IP: Triumph of the Nerds, 3-hour PBS Jun.12th special

[Dave Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

From: jwarren@well.com (Jim Warren)


[Inflicted on you because you know me.  Redistrib as desired.]


Computer nerds and nerd-alikes might wish to mark June 12th on their calendars.


PBS will air "Triumph of the Nerds" nationally on Wednesday, June 12th --
as a 3-hour special that they will be promoting as *the* PBS event for
June.  The host is Infoworld's "Robt Cringely" (a pseudonym) and is based
mo'less on his book, _Accidental Empires_, that discloses how many personal
computing personalities stumbled into successes.


In the show, Cringely interviews a number of microcomputing's "pioneers" --
including Bill Gates ... and even li'l ol' me -- seeking candid insights
and tales about the early daze <sic> of personal computing.


The 3-hour premier show will include scenes that will *not* appear in later
re-airings by various PBS stations, in snipped-down one-hour segments, nor
will they be included in the "Nerds" videotapes that PBS will offer for
sale.


My understanding is that, among other things, the one-time-only showing
will include some comments about Gates' notorious mid-1970s letter to
editors accusing computer hobbyists of being thieves, pirating the
life-blood of his little software company (i.e., duplicating the
paper-tapes of Microsoft's first BASIC interpreter that -- if memory serves
-- they were trying to sell for $350, for the MITS Altair 808-based
computer kit that cost $395).  Donno what other morstels will be included.




NERDS IN THE NUDE


Although the show was taped last fall, it follows a "tradition" later
developed for pubic figures in the San Francisco Bay area:


*  In December, shortly before San Francisco's mayorial election, ex-police
chief and then-Mayor Frank Jordan held a somewhat unusual photo-op.  He was
featured on front pages and teevee doing a nude shower interview with two
local disk-jockeys. The shots were tastefully(?) clipped slightly above the
jockey-shorts that Jordon was obviously not wearing.


*  Earlier this month, Stanford computer instructor and local
microprocessor consultant/author/wizard John Wharton gained national fame
as "Shower Man" when Dave Letterman chose him out of his Late Show audience
to send to the showers -- broadcasting Wharton continent-wide,
well-lathered in Letterman's shower where the show was produced during a
week's visit in San Francisco.


So ...




When the "Nerds" producers first interviewed me last year, planning what
they were going shoot with which of whom, I suggested doing the interview
in my [large] hot tub -- on my redwooded San Francisco Peninsula ridgetop,
overlooking about 100 miles of the Pacific.


I mean, after *all* -- we Silicon Valley / Californica <sic> types *do*
have our reputations to maintain.


(Actually, I had more in mind doing the initial *off*-camera interview with
the producer and very attractive assistant producer, who had properly
oooh'ed and ahhh'ed over the ho'tub and vistas, as I was showing them
around my mountaintop -- but that detracts from the story. :-)




They discussed the idea and came back saying that Cringely would just
*love* to do the ON-camera interview in the buff ... uh, in the ho'tub.
(Woppps! -- my bluff was called.)


I first said that I'd do it if all the video crew -- including, of course,
the attractive assistant producer -- were also sans threads ... but it was
a cool morning with wisps of fog flitting about, and for some strange
reason they seemed disinclined, so I relented.




Reasoned I:  I *should* honor the origins of my [questionable claims] to
such fame and accidental fortune.  After all --


*  I never would have gotten into computing in 1968, had I not been looking
for work ... after resigning (upon request) from chairing the Math Dept at
the College of Notre Dame, a catholic girls' college where the nun who was
President somehow felt that the huge nude parties I was convening at my
mountain home, not far from the area's nude beach, were somehow
incompatible with the philosophy of a Catholic girls' school -- especially
after rumors about the events began to spread through the student body [so
to speak] ... in a college where many of the parents appeared to be doing
everying possible to delay daughters' becoming women long enough to marry
them off.


[Hey! -- remember ... those hippie '60s were different times, back when
Newt was smokin' dope and Willie wasn't inhaling.  And no, I did not make a
practice of inviting my students, and not even one of the Sisters ever
attended -- though some of the lay faculty joined in.]


*  And for the seven years that I ran the Computer Faires and
InfoWorld-to-be -- or they ran me -- clothing was always optional around
our mountaintop compound, and the pool and ho'tub were popular in slack
times, often sans slacks (ahhh, to return to the girth of those times :-).


[You shoulda seen the UPS delivery guy when he walked into the office one
day, only to find my completely-tanned, voluptuous young bookeeper and me
consulting in the all-together with my office manager -- whom he knew was
also my bookeeper's mother, and my next-door neighbor and good friend!  We
just turned casually, smiled brightly, and pointed to the outgoing
packages.]




[Back on topic]  So with their "Nerds" camera rolling, Cringely and I began
chatting about ISDN versus Frame Relay ... and stripped to zip.  Once in
the ho'tub, in place of coy camera angles, I turned on the bubbles for
strategic opacity ("Bubbles, Bob?", asked I :-).


You'll have to watch PBS on June 12th to, uh, see the rest.


Somehow, I suspect that Bellevue Bill's interview was probably conducted
with more mundane "style" ... but who knows.  Guess we'll just have to wait
for the movie.




And oh yes -- Cringely tells me:
>The shows have already run in England to great acclaim (our tub scene was
>especially popular).  The series has also been sold to networks in Ireland,
>Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Holland, Czech & Slovak Reps, Croatia, Hong Kong,
>Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, South Africa, British Airways (inflight), and
>a couple of others I can't remember.




I guess this will sorta blow my cover.  :-)  But then again, I'm not
planning to run for office ... and I *am* a WYSIWYG sorta guy.


--jim
Jim Warren, GovAccess list-owner/editor, advocate & columnist (jwarren@well.com)
345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/<# upon request>


[puffery:  John Dvorak Lifetime Achievement Award (1995); James Madison
Freedom-of-Information Award, Soc. of Prof. Journalists - Nor.Cal. (1994);
Hugh M. Hefner First-Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation (1994);
Pioneer Award, Electronic Frontier Foundation (its first year, 1992);
founded the Computers, Freedom & Privacy confs, InfoWorld; blah blah blah :-).]




Hmmm, I wonder if ex-Mayor Jordon would like to come to my next nude party
-- now that Willie Brown is Mayor.  (Come to think of it though, by
reputation, Willie would probably be the one more likely to attend. :-)