Technology TV Drama/Comedy Series
I just recently finished watching the 6 part series "Valley of the Boom" on National Geographic, it was surprisingly entertaining, I expected something a bit more dry and purely factual.
There's a mix of short interviews of the actual key players in early SiliconValley company births (I only recognized Mark Cuban and Arianna Huffington), with more 'over the top' energetic actors portraying them in recreated scenes, there are even a couple of musical numbers. The emphasis is on the business side, it reminds me how Netscape Navigator acted as the fuse that set the internet on fire (before Microsoft's trickery started)
While a pair of founders are meeting with venture capitalists, an 8 year old site down at the conference table with her bag lunch and starts explaining how the founders are screwed, locked into the IPO price, while the bankers and early investor friends might make as much as 10x that amount after pumping up the stock.
The most extreme reality based character, ends up as the CEO of Pixelon (founded in 1998, and based in San Juan Capistrano), often spoke in preacher language, he turned out to be a convicted felon involved in stock scams who was "on the lam" he apparently originated the warning that their (fake) proprietary streaming video hardware was protected from prying eyes by acid capsules.
The First 2 (of 6) Episodes are currently on Youtube
I recall reading the brochure for the early IBM PC, offering either MS DOS for $50, or CP/M, a better more mature system developed by a PhD (Gary Kildall) that was more like $150. (IBM had made some copyright infringement settlement requiring them to offer both products, but priced the quality one out of sight)
Legend goes that Kildall was flying to some other meeting when IBM dropped by his office to discuss licensing, this seemed to set the tone for their committing to the vaporware system Bill Gates offered them, Microsoft burned the midnight hours to piece together acquired and new code to make a usable OS.
Silicon Valley (by Mike Judge?) currently in it's 6th season, the parody about a startup operating out of a house, with one genius coder who comes up with superior algorithms, but is a serial loser in business, thanks to the help of his crew. They got a lot of plot mileage out of his magic data compression algorithm. This series takes place in contemporary time?, or a whenever that was when the money was really flowing.
Appears to be available through the premium streaming media services.
Silicon Valley Funniest Moments From The First 4 Seasons (50 min)
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Halt and Catch Fire
This drama First appearing on AMC in 2014, the fictional company, Cardiff Electric's first venture, far from silicon valley (in the Silicon Prairie of Dallas–Fort Worth) was creating a PC clone, they hired a female programmer to do a clean room analysis of the IBM ROM embedded system code (intended to be a copy proofing measure) so independent programmers can legally recreate ROMs based on the spec. derived from the analysis, just like Columbia Data Products first did in 1982.
The series had 40 episodes spanning 4 seasons. the AMC site indicates it may be coming back May 31st, this year.
You can watch the series on :
Startup (on Sony Crackle 8.1/10 IMDb)
Really more of and organized crime drama, the crypto-currancy and dark web are more plot devices then central subjects, there's plenty of violence, gun-play and couples doing what you don't see on network TV.
In the first episode, introduces white collar crime, street gangs and a corrupt FBI agent, as well as the creator of GenCoin seeking funding.
Stars include:
This 3 min clip shows the majority of the technical content from episode one, it may be the last time the Stanford graduate presents her invention in such "change the world" idealistic terms.
There's a mix of short interviews of the actual key players in early SiliconValley company births (I only recognized Mark Cuban and Arianna Huffington), with more 'over the top' energetic actors portraying them in recreated scenes, there are even a couple of musical numbers. The emphasis is on the business side, it reminds me how Netscape Navigator acted as the fuse that set the internet on fire (before Microsoft's trickery started)
While a pair of founders are meeting with venture capitalists, an 8 year old site down at the conference table with her bag lunch and starts explaining how the founders are screwed, locked into the IPO price, while the bankers and early investor friends might make as much as 10x that amount after pumping up the stock.
The First 2 (of 6) Episodes are currently on Youtube
I recall reading the brochure for the early IBM PC, offering either MS DOS for $50, or CP/M, a better more mature system developed by a PhD (Gary Kildall) that was more like $150. (IBM had made some copyright infringement settlement requiring them to offer both products, but priced the quality one out of sight)
Legend goes that Kildall was flying to some other meeting when IBM dropped by his office to discuss licensing, this seemed to set the tone for their committing to the vaporware system Bill Gates offered them, Microsoft burned the midnight hours to piece together acquired and new code to make a usable OS.
Appears to be available through the premium streaming media services.
Silicon Valley Funniest Moments From The First 4 Seasons (50 min)
Halt and Catch Fire
This drama First appearing on AMC in 2014, the fictional company, Cardiff Electric's first venture, far from silicon valley (in the Silicon Prairie of Dallas–Fort Worth) was creating a PC clone, they hired a female programmer to do a clean room analysis of the IBM ROM embedded system code (intended to be a copy proofing measure) so independent programmers can legally recreate ROMs based on the spec. derived from the analysis, just like Columbia Data Products first did in 1982.
The series had 40 episodes spanning 4 seasons. the AMC site indicates it may be coming back May 31st, this year.
You can watch the series on :
Startup (on Sony Crackle 8.1/10 IMDb)
Really more of and organized crime drama, the crypto-currancy and dark web are more plot devices then central subjects, there's plenty of violence, gun-play and couples doing what you don't see on network TV.
In the first episode, introduces white collar crime, street gangs and a corrupt FBI agent, as well as the creator of GenCoin seeking funding.
Stars include:
- Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit)
- Ron Perlman
- Mira Sorvino guest staring in season 3, she plays an NSA agent who coerces dark net company ArakNet to partner with the government.
This 3 min clip shows the majority of the technical content from episode one, it may be the last time the Stanford graduate presents her invention in such "change the world" idealistic terms.
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