

PBS: Triumph of the Nerds - andres
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6861551048480702569&q=triumph+of+the+nerds&total=71&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2
1996 PBS documentary<p>here's part 1 of 6-
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ZLZsGAfYU" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ZLZsGAfYU</a>
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iamwil
I unfortunately frittered away the morning watching all three episodes, not
knowing that it only went up the mid-90's. I'd like to see Cringley do another
one for a commentary in the last 10 years.

It's funny how things have changed. Towards the end when they were talking
about the uncertain future, as a viewer I felt like someone from the future
that traveled back in time. They talked about, what's the next company to
dominate? I wanted to say "Google!" at the screen.

One thing that I was kind of surprised about was that both microsoft and apple
were both seen as "the little guy" against the big IBM. Only apple, however,
seemed to mature its image to the "hip revolutionary" whereas Microsoft grew
to be viewed as "borgish"

I see the same type of attitude change for Google in the last year. Often
called "industry darling" last year, Google started getting bits and pieces of
flack. You can't please everyone, naturally, but the whimper has intensified,
especially after PG's "MS is dead" article, which put Google in everyone's
sights. It's easier to collectively hate the big guy.

On a separate note, it would seem from microsoft's actions of winning the
browser wars and letting IE languish, etc. that they really just didn't get
and missed out on the boat with search and the internet. Surprisingly, Bill
was on guard the whole time. He was paranoid about the Next Big Thing, and
surrounded himself with a ton of smart people and always looking to dip into
different markets. And still, with that kind of vigilance, search engines
slipped through.

So in a way, that's a bit reassuring (for us at hacker news), that in our fast
paced technological push, there's always room to create new markets within a
single lifetime. And PG's probably right that big companies have more to fear
from us the unknowns rather than other big companies--and it's not just
because he's enamored with startups.

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ALee
Thank the lord someone uploaded this. I've been looking for this PBS
documentary for quite some time. Still looking for the sequel though: "Nerds
2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet."

