Pirates of Silicon Valley
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:19:00
It was where guys
spent all their spare time...

:19:02
... trying to get access to computers
owned by the local corporations.

:19:06
And people would go there
and show the stuff they just built.

:19:09
Except most of it
didn't really work all that well.

:19:12
- Read in the Popular Electronics
issue about a year ago...

:19:15
...about the new Altair 8800.
:19:18
I was nervous that day we walked
in with my homemade computer...

:19:22
... but I got a charge out of it.
All those guys...

:19:25
... coming over and wanting
to talk to me.

:19:30
The schematics we have...
:19:33
- What is this thing?
- Check it out.

:19:35
The first computer
you're ever gonna see.

:19:37
What's the screen for?
:19:38
I was never good at talking
to people in those days...

:19:41
... but Steve, he was amazing.
:19:44
Alexander Graham Bell when he heard his
first ring, that's as revolutionary as this is.

:19:48
He's talking about the Altair? I never
had a problem till I tried to use it.

:19:52
All of a sudden we found out what
we wanted to do with our lives.

:19:56
- It was all we ever wanted.
- To 30.

:19:58
Here is the first personal computer
that you're gonna wanna buy.

:20:06
Man, 50! We sold 50.
:20:09
IBM is gonna be
loading in their pants.

:20:12
I don't even think
IBM knows who we are.

:20:14
Good. This is guerrilla warfare.
:20:17
- They're the enemy.
- They are?

:20:20
I used to think maybe Steve was
born obsessed with wiping out IBM.

:20:24
And in a way, you could see why.
:20:26
I mean, in those days,
as far as we were concerned...

:20:28
...IBM was practically
like the Pentagon.

:20:33
Here were a bunch of guys
who dressed exactly the same...

:20:36
... and sang company songs.
:20:46
I mean, we were
these scruffy crazies...

:20:48
... messing around with computer stuff
the IBM guys thought was, like, toys.

:20:52
But what did they know?

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