5 Jul
2003
5 Jul
'03
11:36 a.m.
Well, I've done it now. I put an old Eagle computer up for auction,
and I included a bit of history about "Eagle Conmputer",
but now I wonder if I goofed up big-time on the history.
As I recall, Many many years ago (around 1982?) I read in InfoWorld that
Eagle Computer's president met a tragic end, just after the company went
public, or get a big bunch of financing, or somesuch. Something along the
lines of his car ran off the road after a celebratory party. If you've
driven Hwy 17 at night (between San Jose and Scotts Valley), you know it's a
real damp-armpits trip, even when sober. About 300 twisty turny bits,
rising and falling, no streetlights, few guardrails, steep dropoffs.
But now as I search the Web, I can't find any trace of this news item. Did
I imagine it? Have I got the wrong company? Anybody recall? It's awful
turning 50!
Thanks,
George
5 Jul
5 Jul
1:17 p.m.
--- "George R. Gonzalez" <grg2(a)comcast.net> wrote:
Well, I've done it now. I put an old Eagle
computer up for auction,
and I included a bit of history about "Eagle Conmputer",
but now I wonder if I goofed up big-time on the history.
As I recall, Many many years ago (around 1982?) I read in InfoWorld that
Eagle Computer's president met a tragic end, just after the company went
public, or get a big bunch of financing, or somesuch.
I think it was right before they went public, but my memory is hazy, too.
It wasn't my area of interest back then... I was in to 8-bit toys.
"Big Micros" were too expensive for me, and I was barely into 12-bits
at the time.
But now as I search the Web, I can't find any
trace of this news item.
Did I imagine it? Have I got the wrong company? Anybody recall?
I remember it, too. I worked for a guy in 1988 who had an Eagle. It
was PeeCee like on the inside, but the case was entirely different,
including the mounting brackets on the ISA cards.
-ethan
6 Jul
6 Jul
9:35 a.m.
Yup, We were a service center that was setup in advance. Still have the
schematics somewhere.
Bill
Ethan Dicks wrote:
--- "George R. Gonzalez"
<grg2(a)comcast.net> wrote:
Well, I've done it now. I put an old Eagle
computer up for auction,
and I included a bit of history about "Eagle Conmputer",
but now I wonder if I goofed up big-time on the history.
As I recall, Many many years ago (around 1982?) I read in InfoWorld that
Eagle Computer's president met a tragic end, just after the company went
public, or get a big bunch of financing, or somesuch.
I think it was right before they went public, but my memory is hazy, too.
It wasn't my area of interest back then... I was in to 8-bit toys.
"Big Micros" were too expensive for me, and I was barely into 12-bits
at the time.
But now as I search the Web, I can't find any
trace of this news item.
Did I imagine it? Have I got the wrong company? Anybody recall?
I remember it, too. I worked for a guy in 1988 who had an Eagle. It
was PeeCee like on the inside, but the case was entirely different,
including the mounting brackets on the ISA cards.
-ethan 
5 Jul
5 Jul
1:29 p.m.
On Sat, 5 Jul 2003, George R. Gonzalez wrote:
Well, I've done it now. I put an old Eagle
computer up for auction,
and I included a bit of history about "Eagle Conmputer",
but now I wonder if I goofed up big-time on the history.
As I recall, Many many years ago (around 1982?) I read in InfoWorld that
Eagle Computer's president met a tragic end, just after the company went
public, or get a big bunch of financing, or somesuch. Something along the
lines of his car ran off the road after a celebratory party. If you've
Yep.
My recollection was that it was a brand new Ferrari.
But now as I search the Web, I can't find any
trace of this news item. Did
I imagine it? Have I got the wrong company? Anybody recall? It's awful
turning 50!
I don't know where to find a citation of it.
It keeps getting worse after 50.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
1:35 p.m.
On Sat, 5 Jul 2003, George R. Gonzalez wrote:
You're right -- here's from a recent Washington Post article:
The Washington Post, December 16, 1999
December 16, 1999, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. C01
LENGTH: 4021 words
HEADLINE: Cashing In the Chips; When a Little E-Idea Is All It Takes to
Become Insanely Rich, Does Wealth Lose Its Value?
SERIES: THE NEW GILDED AGE; Pg. occ.
BYLINE: David Streitfeld, Washington Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: PALO ALTO, Calif.
BODY:
The Silicon Valley dream has always been about getting your company to
the point where complete strangers are able and willing to buy stock in
it. Sixteen years ago, a start-up called Eagle Computer Inc. underwent
that fabled rite of passage. Eagle President Dennis Barnhart celebrated
the day of the stock market debut by drinking with friends. Then he got
into his new red Ferrari. When he reached the highway, he hit the gas.
Isn't that the point of having a new Ferrari?
Barnhart crashed through a guardrail and was killed. Eagle Computer
didn't last much longer. What survived was the moral, a kind of object
lesson that the grizzled oldsters here would pass on to the wannabe
entrepreneurs, kids fresh out of engineering school who had nothing but
a dream of taking technology to the masses.
Sure, you can get rich here, the wise old hand would say. That's
allowed; it's even expected. But don't flaunt it, don't be obnoxious
about it, don't get carried away. Because that's what Dennis Barnhart
did, and look what happened to him.
Well, I've done it now. I put an old Eagle
computer up for
auction,
and I included a bit of history about "Eagle
Conmputer", but now I
wonder if I goofed up big-time on the history. As I recall,
Many many
years ago (around 1982?) I read in InfoWorld that
Eagle Computer's
president met a tragic end, just after the company went
public, or get
a big bunch of financing, or somesuch. Something
along the
lines of
his car ran off the road after a celebratory
party. If you've
Yep.
My recollection was that it was a brand new Ferrari.
1:57 p.m.
A couple of hits from Google:
http://www.scripophily.net/eaglecomputer.html
Info along with a chance to buy an eagle computer stock
certificate :-)
Even bankrupt, it seems to be worth more than many blue chip
stocks today...
http://www.ebnonline.com/25year/25_business1.html
(look for headline "Tragedy at Eagle")
Interestingly enough, this news clip also appears in several
sermons online... Most of the sermons refer to a Los Angeles
Times Article...
Bill McDermith
Fred Cisin wrote:
On Sat, 5 Jul 2003, George R. Gonzalez wrote:
...snip...snip...snip...
As I recall, Many many years ago (around 1982?) I read in InfoWorld that
Eagle Computer's president met a tragic end, just after the company went
public, or get a big bunch of financing, or somesuch. Something along the
lines of his car ran off the road after a celebratory party. If you've
Yep.
My recollection was that it was a brand new Ferrari.
...snip...snip...snip...
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com 
6 Jul
6 Jul
7:05 a.m.
On Sat, 5 Jul 2003, George R. Gonzalez wrote:
As I recall, Many many years ago (around 1982?) I read
in InfoWorld that
Eagle Computer's president met a tragic end, just after the company went
public, or get a big bunch of financing, or somesuch. Something along the
lines of his car ran off the road after a celebratory party. If you've
driven Hwy 17 at night (between San Jose and Scotts Valley), you know it's a
real damp-armpits trip, even when sober. About 300 twisty turny bits,
rising and falling, no streetlights, few guardrails, steep dropoffs.
But now as I search the Web, I can't find any trace of this news item. Did
I imagine it? Have I got the wrong company? Anybody recall? It's awful
turning 50!
It happened. Someone who was acquainted with him e-mailed me once and
told me the Reader's Digest version of the story. It was on the day of
the company's IPO.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
7:14 a.m.
On Sun, 6 Jul 2003, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
> lines of his car ran off the road after a
celebratory party. If you've
> driven Hwy 17 at night (between San Jose and Scotts Valley), you know it's a
> real damp-armpits trip, even when sober. About 300 twisty turny bits,
> rising and falling, no streetlights, few guardrails, steep dropoffs.
People
crossing the f* road (when you get closer to the Sta Cruz end),
and so on. On the way TO sta cruz, beware of drunk-as-a-skunk party
people driving (!) back to their homes (around san jose) ... bah.
--fred
1:21 p.m.
George R. Gonzalez wrote:
As I recall, Many many years ago (around 1982?) I read
in InfoWorld that
Eagle Computer's president met a tragic end, just after the company went
public, or get a big bunch of financing, or somesuch. Something along the
lines of his car ran off the road after a celebratory party. If you've
driven Hwy 17 at night (between San Jose and Scotts Valley), you know it's a
real damp-armpits trip, even when sober. About 300 twisty turny bits,
rising and falling, no streetlights, few guardrails, steep dropoffs.
It was'nt HW17 it was actually in Los Gatos, the road along the lake
(what is that called....? me truning 50 also ;-) not too many yards
from the Eagle office. I remember the event, the year
would be a year or
two later than you cite IIRC.
It was the day they went public, he drove his brand new ferrari into a
tree. I lived right down the road from there at the time and passed that
tree many, many times.
Another Eagle story is that IBM started leagal actions to sue them for
BIOS copyright infringement. I was at Gavilan at the time and we visited
Eagle to discuss the IBM issues. As I recall it Eagle told us that IBM
had some form of binary code analyser which had shown up some relativly
isolated common code sequences. I do not recall the outcome but I think
Eagle survived after that, but not for long...
-- hbp
3:11 p.m.
On Sun, 6 Jul 2003, Hans Pufal wrote:
It was the day they went public, he drove his brand
new ferrari into a
tree. I lived right down the road from there at the time and passed that
tree many, many times.
But you NEVER drove a Ferrari into it!
Another Eagle story is that IBM started leagal actions
to sue them for
BIOS copyright infringement. I was at Gavilan at the time and we visited
Eagle to discuss the IBM issues. As I recall it Eagle told us that IBM
had some form of binary code analyser which had shown up some relativly
isolated common code sequences. I do not recall the outcome but I think
Eagle survived after that, but not for long...
I liked the Eagle CP/M machines, but their PCs were a little
disappointing. (Nothing wrong, just not very interesting)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
7 Jul
7 Jul
3:47 p.m.
Fred Cisin wrote:
On Sun, 6 Jul 2003, Hans Pufal wrote:
>It was the day they went public, he drove his brand
new ferrari into a
>tree. I lived right down the road from there at the time and passed that
>tree many, many times.
But you NEVER drove a Ferrari into it!
There agains I was never CEO of an IPO either ;-)
Intersting sideline: Eagle lived in the same quite small business park
that was the birthplace of Amiga. I interveiwed there just before they
sold out to Commodore. In the same park was a company who sold PCB
layout software; PCADS is the name that comes to mind.
-- hbp
7687
days inactive
7689
days old
10 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
bill_mcdermith＠yahoo.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
elecdata1＠gbronline.com -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
grg2＠comcast.net -
hansp＠citem.org -
vcf＠siconic.com -
waltje＠pdp11.nl -
wmsmith＠earthlink.net