My Friend Bob Cringely

In 1996, tech journalist Bob Cringely contacted Ph.D. student Paul Tyma after reading his Java book, praising it effusively and subsequently hiring him and a partner to build "Pronto," a system designed to automatically download and print magazine issues to subscribers' home printers during idle internet time. The project represented Cringely's bet that while people would continue preferring physical magazines, the distribution method could be revolutionized through clever automation technology.