Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 620 National Technology Award and FBI Investigation
Just like in the original time and space, the company founded by Jobs was called "NeXT", and Paul Rand, a famous graphic design master who was 71 years old this year, was specially invited to design the company's logo.

You must know that the license for Paul Rand's works in the IT field has been secured by IBM long ago. Fangyuan Computer Company had not been able to invite it before, but Jobs relied on his persistent efforts to get Big Blue to agree to let it go. .

This also reflects from the side that now that Jobs is flying solo, no one will be afraid to look into his eyes.

Paul Rand, an old man with a full personality, had a good temper with Jobs, and after a heart-to-heart talk, he took over the business.As a rule, Jobs paid $10.

Don’t think that this fee is not a big deal—first of all, without Apple as a backing, Jobs has to pay for it himself; second, this is Paul Rand’s rule. Whether you like it or not, it's worth $10.

In other words, the money that Jobs spent was a bit of a gamble, and in the end there was a high probability that the $10 would be wasted because it was not what he wanted.

This is where the value of a master lies. Even if you are dissatisfied, you can spit on a golden nail, and the value will never be shaken.

Fortunately, Paul Rand designed the trademark "NeXT" for "next", which is very suitable for Jobs' appetite-the word is divided into two lines and filled on the side of the cube, only the "e" is lowercase, Standing out from the whole word, it is interpreted as "education", "excellence", and "Einstein's mass-energy equation e is equal to m times c to the power of 2".

From the trivial matter of the trademark, it is not difficult to see that Jobs' paranoia has become more and more serious.

When I heard the other party proudly showing off: "Big MAC" is also "NeXT" computer, the shape will be a perfect cube, each side is exactly equal to one foot long, and each corner is no more than 90 Spend.

Tang Huan grinned secretly, thinking: Isn't this just looking for trouble.

Anyone with a little knowledge of process design will understand that it is relatively difficult to produce a perfect cube, because most of the molded parts are not pure right angles, but slightly more than 90 degrees, so that the parts can be easily from out of the mold.

In addition, the existing circuit board design fits naturally into the traditional cuboid shape, and nothing is found out of place; changing to a square would be self-defeating.

Some practices gradually formed in the process of industrial mass production are the result of long-term accumulated practical experience. Although it is not impossible to change, it is necessary to carefully consider whether the various costs are worth paying.

The current computer industry is in the stage of brutal expansion, and it has not yet been homogenized to the extent that individuality must be used to distinguish brands, and the focus of user needs is "stronger and faster".

To put it simply, the main contradiction in the current IT industry is "function", and "form" and other factors should be placed at the back, but Jobs insisted on "function adapting to form", which is putting the cart before the horse.

If you are half a step ahead, you are called advanced; if you are one step ahead, you are called first; if you are two steps ahead, you are called pioneer; if you are three steps ahead, you are called martyr.

Jobs disliked that he hit the wall hard enough. Tang Huan originally thought that the other party would become rational and mature because of the major setback of being kicked out of Apple, but now it seems that this is not the case.

Tang Huan thought about it and felt relieved. Jobs, who left Apple, is currently working alone. In the new company he created, he is the unique boss, who can release all his instincts, no matter good or bad, free_ without any restrictions.

It was entirely predictable that the NeXT would become a flashy product similar to the first-generation MAC, but it would pay for its flashiness and continue to suffer from market failure.

As a result, the current Jobs is still embarrassing and needs a series of gorgeous failures to temper. Anyway, he pays the bill himself, so let him fend for himself.

Tang Huan, who had made up his mind, adopted the attitude of listening more and talking less, and refused to comment on Jobs's rhetoric.

Needless to say, for a long time Jobs hated Tang Huan, who was indifferent to his personal charm, but he could only endure it, because he nagged for a long time because he wanted to get Tang Huan's help and resist the pressure from Apple.

Although Apple itself took the initiative to cancel the "Big MAC" project, it could not tolerate this resource being wasted by Jobs and turned into a NeXT computer.

Jobs tried his best to argue that NeXT computers belonged to the category of personal workstation products and would not conflict with Apple's personal computer product line; but its target customer groups were major universities in the United States, which overlapped with Apple.

Moreover, the group of people who broke up by no means amicably knew each other very well. Markkula, Arthur Locke, John Sculley and other important figures in the Apple company knew exactly what kind of shit Jobs was. How dare you believe him? oral guarantee.

Tang Huan, who had figured out Jobs' true intentions, didn't want to get into this muddy water at all, nor was he willing to develop any supporting software for the other party's platform.

In the current field of workstations, there are already participants such as Fangyuan Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Valley Graphics, and Sun Microsystems on the west coast of Silicon Valley, as well as competitors in more areas including the East Coast that are not under his control, such as Jobs and NeXT Jumping in and stirring up the wind and rain is quite annoying.

In the end, Tang Huan had no choice but to suggest with a bright attitude: "You and Apple have such a fierce confrontation, after all, there is no way out. After all, breaking the bones and connecting the tendons is your start-up company, and outsiders are watching it as a joke. You might as well seek out-of-court settlement. The conflict of NeXT computer can be alleviated by delaying the launch of the product, anyway, the development of the project will take some time, the conditions are favorable and free, and you can show your sincerity.”

Seeing Tang Huan's earnest gesture, Jobs knew that he had been spitting in vain just now, and he hated it. His "reality distortion field" could even make the IBM elephant give in, but it couldn't really influence Tang Huan's heart.

But Jobs could only endure it. No matter how unwilling to admit it, he would admit it in his heart. Tang Huan's achievements were higher than his own. Ass embarrassment.

After hitting a soft spot with Tang Huan, Jobs turned his lobbying target to Woz, hoping to draw him into NeXT, reunite the founders of Apple, and slap Apple's current board of directors in the face.

Unfortunately, Jobs' wishful thinking once again fell through.It's true that Woz is a bad guy, but he has suffered too much from Jobs, and he has formed a psychological shadow.

The most recent major conflict is that after Woz left Apple, he founded a company that developed a universal remote control to pass his interest, and invited the design company Frog, which has business relations with Apple, to design a product promotion plan. The result happened to be learned. Jobs was furious and blocked, and finally messed up the unpleasantness of this cooperation.

Now it was Jobs' turn to be kicked out by Apple, and he started his own company, NeXT, to create another world. It was almost the same situation as Woz's original situation.

The thorn in Woz's heart is still there, how could he agree to enter Jobs' NeXT?

Seeing that his "reality distortion field" also failed at Woz, Jobs finally couldn't sit still, stood up resentfully, and walked away.

"I will never trust Steve again." Looking at the back of Jobs, Woz said "hatefully".

Tang Huan smiled lightly and said nothing, but he thought in his heart: "The current Jobs is not worthy of my trust."

……

With the end of the San Francisco Music Festival, another hot topic of entertaining the public began to enter the public's field of vision. The "Forbes 1982 Rich List", which also started in September 9, also released its fourth edition.

From the day this list came out, Tang Huan has been firmly entrenched in the first place. He continues to hold this honor this year, with Sam Walton ranking second.

Originally, the boss of "Forbes", Malcolm Forbes, planned to invite the richest man in the United States that he selected to participate in his luxurious party, but Tang Huan's secret layout during this period was too important, and he couldn't be bothered to fly again To the East Coast of the US.

Perhaps it can be said that Tang Huan has become accustomed to the title of the richest man, which is no longer a novelty.But others would definitely not think so. For example, the lively little girls beside him can only express their worship and admiration from the bottom of their hearts by offering their incomparably gentle and obedient.

This morning, when Tang Huan was lying down, the phone on the bedside table suddenly rang.

In fact, Tang Huan was already awake at this point in time, just squinting his eyes thinking about the appreciation of the yen.

He casually picked up the phone and listened. It turned out that Tang Wenmao was in a hurry and was waiting for him outside.

Tang Huan gently moved Li Saifeng's slender pink legs, put on her pajamas, left the bedroom, and went downstairs to the living room.

He first ordered the servant to bring a cup of hot milk, and then asked Tang Wenmao, who was a little embarrassed, "Why are you in such a hurry? By the way, has Boeing finished testing Silicon Valley One?"

"It's over, everything is normal." Tang Wenmao nodded.

Tang Huan nodded slightly, this result was also within his expectation.It has been more than a month since the Japan Airlines flight 123 crashed. Even if the official statement has not come out, the media has almost analyzed it. The main reason is that the Boeing plane that crashed was improperly maintained, not Boeing- The design and manufacture of the 747 had major flaws that were only discovered.

It is naturally impossible for a luxury private jet like Silicon Valley One to maintain and replace parts with hidden dangers in order to save costs, and then tragedy happens.

After Tang Wenmao finished his answer, he changed the subject and reported in a low voice: "It has just been confirmed that the FBI is conducting a new wave of investigations on us. On the surface, it seems to be related to your selection for the National Technology Award, but I dare not take it lightly. After all, recently The confidentiality of investment activities is as high as possible.”

Tang Huan was thinking quietly while drinking hot milk slowly, while Tang Wenmao sat there eagerly waiting for his instructions.

There are two main government honors in this field: National Medal of Science—National Science Award and National Medal of Technology—National Technology Award.

Among them, the National Science Award is known as the "Nobel Prize" of the United States. It was created in 86 on the basis of Act 209-1959 of the US Congress; Managed by the National Science Foundation.

The honor was originally intended to reward scientists in the fields of "physics, biology, mathematics, science or engineering." In 1979, the American Association for the Advancement of Science proposed that it be expanded to include the social and behavioral sciences.

Every year, the National Science Awards Committee under the National Science Foundation of the United States is responsible for recommending candidates to the president.It is worth noting that there are three Chinese scientists shortlisted this year, namely physicist Yang Zhenning, chemist Li Yuanzhe, and structural engineer Lin Tongyan.

The National Technology Award, established under the Stevenson Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, aims to reward those who have made outstanding contributions to the national economy, environment and social welfare, and the development of national technical talents through technological products, methods and concepts. An individual, team or company and its affiliates.

The award was issued for the first time in early 1985, and Bell Labs, IBM, Hughes Aircraft Company, Boeing, Apple, etc. were selected one after another.

Although latecomers such as Fangyuan Computer and IBM-PC are now prosperous, Apple Computer contributed a lot to the early development of the entire personal computer industry. Otherwise, it would not have been so successful when it IPOed in 1980. This honor is not Deserved.

It’s just that Woz had already left Apple at that time, and the scene was a bit embarrassing. In addition, the monthly sales of MAC were only hovering around a pitiful 10000 units, and the entire management team was in a state of distress. Jobs personally came forward to accept the award.

Now, it was Tang Huan's turn to enter the field of vision of the second National Technology Award. His Chinese identity immediately complemented Yang Zhenning, Li Yuanzhe, and Lin Tongyan at the National Science Award, attracting attention.

However, the two honors of the National Technology Award and the National Science Award are different from the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which does not require nationality. They have strict restrictions and must be "one of their own."

Take the National Technology Award as an example, no matter whether the nominated company is for-profit or non-profit, the US side must own more than 50% of the shares or property.

The FBI will participate in the investigation of various intelligence including such information and give selection opinions.

But now is the critical stage of Tang Huan's preparations for speculation. It is always inconvenient to be stared at. Even if it is a routine matter, what if there is something private in it?

(End of this chapter)