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Monday, May 23, 2016

Transgender bathroom politics today is similar to anti-gay politics of 50 years ago

Transgender headline front page Barometer May 19, 2016

PHOTO: The front page of the Oregon State University student newspaper featured a headline story by Marcus Trinidad, "'Victory for transgender community' Oregon Department of Education publishes new guidelines for schools to support transgender students," Barometer, May 19, 2016, p. 1, 3. The Oregon Department of Education published a 15-page document to allow students to use their preferred names on official documents such as transcripts and diplomas, while not requiring any form of verification of someone's gender or preferred name. Oregon State University currently provides an option for faculty and staff to use preferred names for work purposes, but a similar option is not yet available to students. (issuu.com)

Republican groups have been purposely raising the transgender bathroom issue as a strategy for political gain, which has led to a public discussion about transgender rights. (See OSU student newspaper coverage by Luuk Van Hoomissen, "Oregon State University has over 200 gender inclusive on campus with plans for even more," Barometer, posted Jan. 29, 2016 - it quotes Steve Clark, vice president for university relations and marketing, saying, "In 2008 there were less than 30 gender-inclusive restrooms on campus that we can identify by records. Today there are 200." and see previous post OSU 'gender inclusive' bathrooms hit front page of student newspaper (2/3/16))

A couple of days before the Barometer's May 19, 2016, front page story on transgender rights (shown above) was printed, an Oregon State University student editorial columnist also joined in to comment on the bathroom discussion: Sean Bassinger, "Transgender, gender non-conforming rights: It's about more than 'just' bathrooms," OSU Barometer posted May 17, 2016. Bassinger noted, "On May 6, The Daily Barometer published an article titled "Making restrooms a safe space," which focused around buttons that read "#IllGoWithYou" in support of transgender safety and rights on college campuses." (Note: I can't find the May 6 story he references, but see previous post OSU 'gender inclusive' bathrooms hit front page of student newspaper (2/3/16))

All of the above newspaper pieces, in addition to the wider public discussion on transgender rights, prompted me to write the following letter to the editor:

The recent public debate, concerning which restrooms transgender people should use, focuses on so-called "biological sex" instead of acknowledging how a similar debate, fifty years ago, was misused to justify discrimination against both lesbians and gay men, based on how restrooms and locker rooms were used by gay men who are cisgender (i.e. their male gender identity matches their male biological sex).

Historically, a few closeted gay men loitered in men's "tearooms" while "cruising" to hookup, or occasionally to "service" a heterosexual man, which led to laws prohibiting this type of "lewd" public sex behavior.

It wasn't until I was old enough to be involuntarily drafted into the military, when I first learned why my parents never allowed me to go unaccompanied to the Greyhound bus station bathroom or the YMCA gym in the city where I grew up.

I have no problem with transgender individuals using the restroom of either sex, provided they follow the same social customs and laws against lewd behavior that gay men have been successfully obeying for decades.

My Swedish Grandmother used to scoff at the prudishness of Americans by bragging how in the 19th Century she saw entire families naked in Sweden's public baths.

Thomas Kraemer
Founder, OSU Foundation Magnus Hirschfeld Fund for research concerning humans or animals with a minority sexual orientation or gender identity

(Quoted from Thomas Kraemer, "On Transgender Issues," Barometer, May 23, 2016, p. 7 posted online as "Letter to the editor: In regards to transgender issues," May 23, 2016)

I intentionally toned down the sexual language in my letter, to avoid causing any discomfort to some students, in order to better make my basic point that instead of prohibiting transgender people from using the restroom of their choice, the public discussion should be on how to fairly and equitably prohibit any bad behaviors, such as "lewd and lascivious behavior" by a purported "male" in a women's restroom. I believe most females are in fear of being attacked by a male in a deserted restroom, but in my experience, their deeper and unspoken fear is having a male stranger looking at them lecherously while they are undressed. I believe that very few people like peeping toms and this is why laws against voyeurism exist. Similarly, very few people want to be exposed to any unwelcomed sexual advances or activity, which is why laws have been passed against lewd behavior. Although these laws, by themselves are fine and easy to support by most people, there is a shameful history of these laws being unequally enforced to discriminate against marginalized groups, such as gay men. Of course, this issue has always been dependent on the context of our times and culture, just as my Grandmother taught me, because nudity is more or less threatening to different people, at different times, and in different cultures.

For example, I vividly recall my fear of entering the 7th grade because this was when my school first required all boys to undress in a locker room, put on a jockstrap and gym clothes before gym class, and then shower naked afterward in a gang shower full of boys. Adding to my fear, the swimming lessons were held in a pool while stark naked, in each boy's birthday suit, in order to avoid having to dry any swimsuits. The reasons for my fears were validated the very first day when I witnessed one boy get an erection and then the other boys viciously beat him up for it while calling the boy a queer (in fact, this boy was not gay, but like many adolescent boys he was prone to getting spontaneous erections.) Worse yet, instead of defusing the situation, the adult male gym coach looked the other way and retreated to his office that had a window, where I hope he was at least watching to see if the violence got out of hand. It was only years later that was I able to talk to other men, both straight and gay, about their fears of getting an erection in the locker room. Nobody wanted to talk about it.

Similarly, I had my first experience of both fear and disgust when I received an unwelcomed sexual advance from a lecherous old man (the older man was as probably 60 years older than me) when I was 14 years old and I was just aimlessly wondering around the streets of a big city by myself for the first time. This experience made me wonder why some boys, who were the same age as me, said they were very attracted to the same old men that disgusted me -- these boys told me they liked the more mature masculinity of these older men much better than their twink adolescent peers.

I was never comfortable with talking to anybody about my fears and disgusts, because I assumed other people would make fun of me. It was only much later in life when I realized how my silence, due to being intimidated by others, actually enabled bad peoples' ability to manipulate others and coerce them into doing sexual things, which they might regret afterward.

See previous posts:

Kraemer letter on trans issues Barometer May 23, 2016, p. 7

PHOTO: The OSU student newspaper print edition of my letter: Thomas Kraemer, "On Transgender Issues," Barometer, May 23, 2016, p. 7 posted online as "Letter to the editor: In regards to transgender issues," May 23, 2016 -- In the letter, I note how, fifty years ago, a similar bathroom debate was similarly used to justify discrimination against both lesbians and gay men. (issuu.com)

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Bend, Oregon Subaru ad in local gay newspaper supports Gay Pride celebration

Astoria Gay Pride headline over lesbians featured in Subaru of Bend Oregon ad in gay newspaper PQ May/June 2016, p. 4

PHOTO: Display ad for Subaru of Bend (Oregon) www.subaruofbend.com that claims to be the "West Coast's Oldest Subaru Dealership" at 2060 Ne Hwy 20, Bend, OR 97701 was printed in an Oregon gay newspaper, PQ Monthly, May/June 2016, p. 4 (May/June 2016, p. 4 (issuu.com)). On the same page was an article by the newspaper's editor, Marco Davis, "Astoria's Inaugural Gay Pride," PQ Monthly May/June 2016, p. 4, scheduled to be held in June in the small town of Astoria, Oregon that Marco moved to in 2008. Marco says, "I recall my first Pride experience in Manhattan, 1994. I was terrified. I had images of what I always had (by always, I meant since 1991, when I had my first taste of gay) heard happened at Pride celebrations. In my conservative Catholic mind . . . Many years later, while at school at the University of Oregon, I went to the Pride gathering at Alton Baker Park, and while a bit more a part of this community, I still found myself lurking in the shadows, not feeling strong enough to love the gay part of myself. Why?"

I have heard many lesbian comedians joke about the popularity of the Subaru automobile with the lesbian community, who are also often associated with having a dog in the back of the Subaru. As a Subaru owner, who is not a lesbian, I can only guess the reason is because Subaru cars are gender queer in the sense that they have a little bit of masculine -- all-wheel drive that allows you drive in bad snowy weather to athletic events popular in Bend, Oregon -- and a little bit of feminine -- they are small enough to be parked in a normal garage or parking place and they do not require a ladder to climb into as some of the more masculine full-size four-wheel drive off-road vehicles require. Subaru cars work perfect for weekend gardening and their hatch back end is set up to take the abuse of wet ski clothing, or a wet dog.

See previous post Why do I own two cars despite being too blind to drive anymore? (11/23/15) - My 2016 Subaru Crosstrek all-wheel drive automobile is shown and I'm not a lesbian!

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Update on free over-the-air HDTV reception in Corvallis

Thomas Kraemer shown in attic adjusting UHF-only antenna in front page story by Thomas Kraemer, 'Tricks to tame your digital TV,' Gazette-Times, Mar. 8, 2009, p. A1, A6

PHOTO: My front page story, giving tricks to solve DTV reception problems in the Albany and Corvallis area, was in the Sunday newspaper article by Thomas Kraemer, "Tricks to tame your digital TV," Gazette-Times, Mar. 8, 2009, p. A1, A6. (See previous post My front page DTV story Sunday newspaper (3/8/09))

It has been seven years since I wrote the above article on HDTV reception in Corvallis, Oregon and so I decided to write for the local newspaper the following update on how much easier it is to get free over-the-air high definition TV reception today:

Free over-the-air digital TV reception in Corvallis has improved greatly since this newspaper's Mid-Valley Sunday edition printed the story, "Tricks to tame your digital TV," on Mar 8, 2009.

Most Eugene TV stations are now broadcasting more powerful signals that are easier to receive in Corvallis with a smaller antenna.

Likewise, some Portland digital TV stations have built translators near Corvallis to retransmit their signals, which make them very easy to receive.

For example, the Portland high definition TV virtual channels 2-1 KATU (displayed as 2.1 on some sets) and 8-1 KGW can be easily tuned in on many Corvallis HDTV sets just by typing their physical RF channel number 47 or 48 on the remote control. (Consult your manual and AntennaWeb.org for the angle your antenna needs to be pointed.)

Oddly, the Corvallis Comcast Cable TV system for decades has always carried channels 2 and 8 in low definition, but never in HD, which is contrary to the customer demand for cable to provide a better picture without needing an antenna, in addition to prior FCC must-carry local station rules and franchise agreements with the City of Corvallis.

(Quoted from Thomas Kraemer, "Area TV reception is improving," Corvallis Gazette-Times Albany Democrat-Herald Mid-Valley Sunday, May 15, 2016, p. A8 gazettetimes.com posted May 11, 2016 as "Letter: TV reception improves")

Below are two tables that list free over-the-air virtual channel numbers and the corresponding physical RF channel numbers for a few selected Portland and Eugene, Oregon digital TV stations receivable in Corvallis, Oregon:


Selected Eugene DTV channels receivable in Corvallis, Oregon
Virtual channel RF Channel Station
7 7 KOAC PBS
9 9 KEZI ABC
13 13 KVAL CBS
16 17 KMTR NBC
28 29 KEPB PBS
34 31 KLSR FOX


Selected Portland DTV channels receivable in Corvallis, Oregon
Virtual channel RF Channel Station
2 47 KATU ABC
8 48 KGW NBC


Saturday, May 7, 2016

Dobie Gillis decides to marry in 1962 TV sitcom to Zelda character who ironically is a lesbian in real life

Marriage kit held by Maynard behind Zelda talking about marriage to Dobbie Gillis in 1962 TV sitcom

PHOTO: Maynard G. Krebs (played by the actor Bob Denver, right) holds up a "marriage kit" behind the butch character Zelda Gilroy (played by the actor Sheila James Kuehl, who ironically later became an out-of-the-closet lesbian in real life). For years, a running gag on this 1962 TV sitcom show was Zelda chasing after marriage to Dobie Gillis, who had no interest in being married until he heard a lecture by his teacher, Mr. Leander Pomfritt, about the advantages of being married, which made him embrace the "logic of marriage" and decide to marry Zelda. The above still frame is from the 1962 TV sitcom "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" episode "The Marriage Counselor," first aired February 20, 1962, imdb.com accessed May 4, 2016 (Watched rerun on Eugene, Oregon over-the-air TV channel KEZI 9.2 and Corvallis Comcast Cable 309, ME Memorable TV).

Dobie Gillis teacher Mr. Pomfritt lectures on benefits of marriage in 1962 TV sitcom

PHOTO: Dobie Gillis listens to a lecture by his teacher, Mr. Leander Pomfritt, and learns about the logical advantages of being married, which convinces him to get married to Zelda in the 1962 TV sitcom, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" episode "The Marriage Counselor," first aired February 20, 1962, imdb.com accessed May 4, 2016 (Watched rerun on Eugene, Oregon over-the-air TV channel KEZI 9.2 and Corvallis Comcast Cable 309, ME Memorable TV).

I was amused to recently watch again the above TV show episode because it made me recall a similar lecture about the advantages of marriage told to me by my very analytical father, and my more expressive and emotional thinking mother, after telling them I couldn't see myself ever getting married to a woman. I didn't tell them that my reason was because I thought marriage was restricted to between only a cisgender man and cisgender woman who planned to reproduce and raise their biological or adopted children. It was only a few years after my parents talked to me about the advantages of marriage did I realized that I could legally marry a man, who had been born as a woman, hut had never legally filed a change of gender on the birth certificate record held in the county records where our marriage license was issued. (I have been silent about this "realization" for decades because of the legal ambiguity of same-sex marriage, which is only recently being resolved in the United States of America via court decisions and I have not wanted to hassle the legalities of it.)

I find it significant that many of the analytical reasons given by Dobie's teacher for getting married back then are still valid reasons today, such as the reason of being able to help one another become more independent and happier.

See previous posts:

Friday, May 6, 2016

HP inkjet printer pioneer Niels Nielsen plays in retirement

Niels Nielsen playing a guitar as shown in inkjet history printed in American Heritage, Spring 2001, pp. 22-23

PHOTO: HP inkjet printer pioneer Niels Nielsen as shown on pp. 22-23 of the history of inkjet printers magazine article that I wrote: Thomas Kraemer, "Printing Enters the Jet Age, How today's computer printers came to eject microscopic dots with amazing precision," American Heritage Invention & Technology, Spring 2001, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 22-23. For my personal copy of the text, see previous post History of HP inkjet printers in American Heritage Invention and Technology (2/19/12).

The local newspaper in Corvallis, Oregon, where the HP inkjet printer was developed and first manufactured, printed a profile of the HP inkjet printer pioneer Niels Nielsen. Below are some selected quotes from the article:

Niels Nielsen . . . "Now that I have become unemployably old -- some people call it retired -- I've started building wacky bass guitar stuff I could use on the stage," Nielsen said. . . In the art community, Nielsen's pieces often drop jaws and start conversations. Outside of the art community, the 64-year-old ex-engineer is perhaps best known as one of "Cloutier's crazies," the nickname given to the design team of Hewlett-Packard's revolutionary thermal inkjet printer . . Nielsen first came to Corvallis in 1979, when he was 27 and fresh out of the University of California Davis with a master's degree in mechanical engineering and materials science. . . "Growing up in the '60s and '70s, I was always a nerd and a geek. I was one of the bottom-feeders in high school and college," he said. "I didn't feel like I had found home until HP hired me. Then I was surrounded by people like me: weird-ass geeks." . . In 1988, the team introduced HP's inkjet printer, the DeskJet . . Nielsen took a voluntary severance package and retired from HP in 2007 during a round of downsizing. Today, the 64-year-old ex-engineer has "rebooted" his life creating what he calls gonzo art -- bizarre functional and decorative pieces meant to stupefy, amaze and amuse. . .
(Quoted from Nathan Brutell, "Retired HP engineer turns to gonzo art," gazettetimes.com posted May 3, 2016)

I was amused to read Niels Nielsen's comment about the type of engineers at HP when he first joined, because I have only seen this type of entrepreneurial engineer at other successful high-tech startups in Silicon Valley (where the HP Corvallis division was first started as a scientific calculator division before it was moved up north) (See previous posts Newsweek 'Founders of Silicon Valley' special edition on newsstands provides overview history of HP, Fairchild, Intel, Google, Facebook, etc. (5/4/16), IEEE Milestones HP 35 calculator (5/2/09) and HP and Corvallis newspaper history (3/22/09))

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Make your own 'sex toys' hits front page of OSU student newspaper

Front page Barometer, May 4, 2016, OSU Pride Week make your own sex toys

PHOTO: The OSU Pride Week event "make your own sex toys" is featured in the Oregon State University student newspaper story by Sarah Weaver, "Celebrating sexuality, OSU pride Week continues, events throughout campus," OSU Barometer, May 4, 2016, p. 1, that says "According to Williams, who has been working with the Rainbow Continuum since the beginning of fall term, events such as the Make Your Own Sex Toy event require months of planning -- Rainbow Continuum has been planning the event since the beginning of February." (Screen shot from issuu.com reader version)

The above May 4 story on the OSU Pride Center's "Make Your Own Sex Toy event," admirably mentioned the "safe sex supplies" provided by the organizers, but it did not spell out that sex toys should always be used with a fresh condom or sterilized before use to prevent the transmission of diseases. Only the higher grade sex toys made out of silicone can be boiled to sterilize them because most sex toys would melt or burn up if you sterilized them and so it is easier to cover them with a condom to keep them clean to prevent the spreading of diseases.

See previous posts:

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Newsweek 'Founders of Silicon Valley' special edition on newsstands provides overview history of HP, Fairchild, Intel, Google, Facebook, etc.

cover Newsweek Special Edition The Founding Fathers of Silicon Valley 2016

PHOTO: Cover of the "Newsweek Special Edition: The Founding Fathers of Silicon Valley, Exploring 60 years of innovation Betrayal, Triumph and Tragedy on the Road to the Digital Age," Topix Media Lab Displayed on newsstands until May 28, 2016 or purchase for $10.99 onnewsstandsnow.com. The publisher's description of this magazine says, "Newsweek's The Founders of Silicon Valley takes you from the dawn of the computer age to the cutting edge of Web 2.0 technology to examine how tech titans such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and more got their start. This 100-page, special issue chronicles how a group of disrupters created and then improved on technology that both opened up and flattened the world, changing the way we communicate, socialize, date, eat and shop in ways that continue to evolve." See an excerpt: "Tech & Science: How the Internet Was Constructed, Starting 60 Years Ago," Newsweek Special Edition, newsweek.com posted Mar 19, 2016

Having lived in Silicon Valley in the 1970's and 1980's, including starting my PhD at Stanford University and working for Hewlett-Packard while doing computer research on the Stanford campus, I was quite impressed by the "Newsweek Special Edition: The Founding Fathers of Silicon Valley" because it provides an excellent history overview of how the computer technology that we use today was developed at Hewlett-Packard, Fairchild, Intel, Google, Facebook, etc. over the last 60 years.

I find it ironic that I first saw and bought a physical paper copy of this magazine at a newsstand located inside an ordinary grocery store in Corvallis, Oregon, which is still the home to a Hewlett-Packard research division and also the home of computer engineering research at Oregon State University, because so far it appears that this magazine is only available in printed paper form, despite the fact that it is a history of the computer and network technology that has caused many printed paper documents to disappear from circulation. Perhaps I am biased, but I still find this printed magazine to be much more useful than an online version and I know that I will not have to worry about the link rotting away and disappearing, or have to worry about technology obsolescence of the reader required to read it in the future (e.g. forty years from now I bet those Kindle books that I own won't be readable without being repurchased or downloaded again, if at all.) The magazine is printed on low-acid glossy paper and so it will not deteriorate for centuries, like a high-acid newspaper page does when it gets old.

Here are some of my notes on the "Newsweek Special Edition: The Founding Fathers of Silicon Valley":

  • (p. 20-23) the article "In the Garage" shows a photo from 1987 of HP founders Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett standing in front of the garage they started their business in Palo Alto, California, near Stanford University -- in the heart of today's Silicon Valley. This photo was taken as part of a ceremony that legally designated Hewlett's garage as a historical landmark and "The Birthplace of Silicon Valley." I had the honor of attending this event in person at the invitation of Bill and Dave whose offices were across the aisle from where I my desk was located at the time. The same photo of Bill and Dave also appears in the center of the magazine cover shown above. The magazine claims HP entered the computer business in 1972 with the HP-35 calculator, but in fact HP had been building both computer controllers for their electronic instruments and also desktop calculators prior to the pocket-sized HP-35 scientific calculator. The magazine also notes that Hewlett worked for HP until 1987 and Packard retired in 1993, however, both men were still actively involved in division reviews until Packard died in 1996, at the age of 83, and Hewlett died in 2001, at the age of 87. My last business interaction was with them was in 1994, when they were both still sharp and asking technically insightful questions about the research work I was managing.
  • (p. 2-3 unnumbered pages inside front cover) photo of women wiring a program into the ENIAC computer in 1945. The magazine claims, ". . . most computer codes and calculations were done by women," which doesn't tell the whole story. In my experience, there were only one female computer scientist or computer engineer for every ten men, but the physical "wiring" of programs was almost always done by female production workers who were trained and supervised by an engineer.
  • (p. 8-9) photo in the brick-walled lobby of Fairchild Semiconductor of the "Traitorous Eight" who left William Shockley's lab to form Intel, including Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. I recognized this lobby because it was later rented out to HP to home some of the researchers who were working for me at the time, when I didn't realize the historical significance of this building. (Also, see p. 16, 18)
  • (p. 12) Alan Turing (born 1912) is credited as the inventor of an electro-mechanical computer during World War II that was used break the German's Enigma Code. Turing is often credited as the father of Artificial Intelligence and the "Turing Test" that is still being used today to measure machine intelligence -- if you can't tell by interacting with a computer, whether it is a machine or another man, it is an artificially intelligent computer. Turing was also famously gay and persecuted for it.
  • (p. 20, 25, 26-27, 42) Steve Wozniak (born 1950) is credited as the co-founder of Apple with Steve Jobs. In 1976, he built the Apple I and a year later the Apple II, which were both based on his work as a technician at Hewlett-Packard where similar desktop computer calculators were being designed and built.
  • (p. 28-29, 38-39, 42-45) the article, "Infectious Ideas: The story of Steve Jobs, Xerox, and who really invented the personal computer," correctly credits the research by Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Rsearch Center) for the invention of modern computer window interfaces using a mouse (invented by Oregon State University alum Douglas Engelbart, p. 29). However, missing from this magazine and most histories of computing, is the fact that HP was manufacturing computers with window operating systems and mouse pointing devices in the 1980's including the Integral PC or IPC that was a portable computer with one of the first flat panel displays and built-in inkjet printer using the technology invented at HP Labs in Palo Alto and then refined by the Corvallis HP division. The first version of Microsoft Windows was released in 1985, but it wasn't until Windows 3.0 was released in 1990 when it started to be adopted widely. (p.39) Bill gates (born 1955) founded Microsoft in 1975 (p. 40-41)
  • (p. 30-33, 42-45) Steve Jobs (born 1955, died 2011 at age of 56) and "Apple vs. Everyone" outlines the history of Apple Computer being founded in 1976, Jobs being ousted from Apple and then going on to form NeXT computer and later Pixar computer animation before coming back to lead the creation of the iPhone and the Renaissance of Apple. One thing missing from this and many other histories of Apple is how Jobs hired away engineers from HP. Jobs tried to hire me and a colleague of mine did go to work for Steve to create the Lisa computer, a precursor to the wildly successful Macintosh. In fact, according to my colleague and others in Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs was a ruthless businessman and hard to work for because he had no technical background, but was very opinionated on what he wanted and he was unwilling to listen to the technical reasons why it was impossible to do at the time. Of course, in the history of technology, this type of visionary person has proven to be important to goad engineers into creating new technology that is better that what anybody thinks is possible.
  • (p. 36-37) the article "Nothing but Net" gives a brief history of DARPA and ARPANET in the 1970's and its evolution to being the network for the World Wide Web. This work was also at the center of Xerox PARC computer research and the creation of a local area network or LAN that connected computers. It was 1982 when I had a summer hire PhD student from UC Berkeley, who was working for me at HP in Corvallis, Oregon, lay the first LAN along a aisle of engineers who were designing the Integral PC network interface card.
  • (p. 52-58) "Evolution of Tech" pictorial timeline covers from the 1975 "Popular Electronics" article that announced the Altair 8800 personal computer to the wearable tech and cell phone technology of today. A photo (p. 58) of the 2007 Apple iPhone and the 1983 (note typo in headline) Motorola cellphone is shown. This new cellphone technology led me to design an interface for the handheld computers we were building as a follow on to the handheld calculators HP was manufacturing in Corvallis, Oregon in 1984. Unfortunately, a Vice President of HP cancelled my project and I then showed it to Steve Jobs who was trying to hire me at a computer convention in Silicon Valley. I could tell he was interested and would probably fund it, but I am glad I didn't go work for him because of the bad experience everyone had who I talked to that worked for Steve Jobs.
  • (p.60-61) Steve Case (born 1958) the founder of AOL, a dial-up telephone service that connected many people for the first time before the World Wide Web took over in 1994. Of course, the article fails to state that similar connections were being made before AOL via the UNIX operating system NOTES program, probably because only the hardest core computer engineers were participants.
  • (p. 68-73) Mark Zuckerberg (born 1984) cofounded Facebook and pioneered the social networking computer application that has become popular with billions of people around the world. Social networking is something that socially inept engineers would have never anticipated, even though they used the UNIX Notes program to help design software and hardware.
  • (p. 74-75, 76-79) YouTube formed in 2005 and sold to Google in 2006. Google founded in 1997, Google IPO in 2004, Alphabet launched in 2015, by cofounders Larry Page (born 1973) and Sergey Brin (born 1973)
  • (p. 80-83) Jeff Bezos (born 1964) founder of Amazon online stores in 1995 and IPO 1997.
  • (p. 88-91) "Beyond Phone Calls: How cell phones have grown from a portable telephone to a key for personal empowerment." Release of Apple iPhone in 2008 and the Apple App store.