Triumph of the Nerds Part I

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In class we saw a documentary called Triumph of the Nerds: Impressing their friends. This video is about the development and history of personal computers (PC's) and also of the innovative, creative and risky people who were in charge of introducing this industry to the world, laying the foundations and making it grow to be what we know today.
Although it's hard for us to imagine life without PC's, it was only a few decades ago that they came into the world and within everyone's reach.

The microprocessors are the reason why we can have a personal computer, although IBM manufactured the transistors, it was not IBM who created the first personal computer, it was actually Ed Roberts with his Altair 8800. Ed was the funder of MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemery Systems), the Altair 8800 was the first personal computer, consisted of switches and lights, for amateurs. This microcomputer aroused the curiosity and creativity of computer nerds, who sought to fully understand its operation and tried to take it to its limits.

Paul Allen and Bill Gates, wrote the first programming language for the Altair: Altair BASIC, after that they saw a great opportunity and potential in this emerging industry and they started a company called Microsoft, now we all know the success that company.

Someone who was very inspired from the rise of the Altair was Steve Wozniak, who along with Steve Jobs, began to build his own computer, with special features with great potential and quite innovative. Jobs 'the visionary', knew how to move in the business world and managed to get his small company Apple Computer to be successful, and of course, we also know that it has been from this company.

These geniuses made possible things that were previously unimaginable, from their creations arose applications such as VisiCalc, which have facilitated the lives of thousands of people and have revolutionized all industries.

The nerds triumphed, they became millionaire men, they have made a great contribution to humanity and have changed it completely, although at first they have only done it to impress their friends. Go and be a nerd in your garage!



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