About
Reviews (4)
25 Jun, 2008
Great movie
This was a heartfelt movie about loss, conflict and the personal strength required to persevere in life. It tells an interesting story of a particular time and place, with very vivid characters. Even though some only have a short screen presence (like the man that runs the orphanage), you get to see a deep sense of intensity of what life must be like for them.
It's a fantastic movie that takes you out of your time and place and injects you into an entirely different world.
06 Oct, 2008
Bias, incomplete and impersonal
I picked up this book with the idea of wanting to hear Bill Gates' side of the digital divide. He's been accused regularly of steeling software code and using that to compete with the people he stole from. Antivirus software, browser software, etc... But I realized that I wasn't going to get what I wanted when I reached page 48, only to find that the entire idea was encompassed in a single paragraph which starts like this:
"As such a powerful company, Microsoft has been accused of 'borrowing' ideas for programs from much smaller companies in ways that are, while not necessarily illegal, at least perceived as unfair."
For those who don't know, this is a large slap in the face to the entire software community. Before Bill Gates, no one even thought of "leasing" the rights to a program and limiting the amount of hardware it was installed on. He pioneered the financial system of modern day software. To turn around and steal from others is a total hypocrisy.
In addition to the overwhelming bias in the book, it is also impersonal. Bill Gates was not interviewed and the "facts" in this book can be found on Wikipedia or anywhere else. I also think that the story is incomplete. Jeanne chose a rather large span of time, focusing too much on events that I thought were minimal for a simple 100 page book.
I would not suggest this book to anybody of any experience level. If you already have background knowledge, this book will conflict with that. If you do not, this book will confuse you and will create ideas that will conflict with the rest of the world's retelling of the story.
05 Nov, 2008
A poorly made movie - makes you wish you pirated it...
0 of 4 found this helpful Prior to watching Pirates of Silicon Valley I read Steve Wozniak's book (iWoz) & Bill Gates' Biography so I was fortunate enough to have background knowledge on many of the topics covered. However if it were not for my background knowledge I would not have understood the importance of the Blue-box moment and the highway patrol or the Television signal scrambler or many related moments.
Even if your approach is just to watch an entertaining story devoid of facts; I still think that it fell short. Every character appears to be one-dimensional and you never really get a feel for the characters outside of the one role that they're allowed to fulfill. The story also attempts to encompass a large span of time in a short movie. They focus on so many details and then from one scene to the next they go from their bedrooms to Apple headquarters without very much thought or explanation...
All in all it doesn't go down in "worst movie history" but that's about all I can say in praise of Pirates of Silicon Valley.