Maybe you’ve wondered, “What happened to Cringely?” Nothing serious: I just stepped being able to read or write. Cataracts in my family hit like a hurricane, coming on suddenly and wth great force. It happened to my handsomer older brother two years ago and now to me. My medical care is through Kaiser, which does great work on such conditions, but it’s a bit like being in the army. First I wasn’t blind enough and then I was suddenly too blind, kicking me up to a slower level of service. I know, it makes no sense at all. In another 10 days I’m told it will all be behind me and I’ll have perfect vision like my brother. I hope so.
Mom always liked him best.
In the meantime I’m pretty useless. This column is being written with the help of my son Fallon, age 11. Fallon’s vocabulary is amazing but his spelling not so much. We’ve been hanging together a lot. He watches TV and I listen to it. We watched about 80 episodes of Cartoon Network’s Regular Show so last night I retaliated with all four episodes of Amazon’s Dr. Thorne. Fallon was not amused.
It’s hard to be a writer if you can’t read and my reading speed is right now down to about 10 words per minute. I talk to people on the phone, of course, and keep up with the news. Old IBMers keep trying to get me to write more about that company, which they claim has become a cesspool of executive corruption, but I’m not sure IBM matters anymore.
What probably does matter is the slightly sick feeling I see lately in many tech companies. Maybe we’re due for a shakeup. It’s been, after all, almost a decade of continuous growth and that allows a lot of bad systems to grow and thrive like we’ve seen at Uber, for example. There are lots of tech companies like Uber. Maybe the next recession will take a few of them down.
There’s more news coming on Mineservers and other Cringely adventures, but for the moment please just let me be blind and pathetic, okay? Leia the beagle loves me this way: every day she tries to steal my lunch.
Get well soon Bob!
ditto
Hoping both your surgery and recovery are both successful and quick. Here’s wishing you all the best.
Hope you have a quick and complete recovery!
Just as I need a dose of “Wally” from Dilbert – I need a Cringely at least once a month.
Ah, cataracts are nothing. My wife had them removed and now she sees better than ever. She no longer needs glasses for distance. BTW, your son misspelled “stopped”. 🙂
I think he did pretty well for 11, better than I would have done at that age. In a world of tweets, texts and autocorrect I, like a certain member of our government, have given up worrying about typos and spelling.
Get well soon, meanwhile enjoy your father-son time, there is much happiness in that for both of you.
Get well soon, Bob. We need writers like you to keep going.
May you heal quickly. I just moved my Cringley VHS and DVD tapes and now realize just how long I have been a fan. Must take you to lunch after you heal.
Get well soon!
Get well soon. Appreciate the status report and follow-through. Here’s hoping things go as well for you as they did for your brother. I also enjoyed the blind photoshop treatment for Regular Show. 😀
I’ve been following you for years – get well, Bob. I know what you mean about cataracts hitting like a hurricane – it happened to me last year (“golden” cataracts). As they say about how things happen – “little by little, then all at once”. The operation was successful (on one eye – I’m doing the second one in the fall) and I’m seeing better than before. You may also be seeing colors differently – because my cataracts were/are golden/yellow, I can see white much more intensely in the “new” eye (almost blue-white). And I can compare before and after “views” (yeah, I’m kind of playing with that a lot).
Bob,
Sad that you have to go through the wait, but hopefully the outcome will be more than worth it. That was my case, also handled by Kaiser, and after the procedures were done (separated in time by ~ one month) I was able to see FAR better than I had since a pre-teen – absolutely wonderful. Best of luck to you!
I had both eyes done a couple years ago. Quick, easy, effective. Everything is clear, colors have more pop, and all those beige kitchen appliances turned out to be white. They gave me a simple eyeguard to tape on for the first couple of nights. Pulling off the tape stressed the eye more than I was comfortable with, so I got a pair of soft eye protector goggles at the hardware store to sleep in. For daytime, I popped one lens out of my old glasses and attached the doctor’s eyeguard with zip ties. You only need them for the first couple of days. Hardest part was the wait between eyes, since one eye was good and the other eye still needed glasses.
For afterwards, remember that you see with your brain, and your brain will need a certain amount of retraining. Good Luck!
IMPOTRANT
LOOK INTO LENSES THAT CAN ACCOMODATE, BEND FOR CLOSE UP VISION
MAY OR MAY NOT WORK
Be sure to get ONE EYE done at A TIME. The procedure is simple and nothing ever goes wrong, almost…
Mine turned out fine, so don’t worry but also be careful.
My sympathy – and all credit to the medical folk for figuring out how to fix us!
God speed, to get well soon!
Even though you probably not reading any of these 🙂
Yea “Mom always liked him best.” Heard that one.
Bob, please get well soon. I’ve enjoyed you more or less weekly since your Infoworld days. Your boy’s doing pretty well, BTW.
Hope you’re better soon. All the best. 🙂
Like Dave above, I’ve been a reader of yours since the Infoworld days. Relax and take care until the procedure and best wishes to you for a swift recovery.
Yes, yes, but will you ever play the violin?
Ha ha. I used that line with my DDS when I got an implant, after he told me how much it would cost. I asked “Will I be able to play the piano afterwards?” He looked puzzled, and said yes, and I replied “Well, it’s worth it for that alone, isn’t it?”
He was really annoyed that he fell for a joke that was probably older than our combined ages.
I tried that line on my doc just before carpal tunnel surgury. He scowled and asked, “can you play the piano now?” Killjoy.
Get well, Bob.
a) Get well Bob.
b) “Mom always liked him best.” better, not best.
c) “Mom always liked him best.” I don’t believe it. She loves both of you, but differently
d) “Yes, yes, but will you ever play the violin?” I thought it was the piano.
e) IBM doesn’t matter any more. Entropy always wins.
If she doesn’t like him best, but only better, that still puts Bob below his brother, but now it makes me wonder who she likes best above Bob’s brother? Color me intrigued, is there a third child that we don’t speak about? (^_^;)
Get Well Soon!
That’s not a very good adaptation of Dr Thorne, so that’s borderline child abuse. You should make him sit and read the book to you – that will definitely take it over the edge! (There’s an excellent unabridged audio book version narrated by Timothy West that I can heartily recommend – West gives great Trollope!)
Get well soon.
I do hope you get better soon, your the best!
Best wishes from England.
Mark.
Best wishes Bob, and get back to writing soon. I will follow Fallon’s writing career with interest in a decade or so, but in the meanwhile, will look to you for tech insights and predictions.
Cheers!
Ramesh
Get well soon.
Does this mean Fallon gets your column after you retire?
Wishing you a speedy recovery from the cataract surgery.
Seconding (or thirding, or fourthing) what others have said, the surgery is pretty quick, the drops afterwards are a paint in the rear, but you’ll be seeing great in no time.
I had my left eye done (turns out, the laser surgery they do to fix a detached retina causes cataracts) and it works better than ever.
Sorry to hear you’ll be out of action for a bit, but at least there’s a cure! The cataract thing worked perfectly for my mother and I hope you enjoy the same success.
Bob, your son Fallon did a terrific job taking dictation. Also, it’s brave of you to admit to, as an awkward teenager, you and your best friend wearing ladies undergarments on your head and connecting jumper cables to a Barbie doll.
Good luck when you finally get to surgery. Cataract repair is amazing stuff this year.
Wife knows exactly what it’s like to be told “not blind enough.” She has cataracts + a “wrinkled cornea” in one eye. Doc said “come back in 4 months.” In the meantime, she can’t see well enough to read through the wrinkled eye.
Getting old sucks. Check out what we talk about now, instead of IBM!
Our prayers for your quick return of your sight and your writing! Get well soon.
“They also serve who only stand and carp.”
Wife and I both had cataract surgery at Kaiser. If you have any astigmatism at all, spring the extra dough for the Toric (toroidal) lens implants. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
Oh, and when they first take the bandage off don’t be surprized by a rainbow of colors. That will go away when the swelling goes down.
Milton Bradley long ago lamented the swift sharp pain of cold turkey gambling with a pair of dice – lost! ~ or perhaps a delectable roast beef sandwich gleefully but furtively consumed by Leia the Beagle ? Either way, “Paradise Lost” and not IBM. To be continued (by John Milton) following Cringely’s successful Cat-a-Rack surgery or, alternatively, Fallon finds Snoopy the Beagle s-mooching on Leia’s next sandwich. | Godspeed BC & get well soon!
GET WELL SOON BOB! (TYPING IN ALL CAPS TO AID READING – I’M NOT SHOUTING)
Bob, I’ve been in IT for 20 years and reading you online for just about that long. Wishing the best for you.
Bob, hope your surgery goes well and get well soon!
Hope everything goes okay and all is well soon!
Best wishes for a speedy recovery! I’ve been a fan since Accidental Empires, BTW.
Bob – All of the best. I hope that recovery is complete and fast.
All the best. Yours remind us of our own frailties.
Every one of my older relatives has had the surgery and it worked well for all of them, so I hope all works out for you too.
When I was 35 years old my vision took a nosedive – it ended up being an unusual case of presbyopia (tired vision) due to the fact I only have one good eye. My normal vision was fixed, but I still couldn’t read. My doctor told me it would be unethical for him to give me bifocals before I was 40. So rather than waiting 5 years without reading I just used contact lenses (+4.25) for normal vision plus glasses (+1.0) just for reading. These rules don’t always make much sense.
Think woodstock and hallucinogens as the surgery itself is painless but the colors you see while it’s being done is unreal. You will be fine, I was and yes, I see well without issue. Bon chance mon ami.
Poooo! I didn’t get to see the rainbows!!! I did get double vision that was corrected with prism. The brain would not merge the two images. Old eyes and old brain. 81 years old.
All in all a good result. My advice, do it soon. Don’t delay.
Get well Bob. Thanks for the update.
Get well soon Bob. Long time fan.
Have you tried using voice recognition to write your column. I wrote this using voice recognition (Menu: Tools/Voice Recognition) in Google right (sic). as you can see there were a few mistakes but I think it’s pretty good.
Good luck. My grandmother had cataract surgery in her 70’s. Ended up with great vision right until her death at age 99.
Might sad, hope all goes well when you eventually get treated and well done Fallon.
Also, your story serves well to show how while tech has moved along in leaps and bounds over the last 50 years, it hasn’t made anything like the same progress in assistive technologies. For example you might be able to get Google to take dictation and even read it back to you but try editing the content without sight then everything falls into a heap, unless you’re been blind for a significant amount of time and learnt to use something like Braille.
Best of luck
Nrw
Re: “well done Fallon”, it’s interesting Bob lets him write the column, but not read it: “I don’t allow them to read your comments” https://www.cringely.com/2017/05/22/mineserver-update-not-dead-yet/ .
Fuck off Ronc
@Roger Blah Blah – keep it classy Roger
.
I’m more impressed that Mark is actually able to keep his sons from reading the comments on this blog. If he has something that works, as he claims, he could market it and make a fortune.
Yes, Ronc, just go the fuck away!
I see even Roger the wanker hasn’t bothered to kick the guy while he’s down this time.
Do any of you see any difficulty here building a mineserver business when you can’t see and your kids are making up the pace?
Give the guy some peace. I for one would love to have him back with his vim and vigour restored giving us his thoughts to disagree with and serving it up the IBMs of the world that need reminding that it’s about the people, stupid!
“@Roger Blah Blah – keep it classy” goes for both anonymous posters, including “Roger’s a wanker”. At least Bob would appreciate the irony of my comment. Perhaps I should have included a smiley face.
@Roger’s A Wanker “Do any of you see any difficulty here building a mineserver business when you can’t see and your kids are making up the pace?”
.
Oh, do you mean the product that was allegedly being done by the sons (as marketed by Cringely from the start)? Yes, that would be hard for them to do their own project. What an oversight on my part… -_-
.
Also FYI, no one mentioned MineServer in the comments on this blog post until you did. Way to become the enemy that you so hate and open up the floodgates to a flame war.
Cateracts, and having to wait for surgery sucks. My sympathies.
While reading your last post about you feeling useless and blind I thought that was a colimnist-y setup for writing about all the awesome tech available to deal with that barrier. But no. Really, Bob?
Start with this app (link below), chat with the developers, read (well, listen at faster speed) and do some digging into VoiceOver and accessibility on iOS then write an enlightened post.
https://www.voicedream.com/reader/
Iam fan of this site, I recently check Big Data articles written here. Thanks for sharing
Bob, Get well, we need you! Cataract surgery is pretty routine these days; you’re otherwise a healthy guy and will be back in the saddle in no time!
“I like you; your eyes are full of language.”
[Letter to Anne Clarke, July 3, 1964.]”
― Anne Sexton
I see.
Y is it acceptable to have a healthcare system in the US that does not deliver care, instead of national healthcare system all across europe and most of the developed world that delivers care
Should not have a country where only the rich can get care or fly to Europe to get it at reduced cost
Cataract surgery should not even be that expensive, it’s a basic thing
Re: “…should not even be that expensive, it’s a basic thing” So it sounds like the way to make something affordable and widely available is to declare it to be “a basic thing”. Perhaps we should do that with food, housing, clothing, transportation, energy, toilet paper, air-conditioning, telecommunications, internet access, computers, TV. Just make everything “affordable”. Problem solved.
You’re in my prayers.
.
Regarding IBM being a cesspool of corrupt executive mismanagement … I’ve been reading you for ages, and I feel like that’s always been the case. You’ve got good inside sources, yes, but this really isn’t “news” … I suspect yes, their future feels irrelevant. Hard to say that to your sources, though.
.
My mind keeps going back to your past article (the robots are coming!). I’ve shared it with people, and they all focus on the specifics of Tesla or Ford factories, without considering your (more important, to me) question about what the long-term trend means – what can it mean when a large share of the workforce is no longer employ -ABLE, through no fault of their own?
.
I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but the short film “Humans Need Not Apply” is extremely on-point in this discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
.
Brings to mind this lovely story, even if it might be a little embellished:
.
Two titans in the world of automobile manufacturing who took a tour of a newly built and highly-automated factory. The forceful executive, Henry Ford II, and the leader of the automobile workers union, Walter Reuther, both saw many examples of advanced machinery operating at the plant. The words they exchanged brilliantly encapsulated the paradox of automation:
Henry Ford II: Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues?
Walter Reuther: Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?
I suspect IBM may yet have a part to play in the ongoing saga.
Türkiyenin en ideal kaftan modellerine sahip mağazamızda onlarca çeşit arasında ruhunuza en yakın modelleri seçebilme imkanına sahip olabileceğiniz modeller ile karşınızdayız.
Bağdat kaftan olarak sektörde yeni ve yeniliğe açık bir mağaza olmak ile beraber kısa süre içerisinde köklü bir firma olarak anılmak bizlere gurur vermektedir. Siz değerli takipçilerimiz ve saygıdeğer müşterilerimizin övgü ve memnuniyetleri ile farkındalığımızı ortaya koymanın mutluluğunu yaşamaktayız.
http://bagdatkaftan.com/
Get well soon, Bob.
And I note that Mr. kaftan has taken advantage of your condition to post some spam. Classy.
Get well soon; been a follower since the Inforworld days.
Hope it went well. My father had both replaced and both worked better than his the 1.0 rev he had since birth.
U need a kicjstarter for your cataract surgery
Only in America
Lol
You probably can’t read this, but I am wishing that you get completely cured of your blindness and be back to writing articles. There’s no other tech journalist that covers the stuff you do, and I don’t want your stream of articles to end anytime soon.
Apparently, Cringely is like an SS member now.
http://web.archive.org/web/20170713141411/https://yourstory.com/2017/07/exterminating-h1b-american-soil/
Get well soon!
So many large US corps are laundering money by creating their own recruiting firm almost always located in a sanctuary city with close ties with IBM. It’s simply a IT human trafficking billion dollar scam. They pay H-1B’s $21 per hour and our US corps claim they pay them 85.00 per hour. Is this money laundering and human trafficking? It is a Billion dollar IT scam practiced by too many major corporation I’ve walked into. Any US corporation who claims they need H1B’s are guilty. It’s American Greed.
https://www.rense.com/general75/skilled.htm
Where is your evidence they lie about how much they pay the employees?
Get well soon! Glad your son is helping out. Better than dictation on the computer I bet!
.
My dad had his done. NHS in the UK picked them up early, and he got both eyes done. It’s the one area the US certainly seems to lag behind with the rest of the world is healthcare for it’s people.
Bob, Blessings to you and your surgeon as you undergo cataract surgery. Your chaplain, Mike
Success to you and your surgeon and a speedy recovery.
Best wishes for a successful treatment and surgery of your cataracts. Many years ago my favorite uncle got cataracts and they did not have the kind of surgery to treat them. He died blind. Glad you won’t.
On a lighter note, at least for awhile you don’t have to look at crabby posts by people wondering where the reports for their three dollars and eight cent crowd-funding investments are.
$3.08? How about a little honesty for a change. A quick 10-second search shows that people invested anywhere from $59 to $199 in the Mineserver kickstarter. I have no horse in this race, but posting blatant lies about it to favor Bob is simply wrong — no matter what the circumstances….
for the sake of comparison:
http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.za/2017/07/the-great-american-health-care-non.html#more
Not quite drained the swamp, but at least we stopped funding Nusra now.
Wow, cataracts! My father had them late in life (late 70’s) and had surgery — he could see great after.
Speedy recovery!
How about a quick update on the surgery status/outcome? You don’t have to write multiple paragraphs. We just want to know if you’re well or at least getting better….
Hope all is well… please give us an update when you can.
I hope you have a speedy and uneventful recovery.
Our prayers are with you.
Carlos
Hey Mark, sorry to read you are going through this, but it sounds like better days are ahead. Your insight might not be to 20/20 but your I insights on High Tech are. We are pulling for you, brother.
Sorry — a typo — your sight might not be 20/20 but you insights on high tech are.
S T A R T A P O D C A S T
Okay! You know, I was really questioning whether I should make this career move but your comment has given me the confidence to believe in myself and just go for it. Thanks for the support!
So sorry about your eyes. I have had a terribly painful and impossible to treat eye condition for 30+ years and feel for you. I hope you’re all patched up and back on the road soon.
I definitely noticed you had dropped out for a while. Definitely miss your tech rants! Get well soon!