Triumph of the Nerds
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- Date Submitted: 04/22/2015 04:12 PM
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Triumph of The Nerds-Part 1
Bob Cringely
“PC gossip columnist”
Abstract
Bob Cringely puts PC big shots and nerds on the spot, and tells their incredible true stories from his own Silicon Valley garage. Bob speaks about the emergence of the Personal Computer (PC), stimulating the “PC Revolution”. And it was all started by nerds. It happened more or less by accident; the people who made it happened were amateurs; and for the most part still are. Part 1 is entitled: IMPRESSING THEIR FRIENDS-They did it because they were geniuses; they did it because they were addicted to the mental challenge. But mostly they just invented personal computing to impress their friends. From the Homebrew Computer Club and the first PC—the Altair 8800—they went from being hobbyists to holding court to IBM. The video is more than an entertaining look at the PC industry.
Part I: Impressing their Friends, documents how a bunch of high school and college “nerds” created the microcomputer, not as a means to great wealth, but simply as a hobby to impress their friends. Only Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen seemed to sense at this point in time the business potential at this early stage of the industry. The computer industry might not have taken off, if it were not for the Hippies. They caused the development of the PC industry. And in the “Homebrew Club”, a PC computer called Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Apple had a shaky beginning, but Steve Jobs turned to venture capital for funding. The result is the “Apple II”. The “Apple II” was a hit, being brilliantly designed by Steve Jobs. Sales and profits were so good that Apple soon have more money than they can spend. But the PC was still mostly for hobbyist. Then came the software and applications, which made the PC more useful. The first to appear is the spread sheet, VISICALC. At it came just at the right time, at a time when the commercial world was booming, and a...
Bob Cringely
“PC gossip columnist”
Abstract
Bob Cringely puts PC big shots and nerds on the spot, and tells their incredible true stories from his own Silicon Valley garage. Bob speaks about the emergence of the Personal Computer (PC), stimulating the “PC Revolution”. And it was all started by nerds. It happened more or less by accident; the people who made it happened were amateurs; and for the most part still are. Part 1 is entitled: IMPRESSING THEIR FRIENDS-They did it because they were geniuses; they did it because they were addicted to the mental challenge. But mostly they just invented personal computing to impress their friends. From the Homebrew Computer Club and the first PC—the Altair 8800—they went from being hobbyists to holding court to IBM. The video is more than an entertaining look at the PC industry.
Part I: Impressing their Friends, documents how a bunch of high school and college “nerds” created the microcomputer, not as a means to great wealth, but simply as a hobby to impress their friends. Only Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen seemed to sense at this point in time the business potential at this early stage of the industry. The computer industry might not have taken off, if it were not for the Hippies. They caused the development of the PC industry. And in the “Homebrew Club”, a PC computer called Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Apple had a shaky beginning, but Steve Jobs turned to venture capital for funding. The result is the “Apple II”. The “Apple II” was a hit, being brilliantly designed by Steve Jobs. Sales and profits were so good that Apple soon have more money than they can spend. But the PC was still mostly for hobbyist. Then came the software and applications, which made the PC more useful. The first to appear is the spread sheet, VISICALC. At it came just at the right time, at a time when the commercial world was booming, and a...