The Pirates of Silicon Valley - The Movie

[Rick]

Pirates of Silicon Valley - The movie

Who here has seen this movie? In case you aren't familiar with it, it was aired on a station called TNT not too long ago. I think it has been out for awhile.

Anyway, it is about Bill Gates' and Steve Jobs' rise to fame and fortune. TNT basically turned this geeky story into a dramitization with many things that may look familiar if you've read up on some computer history before.

I'd like to know what guys thought of it. Feel free to make whatever comments you'd like. But I'm most interested in knowing if Steve Jobs was really that much of jerk. I mean, come on... They make him out to be the great Satan of computers. He's always talking about control, shaping the future and people ect... Bill Gates was protrayed as more of a soft spoken, but terribly shrewd man who had quite a wild streak in his younger age.

Steve Jobs in this movie was next to a nut, basically insisting upon computers being almost a relgiion. He had people working 90+ hour shifts and then he would make fun of the fact. He would also fly off the handle in a fit of abusive rage all the time. And apparently he had a child and a girlfriend that he totally disowned through his entire life until many, many years passed. How much of this is true?

And pirate flags plastered everywhere at Apple? LoL. I thought that was rather strange.

 

[SNGX1275]

I have seen the movie. I too was concerned with how bad they made Steve Jobs look, but I had never read anything about him treating his employees like they portray in the movie, so I didn't think much more of it.

Although surely he wasn't that bad?

 

[SNGX1275]

Wasn't it called "pirates of Silicon Valley"?

 

[Rick]

Originally posted by SNGX1275
Wasn't it called "pirates of Silicon Valley"?

You are very right. I was off quite a bit. I changed the title to the correct one.

Here's a link to the movie site..
http://alt.tnt.tv/movies/tntoriginals/pirates/

 

[SNGX1275]

Originally posted by Rick


You are very right. I was off quite a bit. I changed the title to the correct one.

Here's a link to the movie site..
http://alt.tnt.tv/movies/tntoriginals/pirates/

I got the thread title to the correct one now

 

[Phantasm66]

Insignificant next to the power of the force...

I've never seen this.... Is it good???

 

[SNGX1275]

I thought it was decent, I'd watch it again if I had the oppertunity.

Actually when it first came out I did have a copy of it for a while on my computer, but that was a while ago. I have since changed computers and no longer have it. I checked places where I thought it might be and have came up empty.

 

[ToRN]

hmmm, isn't it released in Europe under the name 'antitrust' ?

 

[SNGX1275]

Originally posted by ToRN
hmmm, isn't it released in Europe under the name 'antitrust' ?

No this was a TNT(Turner Network Television) original movie, it came out a couple few years ago I think. Antitrust is supposed to hint at Microsoft and Gates I think, This movie takes it head on with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as main characters (actors of course)

 

[uncleel]

Pirates of the Silicon Valley

originally quoted by uncleel:
Rent this Movie
Pirates of the Silicon Valley
Although soap opera-ish & partly fictionalized, portraying Steve Jobs & Bill Gates as geniuses, thieves, and jerks with few redeeming qualities; it does give you a sense of the time line & history.

The movie's most poignant sceene is @ the end where Steve Jobs, fresh from the launch of the Macintosh, is pitching a fit after realizing that Microsoft's new Windows (3.x) software utilizes "his" stolen interface (from Xerox) and other ideas.
Steve Jobs, "We have better stuff!"
Gates responds, "You don't get it; that doesn't matter."

 

[svtcobra]

it was a great movie. I think they accurately portrayed Jobs for that specific time. When Apple was starting up, Jobs was unbearable to work for. He is quite different nowadays.

 

[bedlam_4]

I liked the movie. It was well done. Probly close enough to reality for the sake of entertainment. How does one go about copying a movie to ones hard drive?

 

[SNGX1275]

Originally posted by bedlam_4
How does one go about copying a movie to ones hard drive?

You need a video card that supports it or a video capture card such as WinTV. Software comes with the card that will allow you to do this, and there are programs that have more features for capturing such as VirtualDub.

 

[bedlam_4]

How much space does the average 1.6 hour movie take up on the hard drive?

 

[SNGX1275]

Originally posted by bedlam_4
How much space does the average 1.6 hour movie take up on the hard drive?

Varies widely on the format. Can be a couple gigs down to 300 or so megs. Divx format produces good quality in a much smaller size than say mpeg1. It all depends on the quality and the resolution captured as well as what type of format you capture it to.

 

[bedlam_4]

Thanks I'll look into it next winter. BTW I hope either you, Bobes or Phantasm, wins. You three really are all over it.

 

[prashidi]

I actually remember when the movie came out and I have watched it several times since then. I dont know much about the accuracy of the movie but it was quite entertaining and amusing how Steve Jobs and Bill Gates reached to their present situations. AntiTrust is a decent movie as well but rather one sided regarding Bill Gates and Microsoft. I have yet to see the movie that shows Bill Gates getting assassinated; I beleive it came out this year.

What ammused me about AntiTrust was that Bill Gates has really thought about creating a Telecommunication revolution regarding those satellites.

http://www.teledesic.com/about/about.htm

Teledesic represents the vision of telecommunications pioneer Craig McCaw, the company's chairman. Teledesic's primary investors are McCaw, Bill Gates, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the Abu Dhabi Investment Company and The Boeing Company. The company signed an agreement with the Italian satellite manufacturer Alenia Spazio SpA, a Finmeccanica company, to build the first two satellites for Teledesic's global, broadband Internet-in-the-Sky® satellite communications network.