American Entertainment 1982

In the linear algebra class, Jason and Tommy sat in the last row in a low-key manner, but they still couldn't avoid being the most eye-catching presence in this large classroom that accommodated more than 90 students.

From time to time, some students turned their heads and looked at the two of them with a smile.

"Thank you, Jason, for giving me such an intuitive understanding of Spanish food." Tommy was wearing the bloated doll promotional costume of the Spanish restaurant at this time, dressed himself as a Spanish ham, stared at the podium, and said in a desperate voice Said to Jason who was wearing a fried cheese roll next to him: "I said, keep you awake."

Jason knew he was in the wrong, so he could only comfort Tommy and said, "Think good, Boss, we wear these two outfits to class, maybe the restaurant owner is willing to pay us a small part-time job advertising fee, and we don't have to talk to other people. Like those bastards, they are treated as transvestites."

After missing the women's clothing, Jason finally thought of another way to get clothes. He said that the Spanish restaurant he worked part-time had placed two advertising doll models outside the teaching building, so he ended up taking Tommy and two people wrapped in blankets. He ran outside the teaching building, took off the doll costume from the model, and put it on himself. This is why the two of them became the most eye-catching presence in the classroom.

The reason why you wear this kind of clothing to go to class on time, and you don’t want to go back to the dormitory to change clothes is mainly because Stanford University values ​​the attendance rate and homework completion rate of students, which will eventually be converted into your total grades in the university. , Every time you fail to complete your homework on time, you will quietly lower your total score, and then when your score drops to a threshold value, you will receive a notice of dismissal from the university, indicating that your score is no longer eligible for admission. Get educated here.

Time is spent in constant torment. This kind of torment does not mean that SSD has designed a lot of deliberate torture methods, but that as a freshman, you have to go to class on time, complete a large number of homework assigned by the professor, and review in advance to prepare for the exam. Almost every day They have to be busy until eleven o'clock or even later. At the same time, they have to find time to read the fraternity's newcomer handbook and memorize the Greek letters on it, various rules and regulations, because the fraternity also The novices will be tested every week to see if they have memorized those rules. If they can’t remember, it means that they don’t pay enough attention to the fraternity. If you fail the exam twice in a row, you can say goodbye to the fraternity.

So compared to the pressure of academics and boring memorizing manuals, those nonsensical and stupid tasks are more like decompression activities to prevent them from going crazy under pressure.

For example, wearing a large knitted coat, while throwing a thread and tying it to a deer, and then the deer will be let go, well, at this time you need to chase the deer crazily and untie the thread or keep a distance, lest you only have the thread on your body. Some coats become less and less as the threads are pulled away, and eventually they are completely naked.

Or they accidentally took laxatives without knowing it, and then the nine rookies were forcibly taken to a location a kilometer away from the nearest toilet, ready to run wildly to go to the toilet. When they finally resisted the desire to defecate and reached the toilet, Only to find that there were only five pits, and the last four rookies who arrived could only cry in despair.

During the time and time again of playing tricks, the veterans also began to warm up to the rookies. After all, the fraternity is just a student association, but it has devised various methods, ceremonies and gimmicks to make itself look older. , It's more mysterious, when seeing those rookies working hard to join them, they will not be stingy with all kinds of kindness and are willing to provide all kinds of help.

For example, when I learned that Jason had repeated 50% of the answers of his classmates because of a certain assignment, and received a warning from the professor, several veterans would spend a few hours teaching him to write a letter of appeal to the school, explaining to the professor that Jia Sen didn't plagiarize, but the other party plagiarized him without Jason's knowledge, and successfully made the professor withdraw the warning.

When some rookies need technical support, veterans who happen to have time will also be willing to help solve technical problems. For example, Tommy left only one computer, and moved the other four to the fraternity house. Give the ideas you want, ask everyone to help provide technical support, and listen to their feedback.

"Tommy, I think your idea of ​​this thing is the same as Shit, without innovation." Eric sat in front of the computer, stopped, lit a cigarette, and then threw the cigarette case to the side who was concentrating on typing the code. Tommy said: "You are just copying the functions of those softwares. Those softwares are already on the market. What is the purpose of doing that?"

Tommy took the cigarette and lit it: "What I want to do is not just to copy, but also to add a more perfect user experience to these software, such as this software temporarily named SSD-2 at this time, in my mind, I want to remove Louts1-2-3's function of drawing charts and database management only retains the core functions of the electronic form and improves them, adding functions such as automatic calculation and filling, and then improves the electronic document functions of WordStar, adding some such as Shortcut functions such as word search, automatic segmentation, and adding footnotes are put in, basically I copy them, but the finished product is less difficult and faster than their use."

"The word lookup function sounds good, but WordStar doesn't seem to have this function." Eric was taken aback when he heard Tommy's words, and then said: "Every time I use the computer to finish writing, I want to look up a certain word in my homework." Whether you made a mistake or not, you can only look for it line by line with your eyes wide open. Frankly speaking, just this function makes me look forward to this shit you made."

These functions that caught Eric's eyes were summarized by Tommy Hawke after using most of the office software on the market during this period, and recalling the basic functions of Word, Excel and other software that had already matured in his previous life. Although there are many types of document software and form software today, the functions are still very simple. Generally speaking, the subsequent updates of this kind of office software rely on user feedback to decide to add or adjust certain functions. As Tommy The only chance for a traverser to overtake on a curve is that he has used very mature software of the same type and knows that these software lack many practical functions at this time.

It's just that some functions can be realized, and some cannot be realized temporarily due to the development of science and technology, but the several convenient functions he just proposed can already be realized relying on existing technology.

He never thought about developing a brand new software, but only hoped to develop a software that is simpler than other office software in the world, less difficult to get started, compatible with opening files of other similar software as much as possible, and sold at the cheapest successfully run on a personal computer.

"Do you know how much a white-collar worker who knows how to use Louts 1-2-3 earns a week? As long as he memorizes more than 600 key combinations, he can get a weekly salary of nearly 300. He is regarded as a computer genius by the boss. It seems that even the developers of office software are emphasizing this point intentionally or unintentionally, showing the professionalism of the software, it seems that as long as they can operate their software, they can become elites, and I am going to expose their masks, that is this stuff There is no technical content in the operation, I will try my best to control the operation manual to ten pages, so that a housewife can use this software to complete the same work as those elites as long as they memorize it, and we need to be compatible with the files of those software.” Tommy looked at the computer screen and said to Eric:

"This allows the capitalist to clearly see that the work he thought could be done by a genius with a salary of 300 a week can be done by using our software. A housewife who graduated from high school can do the same with a little training. It is nothing more than simple. It is more difficult than this job for a housewife to cook dinner for two children without technical content.”

Eric sat back in front of the computer, picked up the notebook that Tommy used to record various test data, looked at the densely packed text on it, and said, "So this is when you are ready to sell this software after the development is complete. The selling point that those big companies talked about? Improved version of Louts plus WordStar?"

"No, I didn't think about relying on professional computer magazines to advertise and sell to big companies. I actually wanted to set a reasonable price and fool those housewives who are eager to make some money, telling them that they can earn the same weekly income as white-collar elites. Salary, as long as they are willing to buy and learn our relatively simple software, and learn it, then when they want to find a job, they don't have to consider that they can only work as waitresses in fast food restaurants, but can wear decent dresses and go to various places. This kind of company interview may help law firms process various contract documents, or help accounting firms process various financial statements and other decent jobs. Yes, with regard to these two functions, document processing and form processing, compared to Louts1-2- 3 One less, I visited ten alumni companies in Silicon Valley to do a survey last Saturday, and found that the ten companies have a total of 320 office computers, and 87% of the computers mainly use these two office software. Companies need people to handle a lot of documents and forms.” Tommy said to Eric:

"You just asked me the purpose of doing this? My purpose is to turn this seemingly high-end job into a common skill that everyone can master, and make some money from it, but first, I need your help. Help me achieve these functions."

"No, first of all you have to help us win the rookie competition tonight, Tommy the Maggot." The rookie director appeared outside Eric's room door at this time, and when he heard Tommy's last words, he interfaced and said : "You said your table tennis skills are good, right? So I signed you up for table tennis vodka."