Caleb Pirtle

This volume celebrates the can-do, risk-taking, creative pioneers of Texas Instruments from its inception in the 1930s as a tiny geophysical exploration company working out of the back of a truck in the oilfields of the Southwest, to its status in the world today as one of the world's leading electronics companies. From the determination of its founders--Eugene McDermott, Erik Jonsson, Cecil Green, and Pat Haggerty--to the genius of its inventors such as Nobel prizewinner Jack Kilby, TI has transformed the world in seven and a half decades. In photographs and anecdotes, the book tells TI's history of innovation in products and technologies, including the development of the first commercial silicon transistors, the first integrated circuits, and the first electronic hand-held calculators. Today, this Fortune 500 company is at the forefront of digital signal processing and analog technologies--the semiconductor engines of the Internet age. TIers are currently working on solutions for large global markets such as wireless and broadband access, and for a variety of emerging markets such as digital projection systems and digital audio. The seventy-five vignettes making up this history paint a picture of TI and its people, providing a window into a corporate culture that fosters the creativity and mental toughness to compete in the world semiconductor market. The stories, in addition, show TI's staunch sense of fiscal responsibility, civic mindedness, and high ethical standards in its business practices.

Stories from the First 75 Years of Texas Instruments

Engineering the World

Rachel Aukes

Sue Coletta

Elle Rossi

Nightmares come to life in this thrilling collection of dark tales. Resurrection Morning by Caleb Pirtle III: Ambrose Lincoln is a man without a memory. The government has erased his mind with drugs and electric shots. He is a more effective operative, the powers say, if he has no fear. A man without fear can accomplish assignments that others would be afraid to try. Besides, a man cannot reveal any secrets if the secrets have been taken from him. Lincoln is sent to Paris with a British Intelligence officer to help a famous jazz singer escape. She has been smuggling German information out of the country, and someone has betrayed her. If the Gestapo finds the jazz singer first, she will be executed as a spy. Who can Lincoln trust, who wants him dead, and who can help them in their frantic, desperate flight from Paris to the English Channel? If the don't make it out of France by morning, they won't make it at all. Black Out by Sue Coletta: When the power goes out on Bear Cat Mountain evil stalks the terrain. With a fallen tree blocking their only escape-live electrical wires dancing across the road and cell tower down-the body count quickly rises. Blu and Jake Carpaccio must track down the killer before they fall victim to his trap. But who can they trust? And how do you fight someone, or something, you cannot see? Sweeton's Shangri-La y Rachel Aukes: When a young couple discover a mythical paradise, they learn that a fantasy can all too quickly become a nightmare. The Sideshow by Kimberly McGath: Katie Cartwright is struggling with her memory and is haunted by flashbacks. Regressing to an evening at the circus, things are not as they first appear. Strange events, suspicious deaths, and eerie music set the stage for an unforgettable trip to the big top. Three Days by Jennifer Chase: Samantha Carr receives a special email invitation for three days to stay at a new luxury beach hotel. Nothing is as it appears including where the hotel is located. The view from her room changes, leading her into the middle of a gangland war. Will she be driven to madness or give in to the sinister force that relentlessly stalks her? Smile For Me by Kristine Mason: Make me young, make me pretty, make me happy, make me smile... Lisa Duplain refuses to grow old gracefully. Fearing the aging process and desiring youth, she books a weekend at Melody's Grace-a quaint bed and breakfast also known as the fountain of youth. But something wicked dwells within the walls of the B&B and not everyone who stays at Melody's Grace leaves happy...even if they have a smile on their face. Bleeder by Paul Dale Anderson: Lucy makes the mistake of answering her doorbell early one morning to find a handgun shoved in her face. The armed man, bleeding from gunshot wounds, forces Lucy to patch him up and hide him inside her house. But the bleeder picked the wrong house, and Lucy is far from innocent victim she pretends to be. A taut tale of blood and fury with no bounds. A Love Story by Kathy Love: When a group of teens use social media to create a fictional love interest for a fellow classmate, they have no idea the horrible chain of events they will set in motion. Now they are the ones receiving messages from the boy they created. But the question is, who is sending them the messages? Someone who knows what they've done? One of their very own group? Or could it be something far more sinister? One thing is for certain, this isn't a story about revenge. It's a love story. A Promise is a Promise by Joe Broadmeadow: When an innocent summer day turns into a lifetime nightmare, two friends make a promise to visit vengeance on those responsible. The naivete sets in motion a deadly conclusion. The Game by Elle J Rossi: You win, you live. You lose, you die. The game is as simple and as complex as that.

A Collection of Dark Tales

It may have been the greatest injustice of all. A nation was uprooted. A nation was ripped apart from its ancestral lands with its peoples' feet pointed west. So many died along the way. The Five Civilized Tribes - the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole - rose to power on the land of their fathers, atop great smoky mountains, deep within vast timbered forests, lost among the mangroves, palmettos, and rivers of grass. They were strong and proud - hunters who had become farmers. Many fine plantations were firmly planted on the land they called home, and slaves picked their cotton in the fields. They had achieved self-government and prospered. But civilization rolled selfishly into their nation. Treaties were passed, signed, and ignored. Promises were made and broken, sometimes just forgotten. The removal of the tribes from their homeland in the Southeast to Indian Territory takes on a new dimension as author Caleb Pirtle relates to a culture that existed before the Europeans set foot on American soil. The people suffered greatly from this exodus - driven like cattle herds across frozen ground and icy rivers, families separated, children and the old ones dying - as they struggled down a path that would forever be known as "The Trail Where They Cried." They were victimized by America's "Indian Policy." It was a grave mistake. Trail of Broken Promises was written for the casual historian searching for an emotional overview of a dark era in America's past. Developed for the traveler, the book contains numerous photographs depicting the heritage and culture of the Five Civilized Tribes, as well as historical traces - homes, council houses, prisons, and forts - of their early days in Oklahoma.

Caleb Pirtle

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