
How Two Bored 1970s Housewives Helped Create the PC Industry (2015) - signa11
https://www.fastcompany.com/3047428/how-two-bored-1970s-housewives-helped-create-the-pc-industry
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jandrese
I love the part where the engineer suggests naming the company "Vector
Graphics" because that was what he wanted to build, but never got around to
making it.

Kind of a shame the board decided to fight IBM head on instead of adapting to
build clones. It seems like they were just enjoying their fat margins a bit
too much to want to change, and then it was too late.

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lucas_membrane
My recollection is that there was a Vector Graphics in Woodland Hills in the
San Fernando Valley around 1972 that was doing something with high-resolution
black-and-white video graphics powered by a PDP-8 or something similar. Was
that a previous enterprise by any of the same people? Maybe my recollection is
in error???

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sohkamyung
Perhaps you are thinking of Vector General, Inc. which is located in Woodland
Hills? [1]

[1] [https://companiesmd.com/company/F01641729/vector-general-
inc...](https://companiesmd.com/company/F01641729/vector-general-inc.html)

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tyingq
Great story, but the ads on this site are super aggressive. Enough so that I
didn't finish the story. Pop ups, interstitials, and even redirects to other
sites. Fastcompany... seriously? You're blacklisted now.

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privacypoller
I always forget the "typical" web experience until I use one of my kid's
android tablets, but uBlock Origin is truly your friend for sites like this.
It makes the web sane again!

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_JamesA_
For their safety and sanity you may want to set up a network-wide ad blocker
like Pi-hole [1].

[1]: [https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole](https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole)

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dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9929333](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9929333)

~~~
mark-r
Thanks for digging that up - I made a couple of comments on that thread. I
remember Vector Graphics fondly, but I don't remember knowing about their
female-dominated management structure. I only knew they made good products.

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JBlue42
Sounds a lot like the first season of 'Halt and Catch Fire'.

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bdefore
Endlessly playing video which follows the main body of text you're trying to
read, just to the right of the article. Distracting and with no relation to
the content. If you hover over it to show an interface you can hit pause, but
then the video restarts as soon as you scroll. It appears to only show once -
after a reload the video is not shown - which makes me think it only affects
first time visitors. But what a terrible impression to make alongside what is
a thoughtfully researched piece.

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solidsnack9000
Firefox Focus might be the browser for you.

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vinceguidry
Can I install it on Linux?

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GranPC
Yeah - but it's only available for one distro: Android.

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petecox
f-droid and anbox.io to the rescue?

