The Goddess Shines on America

Half a year ago, Redmond, on the edge of Seattle, ushered in a big taxpayer. Microsoft, a well-known IT company, moved its headquarters here, and became another local god besides Japan's Nintendo of America branch.

The height of the building Mr. Gates chose is average, that is, a few floors, but the floor area is really not small, and a large open space is reserved for greening. It's normal to think about it, after all, for a big company in such a small city, there is really no need to build skyscrapers like Manhattan. With a permanent population of less than 50,000 in Redmond, if Microsoft's headquarters is really a building with dozens of floors, it will be laughed at to death.

One morning in mid-April, a bicycle slowly approached from a distance. The rider had a bald head full of joy, and he was also relatively fat. Anyone with a discerning eye can recognize it from a distance. Except for Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's executive vice president of sales support, who else has this style?

"Yo, Steve, it's extra early today."

The doorman Tom greeted, but Ballmer's tense face showed that he definitely went to work today with emotions. After hastily waving to Tom, he walked quickly into the elevator.

The elevator door leads directly to the top floor where the company's executives live. When the ding sounded, Ballmer still strode out of the elevator.

"Hey, Steve."

Eric, who was the head of the technical department at the time, was standing in an open space with a cup of coffee: "Bill is waiting for you in the office."

"Thanks, Eric, give me another coffee."

Picking up a Starbucks mug of coffee, Ballmer gulped down two-thirds of the coffee before he had walked half the corridor. After throwing the paper cup into the trash can, he pushed open the door of the chairman's office.

"Steve, you're here!"

In the office, Gates and Paul Allen were discussing something. Seeing Ballmer enter the room, he immediately got up and asked, "Is the result out?"

Ballmer took out a stack of documents from his purse, slammed them on the coffee table, then lay down on the sofa, and took a long breath: "I'm exhausted, there are too many fragmented documents, I I stayed up late until four o'clock in the morning to finish it, so please take a good look at it."

Not a single word was written on the cover of the document, but all three present knew what it was.

"Windows 1.0 semi-annual sales performance report".

It's highly classified.

Time passed slowly in silence, and only the ticking of the clock could be heard in the room. Ballmer was dozing off with his eyes closed, and Gates and Allen were reading the investigation report together. The brows of both of them were tightly furrowed, but their expressions were very complicated, with a sense of joy obviously, but the worry between their brows was more obvious, and there was even a trace of fear hidden in everyone's eyes.

After half an hour, when the file came to an end, both of them let out a long breath at the same time.

"Great, great."

Allen patted his thigh and kept shaking his head: "This girl is really an out-and-out genius. Although it's only been half a year, it's just half a year's work. The profit we get from this system is almost equal to the total profit of all the years in the past. Already!"

Gates patted the stack of A4 paper, which was neither thin nor thick, and his eyes were constantly flickering: "According to this result, we will be able to go public directly by the end of this year. At that time, everyone's shareholding ratio will undergo a huge change. , and the number of orders will be more..."

After a moment of silence, Gates said to Ballmer, "Call Eric in."

The technical director arrived at the front and back, and after he took care of the door, Gates said: "Eric, the research report you made at the time stated that if the entire company's employees are allowed to develop by themselves, if they want to make Windows 1.0, they must at least A year's time, right?"

Eric didn't know what happened, but he saw that Ballmer was in a bad mood, thought about it, and said cautiously: "That's right, but the number of programmers in the company has also increased. If we develop another The ones with the same difficulty will definitely not take that long."

Gates did not answer immediately, but silently pondered.

On the timeline, it looks like August 1983 to May, July, and August 1985.

If there is no Alice, the entire windows 1.0 from research and development to finished products will probably be such a cycle.

In August 1983, when he boasted at the Las Vegas Computer Expo, in order to suppress another competitor, he vowed that Microsoft's new system would be released next spring.

If Alice knew the news immediately from that time, then counting to the spring of 1984, when she came to find her, it would be eight months.

In eight months, how far has the company itself progressed?

They were fifty-five senior engineers, and the other party hadn't graduated from elementary school at the time, and he was only in the seventh grade now.

After thinking about it, Gates said: "Then Eric, you can do another feasibility analysis for me now. If the company's current 67 engineers are the main force, not Miss Alice, the company will develop another... 1.1 How long will the system, or the 2.0 system, take?"

Eric's eyebrows twitched vigorously.

Even if he is a technical type, he is still an executive at any rate, and he immediately guessed what Gates was thinking.

"Well... it mainly depends on the degree of improvement."

Eric found a place to sit down and said: "I personally have thought about the next-generation system. I think we may be able to take advantage of the speed of Intel's latest processors to maximize system performance and increase processing speed. , expanded memory, and communication capabilities between applications brought about by dynamic data exchange technology. If this level of improvement..."

He thought for a while: "Small half a year?"

Allen raised his eyebrows and said: "The improvement in efficiency alone is not enough. After all, scientific research institutes only account for a small part of the customer base, and our main buyers are major companies. For those people, overemphasizing computing power is a It's useless, and they don't do that kind of work."

"So it's the evolution of efficiency and the optimization of the interface?"

Eric thought about it again: "It will take about eight to nine months. Two bosses, do we have a new job?"

Gates smiled slightly: "Of course, the competition in the IT industry is so fierce now, there is no room for us to relax. Just like Jobs, Apple's recent big moves are also emerging one after another. If we don't catch up quickly, the market will die was stolen by someone else."

In this way, there is nothing to do with Eric. But after he left, all three people in the room sighed deeply.

Ballmer, as Gates' senior at university, leaned on the sofa with no one sitting, and was the first to say with a wry smile: "Eight to nine months, believe it or not, if Alice takes the shot, this time will save at least three points." of two."

Allen nodded slowly, frowning: "Indeed, after all, she never told us her research and development cycle. Even from the very beginning, it's only that long..."

"And now that she has experience in developing 1.0, if she optimizes her old work, she probably won't be able to use it for two months."

Gates leaned against the back of the sofa, his blond hair was obviously a little messy, he kept shaking his head and smiling wryly, and kept holding his glasses with his hands.

Allen watched the scene of his friend silently, without saying a word.

He could clearly feel that since his old friend experienced the drug dealer's kidnapping incident, he had changed a lot. Of course, it is understandable to propose moving the company to the Seattle area. Whether it is the hometown of employees, the potential of computer education in the area, or the fuse of the kidnapping of drug dealers, it can be the reason for this decision.

What Allen noticed was the change in Gates' attitude towards Alice.

I don't know why, whenever a company member mentioned that shareholder normally, Gates would have a... expression similar to fear. As someone who has been with him since elementary school, no matter how well Gates hides this emotion, Allen can detect it.

Then the problem comes.

At that time, something special must have happened.

Allen has carefully recalled the case many times, but he is not a member of the police after all, and it happened that the company and Alice were negotiating technology shares. Of course, he did not have the energy to observe the details of the case, especially the specific details of the police.

For example, the police's speeches to the reporters were very short and idealized; for example, the policemen seemed to have expressions of fear and confusion. Moreover, when Allen went to the police station to meet Gates in person, he obviously felt that the surrounding atmosphere was very tense, but it was not a normal tense atmosphere, but a kind of nervous tension, and they seemed to try not to be in Allen's place. Showing this kind of nervousness in front of him made him appear even more nervous...

The situation at the time was really strange, and Allen clearly felt that he was also a part of that nervousness when Gates kept saying "Let me rest and rest" at the time.

Did he and Alice have any stories to tell?

Or does Alice have some ulterior secret?

Allen scratched his head and couldn't figure out why. Although he had a high IQ, it was really difficult for him to guess what was happening when Gates, who was also a friend and client, kept silent.

"Anyway, try your best."

Gates, who didn't know what he was thinking, said firmly, "Don't let Alice be alone, and completely replace the company's technical department."

Allen looked into his eyes, concealed his doubts and worries, and nodded cheerfully.