America 1982

In the linear algebra class, Jason and Tommy sat quietly in the last row, but they still could not avoid being the most eye-catching presence in this large classroom that accommodated more than ninety students.

From time to time, students turned their heads and looked at the two of them with a smile.

"Thank you, Jason, for giving me such an intuitive understanding of Spanish food." Tommy was now wearing a Spanish restaurant's bloated doll promotional clothes, dressing himself up as a Spanish ham, staring at the podium, and his voice was desperate. Said to Jason, who was dressed as a fried cheese roll next to him: "I told you to stay awake."

Jason knew he was in the wrong, so he could only comfort Tommy and said: "Look on the bright side, Boss, if we wear these two outfits to class, maybe the restaurant owner will be willing to pay us a small part-time advertising fee, and we don't have to compete with other people." Like those bastards, they were treated like transvestites.”

After missing out on women's clothing, Jason finally thought of another way to get clothes. He said that the Spanish restaurant where he worked part-time placed two advertising doll models outside the teaching building, so in the end he took Tommy and the two of them wrapped in blankets. He ran outside the teaching building, took off the doll's clothes from the model, and put them on himself. This is why the two of them became the most eye-catching presence in the classroom.

The reason why you wear this kind of clothes to class on time and don't want to go back to the dormitory to change clothes is mainly because Stanford University values ​​students' attendance and homework completion rates. These will eventually be converted into your overall score in the university. Every time you are late and every time you are absent from class, , every time you fail to complete your homework on time, it will silently lower your overall score. Then when your score drops to a critical value, you will receive a dismissal notice from the university, indicating that your score is no longer eligible for admission. Get an education here.

Time is spent in constant torture. This kind of torture is not to say that SSD has designed many means of deliberately torturing people, but as a freshman, you have to go to class on time, complete the massive homework assigned by the professor, review in advance to prepare for the exam, almost every day. They have to be busy until eleven o'clock or even later. At the same time, they have to find time to read the fraternity's newcomer handbook and memorize the Greek letters, various rules and clauses in it, because the fraternity also has The rookies will be tested every week to see if they remember the rules. If they can't remember, it means they don't pay enough attention to the fraternity. If you fail the exam twice in a row, you can say goodbye to the fraternity.

So rather than the pressure of studying and boring memorizing manuals, those nonsensical and stupid tasks are more like decompression activities to prevent them from going crazy under the pressure.

For example, wearing a large knitted jacket, and throwing out a thread and tying it to a deer, and then the deer will be let go. Well, at this time you need to chase the deer madly to untie the thread or keep a distance, so as to avoid wearing only the thread on your body. In some cases, the coat becomes thinner and thinner as the threads are pulled further apart, until eventually the coat is completely naked.

Or they accidentally ingested laxatives without knowing it, and then the nine rookies were forcibly taken to a location one thousand meters away from the nearest toilet, ready to run wildly to go to the toilet. When they finally reached the toilet, suppressing the desire to excrete, Only to find out that there were only five pits, the last four rookies who arrived could only howl in despair.

In the constant teasing and pranks, the veterans began to become warm to the rookies. After all, the fraternity is just a student club. It just devised various methods, rituals and gimmicks to make itself look older. , it’s just more mysterious. When they see the rookies working hard to join them, they will not be stingy with all kinds of kindness and are willing to provide all kinds of help.

For example, I learned that Jason had received a warning from his professor because he repeated 50% of his classmates' answers on a certain assignment. Several veterans would spend several hours teaching him step by step how to write a letter of appeal to the school and explain to the professor that Jason Jason did not plagiarize, but the other party plagiarized Jason without his knowledge, and successfully made the professor withdraw the warning.

When some rookies need technical support, veterans who happen to have time will be willing to help solve technical problems. For example, Tommy left only one computer and moved the other four to the fraternity house. Give the ideas you want, ask everyone to help provide technical support, and listen to their feedback.

"Tommy, I think your idea of ​​​​this thing is the same as Shit. There is no innovation." Eric sat in front of the computer, stopped, lit a cigarette, and then smashed the cigarette case next to him who was concentrating on typing code. Tommy said: "You are just copying the functions of those software. Those software are already on the market. What is the purpose of doing this?"

Tommy took the cigarette and lit it: "What I want to do is not just copy, but also add a more complete user experience to these software. For example, at this time, this software temporarily named SSD-2, in my thinking, I want to get rid of it. The chart drawing function and database management function of Louts1-2-3 only retain the core spreadsheet function and improve it, adding functions such as automatic calculation and filling, and then also improve the electronic document function of WordStar, adding some such as Putting in shortcut functions such as word search, automatic segmentation, and adding footnotes, I basically copied them, but the finished product was easier to use and faster than them."

"The word search function sounds good, but WordStar doesn't seem to have this function." Eric was stunned for a moment when he heard Tommy's words, and then said: "Every time I use the computer to finish writing, I want to look up a certain word in my homework. Whether you made a mistake or not, you can only look for it line by line with your eyes wide open. Frankly speaking, just this function makes me expect a lot more from the shit you created."

These functions that stood out to Eric were summarized by Tommy Hawke after using most of the office software on the market during this period and recalling the basic functions of Word, Excel and other software that had already developed maturely in his previous life. Although there are many types of document software and spreadsheet software today, their functions are still very rudimentary. Generally speaking, subsequent updates of this kind of office software rely on user feedback to decide to add or adjust certain functions. As Tommy The only opportunity for a time traveler to overtake in corners is that he has used very mature similar software and knows that these software lack many practical functions at this time.

However, some functions can be realized, and some cannot be realized temporarily due to the development of science and technology. However, several convenient functions he just proposed can already be realized relying on existing technology.

He never thought about developing a brand new software. He just hoped to develop a software that was simpler than other office software in the world, with a lower difficulty of getting started, that could be as compatible as possible with opening files of other similar software, and that could be the cheapest and best-selling software. runs successfully on a personal computer.

"Do you know how much a white-collar worker who knows how to use Louts1-2-3 earns per week? As long as he memorizes more than 600 key combinations, he can earn nearly 300 per week and be regarded as a computer genius by his boss. Come on, even those developers of office software are emphasizing this point intentionally or unintentionally, showing the professionalism of the software. It seems that as long as you can operate their software, you can become an elite. And I am ready to expose their mask, that is this thing There is no technical content in the operation. I will try to keep the operation manual to only ten pages, so that a housewife can use this software to complete the same work as those elites by memorizing it, and we must be compatible with the files of those software.” Tommy looked at the computer screen and said to Eric:

"This will allow the capitalist to clearly see that with our software, a housewife who graduated from high school can complete the same job with just a little training. It is nothing more than simple. There is no technical content in tabulation or typing, and it is more difficult for a housewife to prepare dinner for two children.”

Eric sat back in front of the computer, picked up the notebook that Tommy had used to record various test data, looked at the dense text on it, and said: "So this is what you should do when you are ready to sell this software after the development is completed. The selling points that big companies talk about? An improved version of Louts plus WordStar?"

"No, I didn't think about relying on professional computer magazines to advertise and sell to big companies. I actually wanted to set a suitable price and fool those housewives who were eager to make some money, telling them that they could earn the same weekly income as white-collar elites. As long as they are willing to buy and learn our relatively simple software and learn it, when they want to find a job, they don’t have to think that they can only work as a waitress in a fast food restaurant. Instead, they can put on a decent skirt and go to various places. For a company interview, you may be able to help a law firm process various contract documents, or help an accounting firm process various financial statements and other decent work. Yes, with these two functions, document processing and form processing, compared to Louts1-2- 3 One less. I visited ten alumni companies in Silicon Valley last Saturday to do a survey and found that the ten companies have a total of 320 office computers. 87% of the computers mainly use these two office software. Each Companies need people to handle a lot of documents and forms." Tommy said to Eric:

"You just asked me about the purpose of doing this? My purpose is to turn this seemingly high-end job into a popular skill that everyone can master, and make some money from it. But first, I need your help. First Help me implement these functions.”

"No, you first have to help us win the rookie competition tonight, Maggot Tommy." The rookie manager appeared outside Eric's room at this time. Hearing Tommy's last words, the interface said : "You said your table tennis skills are good, right? So I signed up for Ping Pong Vodka for you."