Watch Pirates of Silicon Valley on TNT Tonight

[Zeov]

They should make a nr 2 movie

 

[MacVidCards]

Awesome - You did a great job - perhaps you can get involved with this proposed new movie?

I would love to but corporate realities and the film biz rarely work that way.

The fact that I worked on "Pirates" in the first place was sheer luck. I was hired as Art Department Set Decorating Leadman. When I met the designer I said "wow, did you know I actually sold all this stuff right from the get go?"

They had no idea, but I quickly became "the computer guy" for the show. Who else would know that many Apple IIs got connected to a C ITOH Prowriter or it's kissing cousin the NEC 8023A? That these dot matrix printers could do 120 CPS? Or that Apple soon saw their value and brought out their own version of the same thing?

I went to the Vintage Computer Fair in San Jose and FILLED a van up with old bits. I handed out my card and told people the movie was coming. Nobody was especially excited.

Apple was very much an also-ran at the time, but hOllywood still loved it. I recall that EVERYONE in production office had a Mac of some sort, EXCPET FOR THE ACCOUNTANTS. The lead accountant had a PC laptop that could play DVDs which was still some time away for Apple laptops.

I would love to hear from Sony and do the computers for their film. Due to the nature of IMDB I am pretty easily found, but I won't be waiting by my (i)phone.

 

[LarryC]

The reason is simple. At the time, Xerox was basically concentrated in one business: Copiers. To them, the idea that people might stop using paper and start using computers to do everything was beyond blasphemy -- it was simply unthinkable. Their decision to let Xerox PARC's ideas walk out the door was probably THE single biggest bad business decision of all time.

They developed the mouse, they developed the technology that became Adobe and they developed the technology that became the graphical user interface. And those are just the things that I am aware of. Can you imagine what a different world it would have been if the big whigs at Xerox had the foresight and the imagination to have developed these technologies and had actually done something with them themselves? The guys running Xerox at that time should be embarrassed and humiliated at their abysmal failures to actually do something with the brilliant discoveries made by their own research and development people. Just my opinion.

 

[AppleMacDudeG4]

Good movie

I remember seeing the movie back when it was brand new and I now have it on DVD. The movie itself is based loosely on the book, "Fire in the Valley" so there were a few creative elements to make some stories more entertaining.

Sent from my iPad, designed by Steve

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The reason is simple. At the time, Xerox was basically concentrated in one business: Copiers. To them, the idea that people might stop using paper and start using computers to do everything was beyond blasphemy -- it was simply unthinkable. Their decision to let Xerox PARC's ideas walk out the door was probably THE single biggest bad business decision of all time.

I have to agree with you about it being a bad idea for Xerox. There is a book titled "Fumbling the Future" which pretty much talks about that fact.

 

[nohaver]

Wait really?? I had no idea a movie on this topic was ever created. Not to mention with Dr. Carter playing the great architect. Instant Classic.