Ever hear of Ray Tomlinson? No? Well, thanks to Ray, millions upon millions of folks have an "@" symbol in their e-mail address. Today, Tomlinson is one of the unsung and un-rich early pioneers who helped solve the myriad problems presented by the dream of building a brave new world where computers round the world could talk to one another. In this 3-part sequel to the outstanding history of the personal computer, Triumph of the Nerds (VL-1/97), host Robert X. Cringeley once again offers a humorous, insightful, and engaging account of his subject, tracing the origins of the Internet to a technology developed by a small Massachusetts company named BB & N in order to operate a computer network called ARPAnet (first networked message: "l", the initial letter of "login" which appeared one letter at a time--and you think you have a slow connection) through the contributions of companies supplying network hardware and software (3Com, Cisco, Sun), to the true "killer app" of the Internet: Tim Berners-Lee's creation of the World Wide Web. Viewers will see a handful of nerdy kids in a living room be transformed in a matter of three years into multi-millionaires (the Excite bunch) with a bona fide company CEO (known in Silicon Valley as "adult supervision"), witness how Microsoft ate Netscape's lunch in the browser wars--possibly, pending the anti-trust trial decision, illegally--and discover that a fair amount of programming code these days is being written by electronic sweatshop nerds in India. While Nerds 2.0.1 lacks the grand narrative arc which made Triumph of the Nerds one of the best documentaries in recent years, it's still an entertaining and informative history of the Internet which is sure to be quite popular. Recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
Nerds 2.0.1
(1998) 3 videocassettes, 60 min. each. $39.98 ($89.95 w/PPR). PBS Video. Color cover. Closed captioned. ISBN: 0-7806-2301-0. Vol. 14, Issue 3
Nerds 2.0.1
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