Slashdot Mirror
Pirates of Silicon Valley
We've mentioned this once or twice in the past, but I figure
its probably worth mentioning it again.
Pirates of the Silicon
Valley is running this weekend on TNT (sunday at 8pm). Its the story of
Gates and Jobs, as played by Noah Wiley and Anthony Michael Hall.
I dunno if it'll be any good, but I'll probably watch it.
It'll be interesting to see how they take the story (which is
actually quite entertaining and interesting) and adapt it for
a mainstream audience.
Thanks to
jbut355 for reminding me.
Posted by Nina Simone:
There will be a lot more movies and books about Jobs, Woz and Gates. Gad, we've yet to see their ghost written autobiographies - although I'm hoping Woz will construct a superior minimalist bio.
I don't think the whole biz will fly until there are nerd sex revelations. When I see the Enquirer running a story about Melissa spanking Bill, I know we'll have hit the Variety moment.
There could be a movie about you. Keep coding, keep schmoozing and hang out at Buck's.
...were published in yesterday's Salon. The review had this quote: "if you're looking for an amusing, Hollywood-filtered dramatization of the rise of the geek industry, there are worse ways to spend your Sunday evening." :)
The debunking of the story I found more interesting and informative. "Pirates" isn't ground-breaking by any means, and does little more than perpetuate the existing mythos of Silicon Valley (and make TNT some ad revenue). The real history (IMHO) is more interesting, but it'd shatter the popular worldview, so few subscribe to it. It's more fun to demonize people you only know through third- or fourth-hand accounts, apparently.
--
The Future: Some assembly required; batteries not included.
It says they have pioneered the technology landscape. I would have to disagree as many were involved in shaping and developing the technology market. They just were the best hijackers and exploiters. They put the "R" in Ruthless.
They had a preview screening at the Seattle film festival a few weeks back. Here's my reaction.
Spoiler: Microsoft wins. Focus is on the early days, around the Altair. It then goes through to the Apple/Microsoft investment with the devil a few years back, with screen time decreasing exponentially with historical time. So the end of the story is Big Brother Bill smirking down on Steve from the big screen.
It's hard to know what a non-technical person would like and dislike. I already knew of almost every historical event portrayed, so there weren't many surprises (BillG used to get in trouble speeding? Woah!). But more interesting to me than the anecdotes, or even the performances (pretty good), was the eerie sense of watching this unfold on a big screen.
Your TV screen will be smaller, but it will still be eerie. If you were there in the early days, even as an AppleII owner rather than a bigwig, you know how small and unknown the PC world was. Seeing it onscreen is like seeing a movie about, say, yourself in elementary school. You felt at the time that someday Posterity would recognize the importance of your 4th-grade world, but you eventually gave up that belief. Now all of a sudden it's there and it's real. It's so freaky a sensation that you have to admit you could still be in 4th grade and having a long and convincing dream. An Ur-nerd won't learn much new from this flick, but it's definitely worth checking out for that sensation.
On the other hand, it's a bit disappointing that they made this movie, if it means that the subject is "done" and no one's likely to do another one soon. Because it would be nice to see a movie about the early days that's written better. There are several klunky transitions, and Jobs and Gates are forced to spew out semi-meaningless chunks of their philosophies in places that don't flow nicely. One fun surprise was the Steve Ballmer character, which captures his humor. It doesn't show off his intelligence, though (e.g., he beat Bill in a math competition at Harvard). Perhaps this is a reflection of the scope of the project; how can you really show what any one person is like when you try to show the lives of half a dozen people in events spanning ten years?
(p.s. - the director and A.M. Hall were there and answered some questions. A good time had by all. Steve and Bill have not asked to see it, we were told. A thick notebook of research exists to backup every scene, for legal reasons. Still, some scenes have been slightly massaged for dramatic purposes.)
All the reviews I've seen so far said it had big gaping holes, but that's it's still definitely worth seeing.
Just a dumb piece of trivia, but: this is actually the second time Pirates of Silicon Valley is playing! It already aired a couple weeks ago, and several people have confirmed seeing it on a lot of the Mac news sites. There was a lot of speculation about why it happened, because a National Geographic special was supposed to air during the time slot.
Steve Wozniak set up a plan to give stock options to early employees out of his own account, under a program that they called the WozPlan. I forgot the details and the numbers (it's in the Mac Bathroom Reader) but he said he did it because he felt the early employees weren't getting their fair share of stock options. Steve Jobs and Mike Markkula told Woz he was wasting his fortune, but several people wrote letters to Woz thanking him for helping them to put their kids through college or start businesses because of the WozPlan.
I saw "Pirates of Silicon Valley" at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) last month. Don't worry. Bill Gates is depicted exactly how you want him. The film is actually pretty harsh. The only person lefted unscathed is Woz.
cpeterso
Yeah, it's called "Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires". It's a pretty cool three-part documentary by Robert X. Cringely, based on his book "Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date". Check it out at the PBS Web site.
So how often do you go to dinner with Bill? you seem to know him well enough.
:).
In all reality. Everyone of us is insanely jealous of what Mr. Gates has accomplished. your pissed of that your stuck at your dead end job while he is worth more than many countries (I include myself in that diatribe
"The guy is a total ninny?" Oh man, that's funny. Say what you will abvout him, but he is far from a ninny. No one can argue that his OS's and Apps are less than perfect, but he made his empire by being a shrewd business man, not a good programmer/visionary. To be as successful as he is (and will be.. THE GOV CANT STOP HIM!), you cant be a ninny.
Don't let your jealousy/envy make you look like a moron.
QUESTION: If you were given the opportunity to have his life, would you take it?
Well I like what you have said because it seemed just. I have no problems with Microsoft or it's products at all. I really don't understand why everyone else does, but that's ok because we all have our reasons. But to me Mr. Gates is just a nerd like you and I who actually made it. More jobs, more software, more computers, and in short more of the things that I like have come about because of what Microsoft and the likes have done. I am actually grateful for what they have done. I am equally grateful for Steve Jobs, and Linus, a fellow Finn, :) and anyone that has contributed to the vast power that I have at my fingertips as I type. People keep saying that Bill Gates has done some thing wrong, but what? I don't feel the effects... In other words as a consumer I'm not hurt at all. Maybe, like everyone keeps saying, in the future there will be trouble, but as of now I am doing fine. I still choose everytime i boot up my computer which OS I load and I use a variety, believe me, of OS's depending on what I want to do. in this world everything rises and falls. So will Microsoft one day fall and I will miss them, but others will come and I will welcome them. So what's the big deal, I as a Linux user will never admit that Microsoft is a monopoly, so that means there is no big deal after all...