Bob Cringely on camera during the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds, the same era he recruited Paul Tyma for the Pronto venture.
BOB CRINGELY'S PRONTO PROJECT AND 30-YEAR EMAIL TANGLE REVEALED
*Paul Tyma’s 1996 call with Bob Cringely sparked a three‑decade link that produced a never‑launched magazine‑delivery system, dozens of startup pitches, and a rare email archive of Silicon Valley ambition.*
In 1996, Paul Tyma, a Ph.D. student at Syracuse University, answered a rapid‑fire call from “Bob Cringely,” who praised a Java book Tyma had written. The call ignited a 30‑year connection that wound through Java‑training gigs, a never‑launched magazine‑delivery system, and dozens of startup pitches. Tyma’s book, the second Java book on the market, placed him among roughly four grad students riding the early Java hype. Cringely, already a TV personality with the book *Accidental Empires* and the PBS series *Triumph of the Nerds*, saw in Tyma a technical ally and a source of fresh ideas. Over 13 years Tyma exchanged roughly 320 emails with Cringely—about three per year—sharing pitches, funding talks, and occasional venture collaborations like home‑account and Sonisafe. The correspondence reveals a pattern: Cringely’s ideas arrived in wall‑of‑text emails, half technical, half profit projections, and a relentless drive to become a superstar founder.
How did Bob Cringely’s Pronto concept emerge?
The Pronto idea surfaced after Tyma and Cringely began teaching Java at conferences and training corporate teams. Cringely hired Tyma’s fledgling company to build a system codenamed “Pronto.” The plan was a small daemon that would watch a dial‑up connection for idle time, then slowly download a PDF of a subscriber’s next‑month magazine—titles like *Good Housekeeping* or *Car and Driver*. Once fully downloaded, the daemon would wait until 2 am and send the file to the home printer, delivering a fresh paper copy by morning. Cringely secured funding for Pronto from a source in Japan, and paid Tyma’s team consistently throughout development. The concept reflected Cringely’s belief that paper magazines would survive, even as distribution shifted to digital channels.
Did Pronto ever launch?
Tyma admits he never learned the final fate of Pronto after development wrapped. He notes that the system never released in any meaningful sense. No public rollout, no commercial adoption, and no subsequent updates are recorded. The project remains a footnote in Tyma’s long‑term relationship with Cringely, illustrating how many of Cringely’s ambitious ideas stalled before reaching market.
What was the scope of Paul Tyma’s email relationship with Cringely?
Tyma kept a tally of roughly 320 emails exchanged with Cringely over the past 13 years, most of which were part of long chains rather than unique messages. He estimates about three email exchanges per year since the late 1990s. Each thread typically began with Cringely’s wall‑of‑text description of a new startup idea, followed by a second half detailing projected earnings down to the penny. The cadence of these messages provided Tyma a steady stream of venture concepts, some promising, others less so, and cemented a persistent advisory role for Tyma in Cringely’s entrepreneurial pursuits.
What other ventures linked Tyma and Cringely?
Beyond Pronto, Tyma joined Cringely in two additional startups: home‑account and Sonisafe. He possesses pitch decks and detailed descriptions for several of Cringely’s ideas, many of which remain unseen by the public. These collaborations occurred as Cringely’s fame grew through his books and television appearances. Tyma’s involvement ranged from technical development to strategic input, reflecting a pattern where Cringely leveraged Tyma’s expertise to flesh out concepts that never fully materialized.
Frequently asked questions
What was the Pronto system supposed to do?
It was a daemon that would monitor idle dial‑up connections, download the next month’s PDF of magazines like Good Housekeeping, then print them at 2 am for the subscriber.
How many emails did Paul Tyma exchange with Bob Cringely?
Tyma logged roughly 320 emails over 13 years, averaging about three exchanges per year.
Which ventures did Tyma join with Cringely?
Tyma participated in two of Cringely’s startups—home‑account and Sonisafe—and worked on the Pronto project.
The Tyma‑Cringely saga offers a rare glimpse into the mechanics of Silicon Valley myth‑making. A charismatic media figure paired with a modest Java author produced a string of ambitious prototypes that never saw market life, yet left a dense paper trail of emails and pitch decks. As the archive surfaces, it underscores how personal networks can fuel both hype and dead‑ends, and how the promise of a printed magazine at 2 am became a symbol of unfulfilled startup dreams.
Sources: Hacker News – My Friend Bob Cringely (https://tyma.com/my-cringe-story/)