Pirates of Silicon Valley

 As I watched the film “Pirates of Silicon valley” I was amazed how Steve Jobs and Bill gates were once friends, when in fact they were rivals as Steve Jobs being the co-founder of Apple computers and Bill Gates also the co-founder of Microsoft. These two braniacs are the creators of billion dollars computer industry which make our lives easier these days.

The film showed a brief flashback of their lives wherein it was more of the negative sides of both great men as we know them today. Gates being a genius with no conscience succeeded through theft and bullying and Jobs on the other hand, is a creative man who lets the profits go to Gates. Although this film showed the negative sides of both men yet, it never failed to show how both were also passionate and how dedicated they were in their jobs that brought the computer technologies we used today.

All in all, this film is good since it showed how computers evolved. Also it showed the good personality of Steve Wozniak, the brain of Apple I and Apple II who is also the co-founder of apple. These were the geniuses who transformed not only of how we communicate but the way we live today.

Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities Book Review

Book Review:

Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities is not your ordinary book. It is a book filled with mathematical games, puzzles, stories, and facts. Ian Stewart wrote it in a way that the readers won't get bored. The book was really interesting since it looked like Stewart randomly wrote the book out of nowhere. He had no plot or direction to follow. It's like the idea of publishing a book suddenly popped in his mind then BAM! here you go. lol

I definitely enjoyed answering the puzzles. His stories were also fun to read. I really loved Stewart's humor too. This book was fun and entertaining to read. It's the kind of book that you wouldn't mind to reread again and you can also skip a few pages if you want to and you won't miss out on anything.

Well.. i haven't finished reading it since i skipped a few pages. I'm off to answering more puzzles! haha

Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities

                (book review)

The book written by Ian Stewart titled, “Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities” is a collection of intriguing mathematical games, stories, puzzles and factoids. It also included theories such as the “Chaos Theory”, introduced and discussed the lives of great mathematicians such as that of Pythagoras and Archimedes and some of the mathematical discoveries such as the Fibonacci number and Goldbach Conjecture.

As I browse through the pages of the book, I got curious with the topic “Goldbach Conjecture”, as I can remember, it was the mathematical problem highlighted in the film, “Fermat’s Room”, we watched before. It was the mathematical problem that made a mathematician go insane when he discovered that he wasn’t able to solve it first, where it fact he did. It is indeed a difficult and at the same time an interesting problem unsolved for 250 years now. Though many mathematicians attempted to solve and provide a proof for this conjecture, so far no one proved it right.

I enjoyed some of the topics, especially those humorous ones. While the rest, those with heavy ideas, I also appreciate them. It is an another unique math-related book that I appr

Pirates of Silicon Valley

      (movie review)

The film “Pirates of Silicon Valley” explores the impact of the rivalry between the brains of the Apple Inc. and the Microsoft Inc., the two of the most famous names in the field of computer technology, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. The film showed a brief history on the lives of these two and their somewhat individual journey on developing their creative and logical ideas on computers and computer technology towards them, achieving the peak of their individual successes.

To be honest, I just know these two icons by their names and for some facts like Bill gates, branded as “the richest man in the world”, but aside from that, I haven’t had any idea on what they are really famous for. While watching the film, I was shocked when I learned that Bill Gates is actually a computer genius and is involved with the Microsoft Company, all I know was that he is a business man that’s all, that’s why he is so rich. Oh poor me.

What I liked in this film, is its being realistic and at the same time informative. The film somewhat brought the evolution of computers, a definitely interesting topic. And for that, I love the film. I was amazed when I learned that, Microsoft gained its popularity because of Apple, and what was more amazing was that, it was because of “stealing a software from an Apple model! Because of that theft, these two until now competes in the world of computer technology.

What I learned in the film, is that “a creative mind is an asset that will take one to a place he/she couldn't ever imagine”.

Pirates of Silicon Valley -- Movie review

This movie showed me the true color of the big names in the computer industry. I always hear things about Steve jobs and bill gates like, they were rich—that’s it. This movie showed that even these “geniuses” have problems.  In this movie, Bill gates had many unpleasant attitudes. He steals, lies and cheats. And Steve Jobs, was more or less like that also.

This movie showed how this multi-billion-dollar computer industry became this big and successful. But movie was more focused on Steve Jobs since most of the time, the actor that played him was on the screen. 

The movie also covered the time when Steve was still in college and they were still in their dorm room. It was also showed there that Jobs, acted as the front man, for Wozniaks’s personal computer. Wozniak created the personal computer by himself and Steve Jobs was in-charge of the sales talking and promotion of the product saying that the apple computer would be the “device that would change the world”.

This movie mostly showed the imperfections of these rich people. Jobs’ girlfriend told him that she’s pregnant but he won’t accept that the child was his. It was also showed how self-centered he was by the way he treats his employees. He shouts at them for sleeping but his employees have already been working for 50 hours straight. He was very unprofessional since he goes to his office wearing sandals and makes a fool out of the applicant.

Bill Gates on the other hand, was arrested for speeding. He was part of the group who lied to IBM that they owned DOS.

Eventhough they had these attitudes, now they are very successful, and Bill Gates is now the richest man in the world.

I am not saying that we should also lie and cheat in order to succeed. But sometimes, being very good isn’t good. Everyone of us has God given talents and skills. These people succeeded because I think this is their passion and in order to get their dreams they may have used the wrong ways but since it is what they want to do they succeeded. 

Pirates of the Silicon Valley

                Good artists copy. Great artists steal.

                The Pirates of Silicon Valley is a movie about the rivalry between Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computers, and Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft. The movie shows the historical development of these two large computer companies, from the time when Bill Gates and Steve Jobs’ college days to moving pictures using old cinematography. It is the evolution of the age of personal computers shown before our eyes.

                The movie also emphasized the negative qualities of the two gentlemen that are now having big names worldwide. Despite of the unenthusiastic attitude of Steve Jobs to his team and co-founders, he still managed to uplift and give a renowned recognition of the Apple Company. On the other hand, Bill Gates also tried to put everyone down who are in the same business even though Microsoft at first was an underdog. Still, he survived and also made Microsoft as a threatening counterpart to Apple.

                Moreover, the movie highlighted on how Apple grabbed the idea of the Graphic User Interface from Xerox, how Microsoft purchased the first Disk Operating System from an underground programmer, and how Bill Gates developed Windows behind Steve Jobs’ back. For these reasons, the revolutionaries were depicted by the title movie itself as the “Pirates of Silicon Valley”. Through this, they become the two richest men in the world up to date.

                What was really amazing about the film was that the two contenders actually worked together until Steve Jobs realized that Bill Gates developed Windows using the software that Apple had programmed for their computers. Isn't it amazing?

                The film is well presented in terms on the chronological order of events (with all the dates and locations). If you are into the history of computers, this movie is a must-watch. And oh did I mention that Noah Wyle (playing as Steve Jobs) is so charming? J

Is Mathematics fun? (A "Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities" Review)

                Mathematics is the language of the universe. It's also the language of fun. Is it?

                There once was a boy who loved mathematics. When he was fourteen, he found that boring school stuff couldn't satisfy that love anymore, so he started collecting all the mathsy fun he came across in his independent reading, filling notebook after notebook with games, puzzles, and anecdotes. Eventually, his math collection grew to fill an entire filing cabinet, “Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities”, and the boy grew up to become a professor. Stewart presents a wide-range of math-related goodness: puzzles, jokes, anecdotes, theorems, biographies, and even straight magic tricks.

                This book isn’t what you would think of when I say “book”, it is more of a collection of problems and curiosities from all areas of Mathematics. The entries in this book are rarely more than two pages long so one can be quickly looked at whenever you have a free time; however some of the problems in the book are deceptively simple and can leave you thinking about them for days. 

                I also loved the way humor was delivered, making the book a less of an entertainment if you took breaks at the jokes to rest your mind. Other places to let the mind 'rest' is where the author has thrown in a chuck of historical background; learn and play, all in the one book.

                Overall, it is a fun book, though quite heavy in places. It won't be to everyone's taste, but for those who enjoy the challenge, and find Mathematics and logic to be just their kind of thing, then this book is a fun way to spend your free time.