A Pirate's Life for Me

Finally! My personalized store at Amazon.com has actually recommended something that I would like to purchase. Pirates of the Silicon Valley is heading to DVD by the end of this month.

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 a success story unlike any other.

I've read a few books covering the early days of the personal computer boom. I find these stories fascinating. Though I have a gut feeling that, much like this made for teevee movie, these stories are most likely heavily exaggerated for full flavor.

I recommend reading Robert X. Cringely's Accidental Empires and to watch his PBS documentry Triumph of the Nerds. Andy Hertzfeld's gives his personal account of the origin of the Macintosh computer in his book Revolution in the Valley. Much of these stories can also be read at folklore.org. That picture of me in the right hand corner was inspired by this story from the book/website.