Sunday, September 30, 2007

"Triumph of the Nerds" - my reflections


“PC”, “IBM”, “Intel”, “Bill Gates”, “Compaq”, “Microsoft”, "Adobe", "Internet" are words used by everyone on every day’s life and known by very many people. Now we can take advantage of the multiple uses of personal computers, but I don’t think most of us know the story behind this great gadgets. Honestly, I was never interested how the process of creating the PC developed, but many times I thought the some computer freaks did a good job.
Let’s make computers for fun!
I think the story of the computer nerds is really interesting and it is worth watching it. As it is important to know about the history of your country, about important moments of the World’s history I believe it is important to know about the PC’s history because it has become a very important part of our life.
I see these computer nerds (people who use a computer in order to use a computer; for their own fun) like good examples of dedication. They are dedicated when it comes to their goal, they work together, they put together every effort, sharing everything so that they succeed faster in creating the “toys” they want. The fact that they had this communities was really good because it was easier for them to communicate and maybe this is the one of the reasons which contributed to the fact that we have PCs’ today. The spirit they had, sometimes influenced by the hippie movement also helped them to succeed. As Bill Gates said they made “works of love”. They were determined to create de personal computers because they wanted to have fun. It is interesting to see that they didn’t do it for the money they could get out of it. These “leaders of a revolution” did an extraordinary thing and made the world better.
Let’s make computers for money!
Although now we all now the computers are a very well developed business, I thing it is important to know which are the roots of the business (the common effort of the young nerd, as their hobby). I believe that the “suits” appear in this computer field is not a bad thing because the nerds needed some guidance. And I see the business peoples’ involvement in this as an accelerator for what we have today in the computers’ field.
One interesting aspect of the computer business is that buying a piece of the computer later is less expensive and does more. This is why they have to be sold quick to avoid to lower prices.
Another thing that makes this business a good one is that every day some parts of your computer can be updated and this means of course more money. When I bought my first computer I knew that there is going to be a moment when I would have to invest for better uses and more applications which work faster.

The reaction of the media is also presented in the movie and the main idea of all the articles is that computers are the future. They really are the present and the future. I’m really curious what kind of laptop I will use in ten years.


Another aspect which I find interesting to follow in this movie is the need of the people involved in the computer business to improve the computers. They wanted them to be faster, easier to use, more fun, more user friendly, having killer applications. Almost all the time there was a need for the next level. Which is going to be the next level of the computer technology we use today? I can't wait to find out!

We interact with computers every day, even if sometimes we don't realise. They became part of our lives. Even when we use the credit cards to pay, we use computers. Most of us would not imagine their lives without Internet. So, using the computers makes us feel integrated in the society, an active part of it and a participant in our societies.


2 comments:

Paula said...

Pare fain documentarul, acu mi-l descarc. :)
Tot pe tema asta: http://youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA - e un speech super al lui Steve Jobs de de la Apple.

Mariana said...

Mi-a placut, te pricepi!