Today would have been the 90th birthday of my mother. She was born in San Francisco on Oct. 16, 1926, and died on Dec. 10, 1992. My mother had just turned 18 years old when I was born. She got engaged to my father on her 17th birthday and married him six months later. My … Continue reading
Category Archives: Avram’s Past
Becoming Avram Miller
This is a very personal blog post. Now that I am in my 70s I want to share some of the stories that make up my life. There will be more to follow. I was born Arnold Stephen Goldfinger on January 27th at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco. I was named after … Continue reading
Amazon / Apple / Avram's Past / Google
Finally I am being listened to: got an Amazon Echo
I just got an Amazon Echo. It is both amazing and frustrating experience. The amazing part is how quick response when it actually knows the answer. It is like talking to a person. The frustrating part is that it doesn’t know the answer to many questions. Unexpected Device I think up until now, all … Continue reading
Intel: How a vein of gold turns into a big hole
Selling Silicon By the Ton When I joined Intel in 1984, it was primarily a semiconductor memory chip company. I use to joke that it sold silicon by the ton, but that was true. Then, the memory business was under attack by the Japanese because it was a commodity, and the Japanese were just … Continue reading
Do VC’s Add Value in Addition to Money
Not a Fan of Venture Capitalist While I am a fan of venture capital, I don’t think much of Venture Capitalists. This may sound strange from the person that was a co-founder of what was one of the largest and most successful venture capital organizations – Intel Capital. I never thought of myself as a … Continue reading
The Andy Grove I knew
Yesterday, Andy Grove died. Frankly, I am still processing that. I first met Andy in 1982 at the PC Forum. Andy was 46 and I was 37. The next time I met him was in 1984 when I was interviewing for a position at Intel. I would be reporting to Les Vadasz, who, like Andy, … Continue reading
Intel starts to be irrelevant?
My buddy, Robert X. Cringely predicts that Intel will start to be irrelevant. I predicted that in 1999 when I walked out of the door in 1999. It started a few years earlier when Andy Grove stepped aside as CEO and appointed Craig Barrett CEO. I didn’t think that Barrett had a strategic bone in … Continue reading
The Lucky Years by David Agus
I don’t often write book reviews these days. In fact, I don’t often read books these days. For the last three years, I have been working on a project that I think will have an enormous impact on the quality of health for as much as 50% of adults 30-70 years old. I promise to … Continue reading
Why I am not an Angel Investor, Founder, Director or Advisor to early stage companies (except when I am)
General wisdom about investing in early stage companies suggests that for every 10 investments, only two companies do well. Let us assume that four of the ten return the money invested and four return nothing. If we invested a million dollars in each we will have invested ten million dollars in total. If two of … Continue reading
More than you will ever want to know: My 1:34 hour interview on The Internet History Podcast
The Internet History Podcast is a great site that I fully recommend. We should all be grateful to Brian McCullough who started the podcast, maintains it, interviews everyone and edits all the episodes. It is really a labor of love. Brian realizes that the very nature of the Internet does not result in a very good documentation about its … Continue reading
Two Thirds Done 