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t a n g l e s , l i n k s , a n d w e b s

one page would have thousands of links on it that the page's owner might not want to bother to store. Furthermore, if an external link went in both directions, then changing both files would involve storing the same information in two places, which is almost always asking for trouble: the files would inevitably get out of step.

Eventually, I compiled a database of people and a database of software modules, but then my consulting time was up. When I left CERN, I didn't take the Enquire source code with me. I had written it in the programming language Pascal, which was common, but it ran on the proprietary Norsk Data SINTRAN-III operating system, which was pretty obscure. I gave the eight-inch floppy disk to a systems manager, and explained that it was a program for keeping track of information. I said he was welcome to use it if he wanted. The program was later given to a student, who said he liked the way it was written—written as a Pascal program should be written. The few people who saw it thought it was a nice idea, but no one used it. Eventually, the disk was lost, and with it, the original Enquire.

When I left CERN I rejoined a former colleague, John Poole. Two years earlier, Kevin and I had been working with John, trying to upgrade the then-boring dot matrix printers with the then-revolutionary microprocessor so they could print fancy graphics. The three of us would sit in the front room of John's house, his golden Labrador nestled under one of the desks, and try to perfect the design. We had succeeded in just a few months, but John hadn't had the money to go on paying us a salary, and wouldn't until he'd sold the product. That's when we had started looking for contract work and ended up at CERN.

After I had been at CERN for six months, John called. "Why don't you come back?" he said. "I've sold the product, we've got a contract. Now we need some software support for it." John had incorporated as Image Computer Systems, and Kevin and I returned to help.