America 1982

"Hello, are you Jason White from Actor Software Company who came to 'connect' with me?" A male student whose laughter sounded a little thin stretched out his hand to Jason: "I am a female from Stanford University. Equality's Gary Goode, social work major."

Seeing Jason staring at him blankly, with no intention of shaking hands, Gary explained: "I'm kidding, that word is a pun."

"I know it's a pun. This is when you stretched out your hand, I hoped in my heart that I wasn't the one coming to pick you up. I thought the person coming to pick you up would be a girl." Jason White was disgusted with this person who was joking with him right away. The man said:

"If a girl makes a joke about sex to me, I will say she is frank, open, and the new leader of women. But if you are a man, I will say, stay away from me, you damn faggot!"

Gary laughed disapprovingly and led Jason towards the office space of the training company they provided: "I'm not gay, Jason, I'm just trying to let you understand that although we pursue female equality, most of the time members We are also able to make all kinds of jokes and are not always angry."

"If a girl stood in front of me and said what you said, I would cover my mouth happily. But now I cover my mouth because I don't want to spit out in disgust. A butt joke between men? Are you sure? Didn't you stay in this association for too long and have some inner changes? Go see a psychiatrist." Jason followed Gary as he approached the four mobile homes that looked more than ten years older than his grandmother:

"Where did you find these relics from the lost Atlantean period? I saw traces of various ancient languages ​​on the walls."

"That's a urine stain, Jason White." Gary reminded from the side.

Jason shot back: "That's sarcasm, Gary Goode."

Stanford University has a serious shortage of dormitories, and it also stipulates that freshmen must live in campus apartments and are not allowed to rent out apartments, ensuring that students can reach classrooms and libraries within ten minutes.

Therefore, college freshmen enjoy the best apartments and dormitories in the core area, while some old students who cannot get a normal apartment will live in a 3.8-meter * 18.3-meter standard mobile board set up in the core area of ​​the campus if they do not consider living on their own. Although the house has a bathroom, running water, and electricity, to put it bluntly, this thing is just an RV. No one wants to be a camper at Stanford University for a few years.

"Nine mobile dormitories were scrapped this year. Our association bought four. They were originally intended to be used as utility rooms, but now they have been renovated and used as training classrooms." Gary Goode opened the door of one of the dormitories. Then he immediately stepped away and said to Jason: "You can go in and visit and confirm whether it is enough to hold fifty computers."

Jason shook his head decisively: "The purpose of my visit, first, is to inspect the venue. The venue is provided by you, and the computer is provided by us, right? So the sanitation is your responsibility, and we will not pay the sanitation fee. I won't go in until the work is done. The second thing is that eight people are 1.7 meters tall, have blond hair, and preferably have sea-blue eyes. They like to wear skirts and have some experience with computers. Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't have them. The main thing is Girls who meet the first few conditions are handed over to me, and I will train them, and then they will train women who are eager to find jobs."

Gary asked in surprise: "When Renee talked about this, she only said that someone in the Hope Promotion Association was willing to use her spare time to serve as a training teacher. She did not mention those... appearance restrictions."

"I added that myself. You are the largest female campus organization at Stanford. Please, it's just some conditions that are easy to meet." Jason asked Gary seriously.

Gary shrugged: "Currently, 63% of the members of the Association are people of color. How do you expect to find eight pure-blooded white beauties in such an organization? If she is that kind of beauty, and countless men line up to pursue her, she still needs What kind of equality are you pursuing? The only one who meets your conditions is Renee Moore, Tommy's girlfriend."

"OK, the conditions are more relaxed. Female, brown or white, gentle, cheerful and beautiful. I don't discriminate against black people. I just... I can't see black women recently. By the way, these women can't have the word Marcus in their names. , thank you." After listening to Gary's words, Jason said a little disappointed, and then cursed in a low voice:

"I should have known fucking Tommy Hawke was lying to me!"

Ted drove a golf cart from a distance and shouted loudly before stopping the car: "Jason, where's that bastard Tommy?"

"Take his golden cat girlfriend for a ride, and then trick me into coming here to wipe his butt!" Jason cursed unhappily.

"Find him." Ted walked over and looked at Jason: "SSD's legal advisory firm received a lawyer's letter from the faraway city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, saying that your Actor company's software infringed Computer software copyright of Lotus Corporation."

…

When Tommy rushed back, Eric, Ted, Charles, Jason and several others were already waiting in the coffee shop closest to the fraternity house. Also present were SSD's legal counsel.

The reason why I chose this place instead of the fraternity house was mainly because I was waiting for the girl Holly Keener to come over later. It was not a party invitation. No one could enter or leave the fraternity house at will.

Actor Computer Software Company was a software company registered and established after Tommy received 50,000 yuan from the Entrepreneurship Center. Tommy held 70% of the shares, while Jason and Holly each held 15%.

"Don't worry, Tommy." Seeing Tommy walk in, Brotherhood Chairman Charles stood up and walked over, patted him on the shoulder, and said in as relaxed a tone as possible: "I have already told the law firm about the main work ahead. I’m here to help you get through this, and I’ll take care of the expenses. Even if you let your opponents go, the law firm we hire at a high price every year is not a freeloader.”

Tommy gratefully said to the other party: "Thank you, Charles, I will return it to the SSD as soon as I make money."

SSD has its own law firm that it cooperates with. For example, when Tom Proske or other members first started their business, in order to save money, they temporarily entrusted legal work to SSD's cooperative law firm. The same is true for Tommy's company, but usually most It was some consulting issues such as contract terms. This was the first time in the past two years that Tommy had encountered the trouble of being sent a lawyer's letter.

Moreover, the opponent is Lotus, a well-known company in the software industry. It has only been established for a year and a half. With its Lotus 1-2-3, it has conquered the software industry without any rivals, whether it is Microsoft's Multiplan or MicroPort's CalcStar. VisiCalc, which had the highest sales volume of Apple computers, was completely eliminated by it. In January 1983, the software was officially launched, and 300,000 units were sold in six months. This number may not seem amazing enough, but then multiply it by its unit price of US$495. After that, it was very scary, which meant that this company had achieved sales of nearly 150 million US dollars in half a year with just one piece of software.

"Tommy's software hasn't been released yet, so how does Lotus know about SSD-2?" After Tommy also sat down, Eric asked first: "It's weird, isn't it? It hasn't even finalized an official name. "

"If we didn't commercialize, would we save a lot of trouble? Just tell them that we don't sell, we just entertain ourselves and help others." Jason White looked at a few people and gave his own idea: "Otherwise … You know that kind of big companies are in trouble, I mean they have money to keep having lawyers in trouble, and if we spend all the startup funds, or SSD’s lawyer consulting fees, we can only close down, so we can make the software free , but the training fee is also profitable.”

"Office Smart Suite, or OSS for short. The first S stands for Stanford and the second S stands for SSD." After Tommy sat down, he drank coffee in silence. Hearing Eric's words, he looked at him and said with a smile, "What do you think? Sample?"

"Eric, it is no longer important to worry about how the other party knew. What needs to be considered is how to face it. At the same time, Tommy, I remind you that now is not the time to pay tribute. The other party asked you to stop development and hand over all Regarding the relevant codes and data, you have to tell us what you think so that everyone and the lawyers can help you." Seeing that Tommy didn't show any nervousness, Charles changed the topic back to the normal track and handed Tommy the lawyer's letter in his hand. .

Charles has presided over countless meetings and is very good at correcting the problem immediately when the brothers go off topic. His words also made several people present look at Tommy Hawke and nod repeatedly.

Those sitting here today are all brothers from the small circle of SSD Eric, the recruitment chairman. The so-called small circle means that SSD will subdivide into small groups due to different hobbies and interests. Some people like sports activities, and some like business activities. , some people like all kinds of social activities, because they have the same hobbies, they have more opportunities to meet each other than other brothers, and their relationship is closer.

Tommy didn't even read the lawyer's letter, but lit a cigarette. Anyway, the part-time worker in the cafe was a brother from SSD, and his wages were deducted when he was complained. He had already seen the part-time brother pointing his middle finger at him. care:

"I did plagiarize it, but the code has been changed. The other party was still so excited and confident of victory because he was misled in some way. Isn't Eric curious about how Lotus knew about this software?"

"So?" Charles' eyes lit up.

"I asked Holly to leak it to them on purpose." Tommy exhaled a puff of smoke and looked at everyone:

"The software is about to go on the market, and we don't have money to buy expensive advertising space in those computer magazines. What should we do? Find a fight with the most powerful one, pretend to be weak and innocent, and trick some reporters into giving us exclusive interviews. If the other party Challenge... Let those nerds at Harvard and MIT understand that Actor doesn't focus on software innovation at all, but, as its name suggests, it focuses on performing every scene."

First update~~