The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires

00:05:00 who hear the calling. Most other kids are watching TV

00:06:53 Their hobby is their business

00:09:12 For one thing, such logic CAN be understood

00:10:34 Operators required two days to program it do so.

00:12:12 and I could come up with my own solutions and feel good inside.

00:14:17 Knock, knock I knocked at the door but there's no door.

00:16:28 and you had to get permission to get close to them, and you know, nobody had access to computers.

00:18:28 This is an Altair computer - the first personal computer.

00:20:39 a solution in search of a problem.

00:22:23 It was a very exciting thing, it was probably the first thing the Altair actually did.

00:24:30 So called up Ed you know, we told him we've got this Basic and it's you know just for your machine, and it's, you know

00:26:14 And they lived across the street from MITS in the Sundowner Motel

00:28:32 and other companies like Processor Technology or Imsai or Comemco got going as add-on companies.

00:30:40 The California counter culture was crucial to the PC's development.

00:32:13 If they would come up to me and ask the question I can answer

00:33:52 For every one of those there were a thousand people that couldn't do that, but wanted to mess around with programming

00:35:30 At least the Intel boys had graduated from university and owned suits.

00:37:45 My recollection is we stole the show

00:39:32 and eh it was sort of a shock.

00:41:22 - Well let's say your initial costs have a hundred fixed costs at the beginning so now you have a minus twenty

00:43:12 - you know, they would take their credit cards and shove them in your face.

00:44:54 to allow him to loot the corporate pension fund and do a leverage buy-out.

00:47:01 And what about Ed Roberts?

00:49:02 yet within five years there had emerged here in Silicon Valley a billion dollar industry.