Software is Social

It does seem to me, that the intense interest in Software marks a new era in human relationships.

I realize this does not affect most people, who have no interest in Software. They still live in a Hardware world, and see no reason to go anywhere else.

I got into it by accident. I graduated as an Electronic Engineer in the Sixties - where the technology was the Vacuum Tube, that existed in all shapes and sizes. But the move to Solid State in the Seventies, meant I was out of job. Where to go?

We weren't sure. but it seemed like High Tech was the way to go (even if we didn't know exactly what is was) because it had jobs. It was the latest fashion.

I was in High Tech, in Southern California, in the Eighties. And I saw some ruthless, predatory behavior. These was money there, and people wanted a piece of it - no matter what.

Gradually, it became clear that High Tech was all about Computers. And I moved to Silicon Valley, where Computers were being developed at an insane pace. And a whole new world was being developed along with them. A Software world.

The Personal Computer (PC) was invented by IBM. But it was still a big thing, three feet tall, three feet deep and a foot wide. To make it do anything, you had to buy Adapters, and plug them into it.

Companies sprang up that would do this for you. You took your computer to them, told them what you wanted added to it, and picked it up, later in the day.

I went to work for Adaptec, that made Adapters for SCSI Solid State Drives. But the Laptop computer was taking over, and soon dominated the PC market. Adaptec had to find another line of work - but could not

Something else had arrived, the Internet, that took the world by storm. The laptops could be plugged into it easily, and the Java programming language, made it easy to program for the Internet.

A huge boom in Internet stocks appeared late in the Nineties. This was followed by a huge bust. I turned 65, and it was time for me to get out. I moved to Costa Rica, and have stayed here.