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"Secret" History of Silicon Valley (2008)

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Re: "Secret" History of Silicon Valley (2008)

#11

Post by WalterBright »

davee5 wrote: post #6
drmpeg wrote: post #5

I was part of this history, working for a military contractor from 1983 until 1992. From 1985 until 1990, I was project engineer for a complete rebuild of the DSP satellite system (NORAD missile warning) ground communications network. I consider it the peak of my engineering career. I got to go inside Cheyenne Mountain, got yelled at by a General when the system did something bad and he was called back from his vacat…

I was part of this history, when I graduated in 2003 (marginal timing) I took a gig at Northrop in Sunnyvale. I grew up in Silicon Valley as the grandkid of folks who lived in orchards (long gone by the time I showed up) and between this not- that -secret history of SV and idolizing the Skunk Works as a kid, I was pretty sure that I needed to be in the military industrial complex when I grew up. I consider it the nad…

> The machine they created to burn cash was a paragon of government waste, it represented everything that's wrong with that industry and I hated it.

Government operations always operate by fairly rigid bureaucratic rules, which can always be gamed like this.

Free markets, on the other hand, always have a corrective factor applied - people have to be willing to spend their own money to buy your product.

Re: "Secret" History of Silicon Valley (2008)

#12

Post by [deleted] »

WalterBright wrote: post #11
davee5 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was part of this history, when I graduated in 2003 (marginal timing) I took a gig at Northrop in Sunnyvale. I grew up in Silicon Valley as the grandkid of folks who lived in orchards (long gone by the time I showed up) and between this not- that -secret history of SV and idolizing the Skunk Works as a kid, I was pretty sure that I needed to be in the military industrial complex when I grew up. I consider it the nad…

> The machine they created to burn cash was a paragon of government waste, it represented everything that's wrong with that industry and I hated it. Government operations always operate by fairly rigid bureaucratic rules, which can always be gamed like this. Free markets, on the other hand, always have a corrective factor applied - people have to be willing to spend their own money to buy your product.

[deleted]

Re: "Secret" History of Silicon Valley (2008)

#14

Post by dcl »

nibepins wrote: post #10

"More details emerged from a Freedom of Information Act request in 2014, which revealed that Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt were not only on a first name basis with then-NSA chief General Keith Alexander, but that Google was part of a “secretive government initiative known as the Enduring Security Framework,” and that this initiative involved Silicon Valley partnering with the Pentagon and the US intelligence community…

Not an accountant or financial analyst, but how does the money these giant public tech companies make from the NSA/other appear in the mandatory financial reports? I'm guessing it must be easily hidden.

Re: "Secret" History of Silicon Valley (2008)

#17

Post by ido »

WalterBright wrote: post #11
davee5 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was part of this history, when I graduated in 2003 (marginal timing) I took a gig at Northrop in Sunnyvale. I grew up in Silicon Valley as the grandkid of folks who lived in orchards (long gone by the time I showed up) and between this not- that -secret history of SV and idolizing the Skunk Works as a kid, I was pretty sure that I needed to be in the military industrial complex when I grew up. I consider it the nad…

> The machine they created to burn cash was a paragon of government waste, it represented everything that's wrong with that industry and I hated it. Government operations always operate by fairly rigid bureaucratic rules, which can always be gamed like this. Free markets, on the other hand, always have a corrective factor applied - people have to be willing to spend their own money to buy your product.

    people have to be willing to spend their own money to 
    buy your product.
I would like to introduce you to the depressing world of Enterprise Software. Do you remember the old saying "nobody got fired for buying IBM"? Think about its origin & implications, all of which outlived the status IBM had at the time of that saying.

Re: "Secret" History of Silicon Valley (2008)

#19

Post by jabl »

This is a very interesting presentation.

On the topic of innovation policy, Mariana Mazzucato argues that governments should take a more active role in driving innovation towards particular goals. Be it electronic warfare / military electronics that begat Silicon Valley as detailed in this presentation by Steve Blank, or getting to the moon before the commies (Apollo program).

See her Ted presentation at https://www.ted.com/talks/mariana_mazzucato_government_inves... or her book "The Entrepreneurial State"

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