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When Exxon Wanted To Be a Personal Computing Revolutionary
An anonymous reader writes with this story about Exxon's early involvement with consumer computers. "This weekend is the anniversary of the release of the Apple IIc, the company's fourth personal computer iteration and its first attempt at creating a portable computer. In 1981, Apple's leading competitor in the world of consumer ('novice') computer users was IBM, but the market was about to experience a deluge of also-rans and other silent partners in PC history, including the multinational descendant of Standard Oil, Exxon. The oil giant had been quietly cultivating a position in the microprocessor industry since the mid-1970s via the rogue Intel engineer usually credited with developing the very first commercial microprocessor, Federico Faggin, and his startup Zilog. Faggin had ditched Intel in 1974, after developing the 4004 four-bit CPU and its eight-bit successor, the 8008. As recounted in Datapoint: The Lost Story of the Texans Who Invented the Personal Computer, Faggin was upset about Intel's new requirement that employees had to arrive by eight in the morning, while he usually worked nights. Soon after leaving Intel and forming Zilog, Faggin was approached by Exxon Enterprises, the investment arm of Exxon, which began funding Zilog in 1975."
I'm doing "just fine" too. I'm probably the same order of magnitude away from zilog as they are from intel, but for levels of "fineness" approaching Obamacare, well I'm not dead, and that's a good thing.
I don't think anybody should be forced to come to work at 8:00 o'clock, unless of course, they agreed to it when they were hired. People that refuse to honor their own wordare slightly lower than people that cheat on their wives. But still, it's the same thing. Bill Clinton and other democrats don't understand why normal people are reulsed by their behavior. The rest of us realize that if you can't get to work on time, your probably a liberal, or a sociopath.