For Eric and Azadeh and bds and all you other geeks out there.

I have no idea if you share my interest in the history of the electronics revolution and how it all came to be. But PBS has an excellent documentary running now called "Silicon Valley".
It takes you through the era from when Bell Labs invented the transistor up to the invention of the microprocessor. It's good stuff. Some really interesting individuals made all this happen. And how it happened is equally interesting.

I guess nobody cares about this. But there's something you should know.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs may be household names around the world.
But there is an individual you never heard of who was far more responsible for changing the world over the last 50 years than those two put together. And arguably anyone else for that matter.

Bob wrote:I guess nobody cares about this. But there's something you should know.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs may be household names around the world.
But there is an individual you never heard of who was far more responsible for changing the world over the last 50 years than those two put together. And arguably anyone else for that matter.

Robert Noyce!

But I didn't really know who that was, I just reversed imaged it.

I would love to see that show. Stuff like that really intrigues me. I will check it out. Thanks for letting us know about the show.

I'll try to find it if it's repeated. IF you know when it will be on again, please let me know so I can watch/record it..

What Robert Noyce contributed to our world is the thing that made it possible for a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs to even exist. But what he contributed is so much bigger than that. It's what made it possible for human beings to go to the moon. But it's much bigger than that even. It's what made it possible for everyone reading this here to be communicating with each other right now and so many other significant changes to our world we now take for granted that it would be impossible to even list them all.

An argument could realistically be made that his contribution changed the world for now and forever more than any other figure in human history.
And very few people know who he was or why that is.
It's just astounding.

But I need to add this. Just like with Thomas Edison, Noyce didn't do it all by himself. Just like Edison, he accomplished what he did by being the leader of a team effort.
Maybe in the time of Isaac Newton you could say those changes were made by a single individual working alone. But once the world reached the complexity level of the 20th Century that all ended. And now all the big advances and changes in technology will likely always come from teams of people. And Edison and Noyce were the co-inventors of that concept.

Thanks for the info Bob.

Have you ever researched Nikola Tesla

alecto wrote:

Have you ever researched Nikola Tesla

Unfortunately my knowledge of the pioneers of science and technology is limited, alecto. The little I have learned about it all has always come in a roundabout way with no discipline to it.
Yes I know who Tesla was and what his contributions were but only in a cursory way. Same goes for most of the others.

But about 15 years ago I happened onto an opportunity to obtain many examples of the first microcomputers. I did not do this because of any real interest in it. I did it in anticipation of making money off of it (which I was able to do). But somewhere along the line that sparked an obsessive curiousity in wanting to know how it all developed. Simply because it has had such a profound effect on all our lives including my own. And I've maintained that interest until now.

Here's the PBS page on it, azadeh and alecto. But there's no indication it can be streamed at this time. So if you have a DVR I would search for the next showing of it (if there is one soon). The title of it on my DVR is "Silicon Valley - American Experience".

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/trailer/silicon-valley-preview/

Bob wrote:Here's the PBS page on it, azadeh and alecto. But there's no indication it can be streamed at this time. So if you have a DVR I would search for the next showing of it (if there is one soon). The title of it on my DVR is "Silicon Valley - American Experience".

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/trailer/silicon-valley-preview/

Thanks Bob gonna try and find it. looks like a very interesting show.

I just did a search on my DVR and it will repeat on Sunday 2/10 at 1AM on WSRE.

Bob wrote:I just did a search on my DVR and it will repeat on Sunday 2/10 at 1AM on WSRE.

I don't have cable TV but found it on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxUTR48KRVg

Okay, I cannot figure out how to embed the video. Oops! Been a long time since I've been here. I chose "embed" on YouTube page but no dice. Clicked on video icon and plugged the url in there, still no embedded video. WTF?

It's also on PBS.org

http://video.pbs.org/video/2332168287


Edit: Thanks EE!

Thanks EE. I went back and edited it in my original post.

Azadeh wrote:Edit: Thanks EE!

I was having trouble posting it too, but another poster said the other day that you search in YouTube for the video and copy the URL from the link in the search listing. That didn't work, but I saw https:... and I remembered that sometimes if you delete the s letter, it will work. It worked.

Azadeh wrote:Thanks EE. I went back and edited it in my original post.

I SAW that... you're welcome. I posted part 1 but saw it was only 3 minutes or so, but found the long version in the search list on YouTube. Changed it real quickly.

Yomama wrote:

Azadeh wrote:Thanks EE. I went back and edited it in my original post.

I SAW that... you're welcome. I posted part 1 but saw it was only 3 minutes or so, but found the long version in the search list on YouTube. Changed it real quickly.

It's weird. I didn't have to delete the "s" in "https" to get it to work. Just pasted it in Flash like you did.

Glad to see that PBS also has it online so's I can watch it tonight.

Azadeh wrote:

Yomama wrote:

Azadeh wrote:Thanks EE. I went back and edited it in my original post.

I SAW that... you're welcome. I posted part 1 but saw it was only 3 minutes or so, but found the long version in the search list on YouTube. Changed it real quickly.

It's weird. I didn't have to delete the "s" in "https" to get it to work. Just pasted it in Flash like you did.

Glad to see that PBS also has it online so's I can watch it tonight.

[img][/img]

How you a doin babe<said in elvis voice lol

Chrissy wrote:

Azadeh wrote:

Yomama wrote:

Azadeh wrote:Thanks EE. I went back and edited it in my original post.

I SAW that... you're welcome. I posted part 1 but saw it was only 3 minutes or so, but found the long version in the search list on YouTube. Changed it real quickly.

It's weird. I didn't have to delete the "s" in "https" to get it to work. Just pasted it in Flash like you did.

Glad to see that PBS also has it online so's I can watch it tonight.

[img][/img]

How you a doin babe<said in elvis voice lol

Hey Chrissy! How are ya?

Azadeh wrote:

Chrissy wrote:

Azadeh wrote:

Yomama wrote:

Azadeh wrote:Thanks EE. I went back and edited it in my original post.

I SAW that... you're welcome. I posted part 1 but saw it was only 3 minutes or so, but found the long version in the search list on YouTube. Changed it real quickly.

It's weird. I didn't have to delete the "s" in "https" to get it to work. Just pasted it in Flash like you did.

Glad to see that PBS also has it online so's I can watch it tonight.

[img][/img]

How you a doin babe<said in elvis voice lol

Hey Chrissy! How are ya?

Im fine sweet thing. good to see you. yum yum honey

Chrissy wrote:

Im fine sweet thing. good to see you. yum yum honey

LOL Where did you get that cool emoticon?