sha...@world.std.com (Sharon M Gartenberg) wrote:
>Greetings. I was hoping someone might be able to point me to a good
>source of information on a brief history of Silicon Valley, and
>some current statistics (how many high-tech companies and jobs).
There was a book out just in the last year or two called "Fire in the
Valley" about that very topic. Sorry, don't recall the author, but it
was avalable in all the big bookstore chains.
I used to live up there, in the days when the apricot orchards were
giving way to...er, Apple orchards ;-) It used to be a nice place to
live.
From what I understand, the shine is rubbing off. The cost of housing is
ludicrous, and companies are fleeing to places like Arizona. But you
still can't throw a silicon wafer in Cupertino without hitting an Apple
facility.
--
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"To free a man of error is to give, not to take away.
Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth." --Schopenhauer
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>sha...@world.std.com (Sharon M Gartenberg) wrote:
>>Greetings. I was hoping someone might be able to point me to a good
>>source of information on a brief history of Silicon Valley, and
>>some current statistics (how many high-tech companies and jobs).
>There was a book out just in the last year or two called "Fire in the
>Valley" about that very topic. Sorry, don't recall the author, but it
>was avalable in all the big bookstore chains.
"Fire in the Valley", by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, Osborne/McGraw-
Hill 1984. ISBN 0-88134-121-5. Well worth reading.
Peter.
I think it's fair to say that Silicon Valley is dead. Cheap venture capital,
minimal startup cost, access to university researchers, and good inter
business communications fueled an engine which turned ideas into products.
You can now find venture capital elsewhere, with the discount rate being
what it is. The cost of housing and office space has spiraled out of
control, thanks to the environmentalists and Prop 13. The trade secrets
and intellectual property mania have pretty much destroyed open cooperation.
The universities remain, but aren't the driving force they used to be.
The place has a much different, more ossified feel to it than it did seven
years ago.
-=Paul Flaherty, N9FZX | "My boy, we are pilgrims in an unholy land."
->pa...@Stanford.EDU | -- Dr. Henry Jones Sr.
Still, lots of good stuff come out of other places...
John Eaton
!hp-vcd!johne
I think it's fair to say that Silicon Valley is dead. Cheap venture capital
minimal startup cost, access to university researchers, and good inter
business communications fueled an engine which turned ideas into products.
You can now find venture capital elsewhere, with the discount rate being
what it is. The cost of housing and office space has spiraled out of
control, thanks to the environmentalists and Prop 13. The trade secrets
and intellectual property mania have pretty much destroyed open cooperation.
The universities remain, but aren't the driving force they used to be.
The place has a much different, more ossified feel to it than it did seven
years ago.
Maybe so, but when I visited the Bay Area in January, I was amazed.
Apple, PARC, NeXT, NASA Ames, Versant, Sun, Weird Stuff junk stores,
Fry's Electronics, and the incredible variety of motivated computer
people all add up to a wonderful place to be...
The social atmosphere is different. You don't have to wander far from
the University Zones in Houston to run smack into smothering Urban
Cowboy-ism and heavy patriotic/religious attitudes....
I haven't been to Boston yet.
--
Jason Asbahr 116 E. Edgebrook #603
asb...@uh.edu Houston, Texas 77034
ne...@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXTmail) (713) 743-6995 voice
asb...@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXTmail) UH NeXT Campus Consultant