Just watched some parts of the ‘Triumph of the Nerds’ videos on youtube. Wow, that was a real 80’s revisit! I just had to go and get my smart phone to order my groceries and listen to streamed radio on my tablet to bring me back to the modern day!
Ok, so lets start at the end and work back. The videos ultimately are working through the history of personal computers with the conclusion at the point where, and in the videos words ‘Apple no longer sets industry standards’ and presents Microsoft as the clear winner in the technological developments and commercial success.
It just shows how technology is continuously moving on and it would be a fascinating episode to develop this series to include the developments made in the 21st century. I wonder what the producers conclusion would be now of the major contributors to technological developments and Apples contribution and influence.
The videos have significant production value with contributions from so many of the key players of the personal computer evolution. This is an impressive collation of their thoughts and paints a picture of a couple of key things:
That the product has those who were technically brilliant and those who were brilliant at brand/sales. By combining these skills at a small time of history brough great opportunity it resulted with an explosion of success. Steve Jobs said that at 23 he was worth $1 Million; at 24 he was worth $10 million and at 25 he was worth $100 million
Moving on from point 1, after Jobs summarises his financial success he goes on to say it didn’t even matter as that was not the motivation. Bill Gates was motivated by success and not necessarily the financial reasons too. It was just success itself that was his motivation and this included taking other businesses under to succeed. Therefore, although a range of motivations, it is always the same quality…passion and not financially motivation by those individuals who first saw the potential of personal computers
The videos gave expression to the content that the written text might have struggled with, especially as there were so many interviews and contributions. Hearing it from ‘the horses’ mouth’ gives, I feel added value.
Going back to my introduction, although ‘tongue in cheek’ it did have a point to be made regarding the feel of the video. It had a real feel for that by-gone era which we can easily forget as having such relevance to the modern laptop that I am using to type this blog post. It also reminds us how early it still is in terms of our development of technology and that if this is how far we have gone in one generation, where will we be and what impact will technology have on our lives in say two more generations?
Triumph of the Nerds - Review
Just watched some parts of the ‘Triumph of the Nerds’ videos on youtube. Wow, that was a real 80’s revisit! I just had to go and get my smart phone to order my groceries and listen to streamed radio on my tablet to bring me back to the modern day!
Ok, so lets start at the end and work back. The videos ultimately are working through the history of personal computers with the conclusion at the point where, and in the videos words ‘Apple no longer sets industry standards’ and presents Microsoft as the clear winner in the technological developments and commercial success.
It just shows how technology is continuously moving on and it would be a fascinating episode to develop this series to include the developments made in the 21st century. I wonder what the producers conclusion would be now of the major contributors to technological developments and Apples contribution and influence.
The videos have significant production value with contributions from so many of the key players of the personal computer evolution. This is an impressive collation of their thoughts and paints a picture of a couple of key things:
The videos gave expression to the content that the written text might have struggled with, especially as there were so many interviews and contributions. Hearing it from ‘the horses’ mouth’ gives, I feel added value.
Going back to my introduction, although ‘tongue in cheek’ it did have a point to be made regarding the feel of the video. It had a real feel for that by-gone era which we can easily forget as having such relevance to the modern laptop that I am using to type this blog post. It also reminds us how early it still is in terms of our development of technology and that if this is how far we have gone in one generation, where will we be and what impact will technology have on our lives in say two more generations?
References:
Oregon Public Broadcasting. (1996). Triumph of the Nerds. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuBXbvl1Sg4. Last accessed 23rd March 2015.