
Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong - wyday
http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/
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ssn
Just posted online: <http://videolectures.net/cikm08_blank_tshosv/>

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yef
So it took more than just a first rate university and rich people to create
Silicon Valley.

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javanix
These articles are fascinating - does anyone know of a good book that goes
into more depth?

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sblank
Reading list for the Secret History series is here:
<http://steveblank.com/secret-history/>

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zandorg
No mention of Turing and Bletchley park cracking the Enigma code?

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rjurney
There wouldn't be, since that relates to submarines and not air defense, and
he is talking about the allied bombing campaigns and microwave device
manufacturing as a catalyst to silicon valley's development.

Enigma was a naval code and is unrelated to silicon valley's history.

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peregrine
So what he's saying is that startup mentality won world war two.

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Rod
I think it would be more accurate to say that what won WWII (in Europe, at
least) was the Red Army. The best thing that happened to occupied Western
Europe was the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Let us show some respect for the
millions of Russians who died fighting the Nazis...

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philwelch
To be fair, all three major allies were essential:

1\. The US kept Britain and Russia going with aid throughout the war,
including food. Khrushchev's memoirs supposedly credited SPAM (the processed
canned pork) with keeping the Soviet army alive in WWII.

2\. Russia absorbed most of Germany's military might and destroyed it, at
great cost to themselves. Their contribution was not that they suffered more
than the others (though they did), but that they killed more Germans than the
others (though by the time they turned around and invaded Germany,

3\. Britain brought much of the Empire's forces to bear on the western front,
kept the northern sea lanes open for American supply convoys, and halted
German expansion on the Western front by denying them entry to Britain itself.
It's quite remarkable--Russia defended its territory with costly, genocidal
scorched earth policies and millions of deaths, while Britain was protected
from the first German bootstep by the English Channel, radar, and the Royal
Air Force.

Oh, I forgot to mention--Britain also broke Enigma.

Furthermore, Russia and Britain only gave salutary support in the Pacific War,
for entirely understandable reasons.

It should also be noted that while all the allies engaged in some degree of
war crimes, the Soviets were the worst offenders in that category as well. I
am loath to show respect for Red Army pilots who strafed columns of evacuating
German civilians, or Red Army soldiers who raped and murdered whatever Germans
they could find. Likewise, many of the Soviets' own civilian losses were their
own fault (through scorched earth policies).

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slackenerny
_Oh, I forgot to mention--Britain also broke Enigma._

Polish 1930's Cipher Bureau would beg to disagree, having working deciphering
procedures as early as in middle 30's. Turing's "Bombe" design closely
followed Polish prototype cryptologic bomb and was named after it. You may
want to read up about "Polish gift" Brits received after the war broke.

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philwelch
Heh, I _knew_ that but you are right to accuse me of forgetting Poland.

