CEDu581 Computer Architecture: Week 2

Watching the second half of the Revenge of the Nerds video was fascinating to me as I followed along with this historic time line involving IBM, Microsoft, Seattle Computers, Intel, and Compaq. Some of the seemingly minor decisions regarding copyright, company purchases, and software purchases have developed into major corporate and computing history. Microsoft buying the rights to an operating system for IBM for $50,000 (I found further reading at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Computer_Products and posted the cool business card from SCP!) from SCP is amazing. This strikes me as analogous to buying Manhattan for $28 and buying the Louisiana Territory for $15 million.

The reverse engineering done by Compaq is also historic, not only in how it was done, but in its legality. Taking on IBM was gutsy and there are many other people and companies that are doing with right now as they take on Microsoft. Going back through corporate history, I find it amazing how companies who once dominated their industry (Woolworth, Sears, K-Mart, GM, Chrysler, etc.) are either in decline, bought out, or bankrupt. Who will it be next?

I recall my older cousin, Johnny, getting a job with IBM in Rochester, Minnesota, immediately upon his college graduation from UW-LaCrosse in 1975. Everyone in my family was in awe of him and his computing acumen. Even though I had no interest in computer hardware or software at the time, I was impressed with the immediate success he came upon by virtue of his hard work in earning his college degree. Johnny was the first one in my family to earn a bachelors degree and he certainly was a role model for me as I became the second to earn a degree in 1983.

I now have a better understanding of how Microsoft grew to dominate the operating system industry. Because Gates had the rights to sell software to all PC manufacturers in the mid-1980s, his company grew unbelievably fast. Our society's fascination with his management style, software prowess, and wealth is more understandable to me after watching these videos. I am now very curious about LINUX and open-source software and how they affect Microsoft's future growth.

CEDu581 Computer Architecture: Week 1

I found it fascinating to realize that, at age 47, I actually have quite a personal history with computers. As a business education teacher, I tend to always look to where we are going with computers in the future. It was fun and fascinating to look back on my background with computers, going back to Marquette U in the early 1980's to my family and retail use of computers over the years to my current use of computers as an educator. The Computer History Forum that we all participated in was interesting in that many of us share similar experiences, whether that be frustration with the early days of programing to the middle year issues of computer speed and capability to our modern-day issues of more power and applications.

I particularly enjoyed the "Triumph of the Nerds" videos as they really brought home how far we have come with personal computer hardware and software. Again, as a business teacher who works with students on stocks and investing, I now look at companies such as Apple, Intel, and Microsoft through different lenses. It is truly amazing how those companies are so young and yet have come to so far in terms of market penetration and market capitalization. As of the end of today, Apple has a market cap of $109.68 billion and Microsoft is at $178.53 billion. Not bad for companies started by "Nerds" in garages in the 1970s! I certainly intend on sharing some of this information with my future Computer Applications and Financial Life Skills students.

Finally, I found the list of companies from the Computer History Museum to be much broader than I expected. I guess I never thought of Timex and Seiko to be in that category, but it makes perfect sense that they are. Secondly, as a student of retailing, I was interested to learn that Commodore went bankrupt in 1994 and Atari was done by 1996. Sharp was the creator of Ever-Sharp pencils, the first all-transistor desktop calculator, and made microwaves that I have sold and used. At the family hardware store, we sold AT & T phones, GE light bulbs and toaster ovens, Hitachi breadmakers, Mitsubishi portable generators, Philips, Sylvania, and Westinghouse light bulbs, Rockwell drills, and utilized a Siemens point-of-sale system for 7 years. Wow! What diversification for these corporations.