Pirates of Silicon Valley
Pirates of Silicon Valley
The revolution came when we weren’t looking. It happened in a garage. In a dorm room. In countless hours of effort, imagining and intrigue. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates were changing the way the world works, lives and communicates. The event-packed saga of the quirky visionaries who jump-started the future unfolds with exhilarating, cutting-edge style in Pirates of Silicon Valley. Noah Wyle (ER) portrays Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall (The Dead Zone) portrays Gates in this chronicle of the fierce and often humorous battle to rule the fledgling personal computer empire. “The story is almost Shakespearean… it’s a tale of lust, greed, ambition, love and hate,” writer/director Martyn Burke reflects. And it’s
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The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
- ISBN13: 9780140296464
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As American capitalism undergoes a seismic shift, Michael Lewis, author of the bestselling Liar’s Poker, sets out on a Silicon Valley safari to find the true representative of the coming economic age. All roads lead to Jim Clark, the man who rewrote the rules of American capitalism as the founder of (so far) three multi-billion dollar companies-Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon. Lewis’s shrewd, often brilliantly funny, narrative provides ahead-of-the-curve observations about the Internet explosion and how the success of Silicon Valley companies is forcing a reassessment of traditional Wall-Street business models.
Weaving Clark’s story together with that of this new business phenomenon, Lewis has drawn us a map of m
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Insight into a revolution.,
I watched the movie as it aired on tv, and enjoyed it so much I rented it a number of times when it released. Taking only 90% to be near historical accuracy, it still has captivated me enough to make me pre-order the re-publication of the book “Fire in the Valley” by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, on which the movie is based, just to find out what the movie left out. This movie gives such an insight into a true revolution, taking the computers out of the hands of corporate types, and giving them over to the masses. Noah Wyle is Steve Jobs in this movie. His acting brings to life one of the most influential people of the time. Anthony Michael Hall does a superb job of showing Bill Gates as the capitalistic businessman in its trueist form. The only reason I don’t give it a 5 star rating is that I feel they spend a little too much time on Steve Jobs’ personal drug trip. This was time that could have been better spent explaining what has happened since 1997, when Jobs came back to Apple. Or, they could have led up to the Gates vs. United States trial. All in all a great movie. Rent it, Buy it, show it to your kids. This is current history, and it is relevant to today.
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|The Mac/PC wars–a fascinating look at computer history.,
In the first few minutes of the film, we see Steve Jobs pacing the floor on a Boston stage (year 1997–shortly after his return to Apple), and above him is the gigantic image of Bill Gates smiling down (smirking?) at him, while we hear the voice of Steve Wozniac (the Woz) in the background say, “How did we get from there to here?” And there, dear readers, lies the tale of the century.
Kudos for the director, the casting director, and the fine performances from Hall and Wyle. In this film, we see the rise of the personal computer from two of most important players of the era, and along the way, we are shown how deeply power and wealth corrupts. Those of us that lived through this period are well acquainted with the first personal computers. Indeed, many of us have heard enough rumors concerning Steve Jobs’ late night tantrums as he walked the halls of his empire, to know that this film depicted both him and Steve Wozniac fairly honestly. As far as the depiction of Bill Gates, there are those that agree and those that disagree. Obviously, artistic license was used on both sides. Steve Wozniac mentioned that he was surprised how accurately the movie portrayed the personalities, but indicated they got many of the dates screwed up (check his web site, he has many interesting comments concerning the movie).
As the title aptly suggests, both Steve and Bill gained their initial fame not just from their own creative genius (although both are considered geniuses), but as much from “borrowing” — Jobs from Xerox PARC, and Gates from Apple Computer. And while that is the central theme of the movie, it also points out the astonishing short-sightedness of top corporate executives–HP (unfairly in reality) and IBM for not realizing the potential of the personal computer and software for the masses, and Xerox for not understanding what they themselves had developed. One of the best lines comes from an HP exec talking to Steve Wozniac (the creator of the Apple computer)… “Why would the average person ever want a computer?” (I’m paraphrasing here–and I think in reality, it was IBM who had this attitude).
In fairness, back in those days computers were used mainly by scientists, the military, and mathematicians. These things were gigantic and cost a fortune. Still, it makes me think that the trillions of dollars lost by some of these giant corporations sprang from an immense lack of imagination at key positions (I doubt any of those people ever opened a science-fiction novel). To Jobs’ credit, he understood immediately what he was shown at the Xerox PARC center, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Pirates” works on many levels, and it really is a fascinating movie, however, I think it bit off a little more than it could chew. This movie is only 100 minutes long (or thereabouts), yet tries to encompass 25 years of creation, in-fighting, slight-of-hand, and lying, with a blend of madness and out-and-out theft thrown in. It also has a tendency to stray from its theme, trying (and failing) in its depiction of the main characters’ personal lives. Yet, inspite of these weaknesses, I throroughly enjoyed this film, and have viewed it several times (each time gaining a little more respect for the director’s efforts).
So, whether your computer is the mac or a windows pc, I think most will find this film entertaining and enlightening. Between 1 and 10, I give “Pirates” a very high 7 (it had real potential of being a “don’t miss” gem). What I find almost as fascinating is the widespread polarization people still have for one platform over the other–and the war continues with no end in sight….
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|The great american success story, timing is everything!,
This takes you from beginning to present day.
Shows Paul Allen (who now OWNS the Seahawks and Trailblazers pro teams) Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc. etc. Dropping out of college to pursue a slow burning fire that would become the personal computer/windows software that we know today.
What is interesting is that it shows who talks and who works. Gates lies a lot, pretty much living by the saying “telling people what they want to hear” while Paul Allen grinds away at making code.
On the other end it’s the same somewhat, rogue cannon Steve Jobs handling the business part while we get a sense that Steve Wozniak is a true tech who goes above and beyond Jobs’ rantings to produce the final product.
What is so funny is the irony of this movie:
Loan Officer: “Sorry Mr. Jobs, but we don’t think the ordinary person will have any use for a computer”.
HP: “You think people are interested in something called a mouse?”.
Xerox: “We build it and then they can come right in here and steal it from us? It’s just not fair, this operating system is a result of our hard work!”.
Jobs to Gates: “You’re STEALING FROM US!!!”
Assistant to Gates: “Do you realize Apple has a pirate flag over their front door, and they just gave us 3 prototypes of their operating system?”
Jobs: “I don’t want people to look at it like a monitor and mouse, I think of this as art, a vision, people need to think outside the box”.
Jobs: “You stole it from ussss!” Gates: “No it’s not stealing, you see, it’s like we both have this neighbor, and he leaves his door open all the time. You go over there to get his TV, only I’ve gotten their first..and now you’re calling me the thief?!”.
Just some of the excerpts that make this movie a classic and show you everything that went down when a bunch of college dropouts set out and changed the world in which we live today.
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|The New New Economic Realities,
I bought this book at an airport I was passing through en route to someplace else. I knew Michael Lewis as an author, having read Liar’s Poker, so I knew I would find his style appealing. I had no idea about Jim Clark at all.
To my utter surprise, the book was not only entertaining, but it brought to my attention some facts about the world that I live in that I had never fully realised:
1) You can choose to be a down and out misfit on the road to nowhere, or you can choose to show ‘em all and make something of your life
2) Having decided to do something, there is no actual limit to how big you can think
3) An individual can actually swing the entire economy and all of its big established companies around to a different agenda and different competitive landscape
4) If you are blessed/cursed with the kind of mind that loves to dwell in “pure possibility”, is never satisfied with the way things are and can always see how they could be, do what Jim Clark does – get on with changing the world! Actions speak louder than words.
5) Engineers have finally realised that they should be more fairly compensated, relative to the amount of value they create in the economy. The consequence of this is that financiers, who really don’t understand what or how an engineer does what he does, must now compete to get a piece of the action. A financier, even if he has infinite money, cannot personally create anything of tangible value with his financial skills. Contrast this to what an engineer with good skills can create and you realise that what really counts is the creation of tangible things that make the human condition somehow better. This realisation is driving the new new economic realities – engineers can build a better world, financiers can only pay for them to do it.
6) You don’t have to be especially bright or gifted to change the course of business history, but if you are, you owe it to yourself and others to use those gifts to the best advantage you can
So, all things considered, this book was a revelation and an especially welcome pleasant surprise.
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|Needs Cynicism,
There are two reasons why Liar’s Poker was such a great book. First, it profiled some of the greatest characters of Wall Street during the 1980′s. Secondly, Lewis was very critical of Solomon. Reading “Liar’s Poker” makes you think about how ridiculous traders’ views of the world were in the late 1980s.
The problem with “The New New Thing” is that Michael Lewis is not critical enough of Jim Clark. Jim Clark certainly was generous to Michael Lewis by letting him tag along on so many of his adventures, and it would probably have been inapproriate for Lewis to be more critical of his subject. But, this doesn’t make it an interesting book.
If you’re looking for the “Liar’s Poker” of the Internet, try Michael Wolf’s “Burn Rate,” or Po Bronson’s “Nudist on the Late Shift,” both of which contain much more interesting people, much more information about the internet revolution, and much more cynicisim.
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|An Insightful Read About A Silicon Valley Visionary,
Michael Lewis has written a humorous and insightful book about Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics, Netscape,Healtheon and myCFO. The story is educational in that it provides an insight into the process of conceptionalizing a technology idea, packaging and selling the idea to the venture capitalists,individual investors and those that have to bring the idea to a reality,convince the Wall Street investment bankers of the marketability of such a scheme to the investing public and the final IPO which makes everyone along the food chain rich. This educational story will certainly make you think twice before investing in future technology IPOs. For some, valuation is not a consideration. Lewis has a great style, which is not only informative, but also humorous. I especially liked the way he chides the American legal system (page 195). Anyone who has experienced serving jury duty will appreciate the arrogant and pompous process described by Lewis as the Department of Justice begins the trial against Microsoft. This is a must read for anyone who has ever invested in a high flying technology stock or wondered about life in the Silicon Valley.
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