"Pirates of Silicon Valley" - Pt 1 Quiz

Answer: Michael Anthony Hall

I couldn't resist putting the "$" in the company name!

Microsoft became the richest company in the world because of the events depicted in this movie (and Bill Gates the world's richest man). As a result Microsoft is often assoicated with money as well as computers. Which is ironic, because years ago it released some new software called "Microsoft Money"!

Answer: Noah Wyle

Apparently he's better known for a role as a doctor on TV's "ER". (I said "apparently" because I've never seen that show.)

Answer: Steve McScanders

So many Steves, the first time I watched this show I actually found it hard to keep track of who was who!

Steve Wozniak narrates Apple's side of the story, and Steve Ballmer narrates Microsoft's. They sometimes refer to one another but not often. Not until the two start working together.

Answer: Berkeley - California

We learn this when narrator Steve Wozniak has a flashback to 1971 when he and Steve Jobs were dodging tear-gas and a police riot-squad during a Vietnam protest. (Steve Jobs said when they'd reached a hiding place "Those guys think they're revolutionaries? They're not revolutionaries, we are.")

Answer: Poker

As Steve Ballmer said when he was narrating Microsoft's side of the story: "The guy could turn any human situation into a poker game. Forget about classes...poker! The fact that the world might end tonight...no problem: poker! Or we're finally deciphering the meaning of life...more poker?"

Answer: Harvard, in Boston

It says on the back of the VHS cover "Watch the quirky visionaries who jump-started the future." And we do see them doing some strange things, like having races with unattended bulldozers and running their home/office from a motel. (Slightly embarrassing, when businessmen turn up for a meeting and one is asleep on the couch...)

Answer: Blue boxes

Blue boxes could imitate AT&T's tollcall codes. The Steves had another techie friend nicknamed "Captain Crunch" who found you could use said cereal packets' free whistles to make free toll calls. So Steve Wozniak invented the blue box and sold lots.

Answer: Strip-Club

As Paul flies off to New Mexico with a new programming language in his briefcase, Ballmer and Bill are having a night out on the town. The former has overheard the latter try to converse with a dancer. Ballmer shakes his head saying "Bill, you're gonna have to come up with a better pickup line because asking her her SAT score is NOT going to do it!"

But Bill has been thinking about Paul's briefcase and not listening. Suddenly he exclaims "Damn! I forgot to write a loader!"

Ballmer says: "That's not an improvement." not realising Bill was referring to computers.

Answer: We are not told

I did some research and found out they got that name from a picture of Isaac Newton (the man who discovered gravity when an apple fell onto his head). The Steves originally used that picture as their logo, but decided later to use the more commonly known rainbow-coloured apple logo.

I can also tell you that a Macintosh is a kind of apple. So the computer they invented by that name had nothing to do with toffees or raincoats.

Answer: Arlene

They broke up about a third of the way through the film. Mainly because she found out she was pregnant and Steve insisted the kid was not his and didn't want to know.

Answer: BASIC

A lot of people think Bill Gates originally invented BASIC (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) but it existed at Harvard before he and Paul Allen were there. They were able to alter it to work on non-mainframes like the Altair, though.

A lot of people also think Bill Gates invented DOS but as we see later on in the film, he did not.

Answer: False

It was actually Microsoft.

We are not told the full story at that point but it seemed that Microsoft was desperate for business and had answered an ad of Apple's. But when Bill introduced himself to Steve Jobs at that computer fair all he got was a "Yeah - hi" and Jobs talked instead to all the others gathering around him.

We get the feeling at that point that Apple is doing a lot better business-wise than Microsoft...

Answer: Lisa

Steve Jobs named it after his first daughter, the child of his ex-girlfriend Arlene. Even though he was still adament he was not the father (despite passing the paternity test) he insisted Arlene not call the baby anything 70s-ish like "Rainbow" or "Orisha".

Answer: It had a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI)

Later in the film when Bill Gates sees a Lisa for the first time, he goes berserk because it makes Microsoft's stuff look 10 years out of date.

Answer: Xerox

As Steve "Woz" Wozniak says "It's pretty neat. Right? Click - you're there. Click - you're somewhere else. This Graphic Interface stuff was like a miracle back then. And WE got it! (Steve got it.) From Xerox who just turned it all over for us to fool with. Like rich people giving junky old stuff to the SA. Only the junk turns out to be a Rembrandt!"