them today, though I have made other contributions to the computer world, too. You can learn more about me by reading my biography (it's actually more of a PR backgrounder) in the Background Info section and also by looking at the History section of this web site (lots of pictures!).

I currently am full-time CTO of Alpha Software. I also, on the side, continue to run a tiny company called Software Garden, Inc., through which I do consulting, speaking, and software development. Software Garden currently sells an Apple iPad app that I wrote: Note Taker HD. It also sells "A Developer's Introduction to Copyright and Open Source", a training video. Software Garden is also known for products I produced in the past, including Dan Bricklin's® Demo Program and demo-it!. Demo and demo-it! used to be sold and supported by Programmers Paradise's Lifeboat division (www.pparadise.com). The most famous use of demo-it! that I did was a spoof of Java applets called "ChiaPaint" shown at Demo'96. A copy is in the Writings section.

Some other links

Bob Frankston's home page is www.frankston.com. Bob created VisiCalc with me and helps me with material on this web site. Bob, David Reed, and I usedn to contribute to a joint weblog called SATN.org.

I also created most of a web site about business writing for the intranet, www.gooddocuments.com. On this site I try to follow some of the principles presented there.

Some of my products were designed with the aid of Micah Zimring, a user interface designer. He also does calligraphy. My more recent products were designed with the aid of Adina Bricklin.

See the Resources section for more links.

This web site is maintained by Dan Bricklin. It is written using Trellix 2.0 and Trellix Web 2.7 (later sold as CuteSITE Builder). For information about how I use those products to create this web site, see "How this web site is made".

Disclaimer: This is a personal web site. Investors should not rely on any statements in this web site when making investment decisions. Also, I am not a lawyer - this is not legal advice.

"Dan Bricklin's" is a registered trademark of Daniel S. Bricklin. Other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Send comments to w e b master at bricklin dot co m.