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Here's some good insight on how reliable a source he is: PBS analyst falsely claims Stanford Ph.D

Robert X. Cringely (Mark Stephens) is a complete and utter fraud .

Why his every bowel movement makes the front page is anyone's guess.

In case the sentence, "... he taught for several years at Stanford University..." leads anyone to believe that Cringely was on the Stanford faculty.

Cringely was a graduate student at Stanford, during which time, he TA'ed a few classes. He never finished graduate school. Since then he has claimed (and then retracted) that he had a Ph.D. and had been an Assistant Professor at Stanford. When confronted, with the truth, he first opined that he thought being a TA was the same as being an Assistant Professor, and then removed the Assistant Professor and Ph.D. bit from his official bio.

Caused more than a little stir in academic circles in 1998. Here's the link from the Stanford Daily online from 1998.

Hey. That particular Robert X. Cringely was me.
Never mind. I made that up.
What makes you think it wasn't any other random whatever person?

That's easy: The real Robert X. Cringely will show you his Stanford diploma.

From my own experience, Stanford is definitely a good choice. You've got a world class computer-science department alongside incredible "fuzzy" liberal arts departments. Since we are right in the middle of Silicon Valley and the technical departments are so strong, course offerings in the economics, history, and sociology departments often have a technology slant. Last year, there was a seminar which detailed the history of the Valley. A course in the communications department on the effects of digital media (which I couldn't take because class size was limited!). And even the computer science department hasn't forgotten its history. Gates (ugh) Computer Science building is full of computer artifacts, notwithstanding Don Knuth :)

If not Stanford, find another top computer science department: UIUC, Carnagie-Mellon, MIT, etc. If the CS department is strong, it will flow into other departments who want to ride the wave.

As far as coursework goes, most schools allow majors to be designed if they don't have one which follows your exact path. Definitely take some CS courses to broaden your knowledge of technology, but a couple of history and economics courses wouldn't do any harm either. Just remember to get as much out of college as possible, since it's only four years.

OK. I'm on my soapbox; but I am a senior, so nostalgia has set in. Good luck and feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.

Back in 1998 you falsely claimed that you had a PhD and was a professor of journalism at Stanford. Of course the truth came out. How has the truth affected you and your work. Have you suffered any consequences by your lie? And why did you lie in the first place?

PS. To moderators, asking controversial questions is NOT trolling, but good journalism! Ask Nixon!