Some of my first memories are of using my PC as a young kid
and trying to get connected to the Internet to play flash games. I still remember waiting patiently for my mom
to end her phone call so I could get online.
As a person born in the latter half of the 1990s, I grew up taking the
fact that every home had a PC for granted.
What I never realized was the fact that it took a select few companies,
and even just a few forward-thinking people, to make this reality possible.
Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft as a college dropout in 1975
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The
company’s total revenue by the end of 1976 was just $16,005. Today, Gates is
worth $90 billion and Microsoft has become the world’s largest PC software
company. In 1975, the idea that all
business people needed a computer was considered far-fetched, and the idea of
every home having a PC was even more so.
However, after Gates saw that kits were being made for
building affordable personal computers, he decided to start his own venture with a friend and write software. Gates took on role
as CEO and himself wrote much of Microsoft’s code.
 |
| Microsoft staff in 1978 |
Steve Jobs grew up in Los Altos, California and also bears
the title of ‘college-dropout'. However,
with a passion for electronics and a desire to change the world, he cofounded
Apple in 1976, almost a year to the day after Microsoft was founded. The revolutionary products rolled out by Jobs
and his company have completely changed the world. IPhones allow users to listen to music,
browse the internet, place calls, text anyone in the world – the list goes
on. All of these incredible advancements
in society were the result of a college dropout with an interest in a new type
of machine.
 |
| Jobs' childhood home in Los Altos, CA |
What is so exciting about computer science and its
intersection with the business industry is the power computing innovation has
on people all over the world. With just
a little ambition and some mechanical skills, ordinary people can take a hobby and use it to develop computers and software with unparalleled functionality.
It can also make you rich in the process. Indeed, never before in human history has
business and science come together to so suddenly create new industries and
the daily lives of people around the globe.
No comments:
Post a Comment