The Triumph of the Nerds Part 1

In the documentary “The triumph of the nerds” we saw the chronological events that happened in the technological boom that made the first computers possible and eventually transform the world in what we know it.

The technological breakthroughs we have had in the past couple of decades are impressive, if we remember that not a long time ago, computers were the size of a room and were only for government or research use. The idea of having a computer at home for your own personal use was simply out of the picture.

In the mid 70´s a corporation named MITS, developed a computer that was the size of a box (ALTAIR), this was the first personal computer that was available for the general public at an affordable price, and it was a huge success. The problem with the ALTAIR, was that nobody seemed to really find a useful application for it, and most people didn’t relay know how to use it, or had very limited knowledge of how it worked. Still it was a success because geeks were fascinated with the idea of having a computer at home, this was just awesome.

Steve Jobs and his team were developing a software that could transform the ALTAIR into a useful device, this was a huge success, people started finding useful the idea of owning a personal computer, at the beginning mostly for games.

In parallel, a few visionaries like Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak saw an opportunity to create a computer that could be selled and become a business success and started developing the Apple II, this computer had technology from the ALTAIR and the race to become leader in the market started.

Having a computer at home had to have a more interesting purpose such as solving business problems, so a group of people started developing software that could have a business application and very quickly the demand of the Apple II was immense, this was a key factor that made Steve Jobs and Bill Gates so rich.

Now a days computers are such an important part of our lives, and it is difficult to imagine life without them, all of this possible thanks to a group of people that had the motivation to change the world as we know it, this is what we are aiming as future software engineers, to change the world and advance in a technological way to expand our boundaries and to things that at some point were thought impossible.