The Network That Never Was: A High-Tech, Low-Spirits Memoir
by Leo Heinrich
The Network That Never Was is a true memoir about a programming junkie who finds an incredible opportunity just after hitting rock bottom in a boarding house. What begins as an incredible opportunity to be part of a multi-million-dollar project slowly slides from money-making into madness.Only the names have been changed.This will be a 21-chapter podcast of the ebook I wrote soon after the real-life project collapsed.Subscribe to experience the rise and fall of one of the most ambitious but unknown projects in modern times.
Episodes
-
Years Later: A Brief Update
The Network did post duplicate blogs in 2019… until now. Tune in for a brief update.
-
Chapter 27: Exit Interview
This is the final full chapter of The Network That Never Was. The Wowzers Empire fizzles out in front of Leo Heinrich, in the back office where he’s spent hours facing the glare of an old junker, hunched over typing out “rare” books wedged an inch open so their precious spines don’t break.…
more -
Chapter 26: Power From The People (Or, How Leo Came To Enjoy Total Darkness, No Phone & Warm Food)
Justine’s benevolent plan to let Leo proudly fling new websites about like a 1099 wizard hits one huge snag while she lurches through mounting debt. How does our omfg-what-am-I-doing-here hero react? Click play, or better, check out Episode 1 if you’re new! Like the podcast? Please visit...
-
Chapter 25: Stealth Mischief
Much like a coronavirus layoff, work dries up and Leo tries to get a plan in place to keep the money coming in. Unreliable tools become a thorn in his side and he even winds up subcontracting in a rush. For a thousand-website project, funding is looking pretty pathetic - not even one test website...
-
Chapter 24: Picture Time (Or, Far From Model Behavior)
When you have a distant, arrogant, incompetent pair of employers who starts faltering on your payments, leaving you trapped above a first-floor antique store, things begin to warp, rot and fester inside you. Maybe you’ll turn to drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes (Leo didn’t). Perhaps you’ll spend…
more -
Chapter 23: Bad Movie Night
Justine and Dieter save Leo from a delicious calzone and an enjoyable night at home. Leo chafes at the state of his labors to no avail. Further lunacy simmers. The podcast is nearing an end with just a few chapters more. If you’d like to help support this endeavor, please buy the ebook of the…
more -
Chapters 17-22: Antisocial Media - 22 Hours - The Camel’s Back - Time To Book - Barnyard Animals
What does a sweaty 20,000-book auction have to do with an amazing project that seeks to unseat Amazon, Facebook, LiveJournal and Plurk? Don’t ask Leo Heinrich. His dream tech job has turned into a stay in a Bates Motel of an antique store working for a boss who’s 1% Donald Trump, 29% Grimace, 30%...
-
Chapter 16 : About Time
Leo receives definite proof he’s on the right track working for his eccentric employers... or does he? The Project remains as cryptic, distant and massive at it has before. Is he really funding over 1000 websites with a dinky digital camera? Is it being funded just by interest from Justine and...
-
Chapter 15: Diversion
In the middle of this isolated tech hell comes an awkward respite. Leo meets fellow human being Audrina, an enigmatic New England administrative assistant. The date starts with a hellish breakfast and devolves into an hours-long attempt to crack Audrina’s fortress-like demeanor. Leo comes to...
-
Chapter 14: Escape Velocity
Justine and Dieter continue not to impress, Justine with her latest grandiose... something... and Dieter with his shlumpish imposing on Leo. For a web project with 1200 websites, something sure seems amiss in keeping it going swarmed by antique shoplifters. In the midst of emptiness, Leo plods...
-
Chapter 13: Panic Room
In this episode of The Network That Never Was: A High-Tech, Low-Spirits Memoir, Leo finds himself starting to wriggle out from underneath the oppressive 2-person kingdom of Justine Launders. The Launders interrogate Leo about the bleak minimal improvements in his life: a possible date with a…
more -
Chapter 12: Audrina
Leo finds an equally lonely lady whose main requirement for meeting is not being a psycho. Go Leo. Moldy magazine auctions have slowed, giving Dieter a chance to put his wife Justine’s alleged auctioneering prowess to use. To do so, Leo chauffeurs Dieter to one of New England’s finest bookstores....
-
Chapter 11 : Wheels
In Chapter 11 of the Network That Never Was, familiarity continues to breed contempt on both sides. Leo keeps his nose to the grindstone with what little work he has. Dieter lets on about a time-saving device that may help take Leo out of the tech Stone Age. Justine wobbles in and out of the...
-
Chapter 10: Further Distractions
Leo Heinrich’s foray into internet wealth continues to curdle and crumble under the increasingly bizarre Justine and Dieter Launders, two self-deluded antique collectors, closeout shoppers, name-droppers and #2 ploppers. What’s worse than listing and shipping hundreds of moldy magazines at...
-
Chapter 9: Garbage Collection
Ask Grubbie video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5z3A8opnDaQ Leo finds his few days of half-respite from Justine and Dieter at an end. It’s time to pick up the terrible twosome in oh-so-fabulous Newburyport, which to Leo is one curving, rain-soaked road on the outskirts and a Burger King. Life...
-
Good Riddance
Ever have an employer with too much money and barely a clue? Not only is programmer Leo Heinrich working for two nebulous goofballs with 1200 websites and 12 IQ points between them, he’s now dealing with an unnerving change of plan and income. His dream job of $500 a week, a spacious apartment…
more -
The Brown Noser Blues
In Chapter 7 of The Network That Never Was, Leo’s diminishing paychecks and increasingly domestic workload come together to leave him feeling trapped. Coding has given way to lugging in and listing box after box of mold-kissed magazines. Justine reveals her half-baked methods for auction success...
-
Down the rabbit hole
Leo Heinrich discovers that he is dealing with some increasingly bizarre, incompetent and nasty employers. What started out as a sure-fire million-dollar paycheck for a 1200-website project is dwindling down to pathetic pay and “free” rent in the middle of nowhere.
-
Evers
Leo gets some kind of confirmation that Wowzers just might be crazy enough to get him that million-dollar paycheck promised by Justine and Dieter. That proof is a taciturn, boat shoe-wearing whiz kid named Evers.
-
Photo Month
After a few attempts at tinkering with the kludgy web platform Justine and Dieter use, Leo goes from paradise to limbo. After Leo makes $150 in the store by opening 5 minutes early, Dieter prevents any further success by running the store instead. Justine re-scrambles her brains looking for Leo’s...
-
A Temporary Paradise
Leo settles into life alone at the Black Unicorn antique store, playing store security as well as alleged right-hand man for a multi million dollar web project. Justine and Dieter ask him to open the store one day at 10. Leo starts to see cracks in the seamless dream of the Wowzers Project.
-
Unsettling In
Leo leaves the boarding house behind, and steps into what could either be a charming antique shop or a passive-aggressive version of the Bates Motel.
-
A Tentacle Reaches Out
For frustrated techie Leo Heinrich, life is not going that well. He just spent two weeks under lock and key stuck with an extremely unbalanced person who said she was the condo owner... then used him to pay rent as long as possible to hold off a furious landlord. Now, licking his wounds in a…
more
About this show
The Network That Never Was is a true memoir about a programming junkie who finds an incredible opportunity just after hitting rock bottom in a boarding house. What begins as an incredible opportunity to be part of a multi-million-dollar project slowly slides from money-making into madness.Only the names have been changed.This will be a 21-chapter podcast of the ebook I wrote soon after the real-life project collapsed.Subscribe to experience the rise and fall of one of the most ambitious but unknown projects in modern times.
Hosted by
Leo Heinrich
Categories