In an upstairs office at the Best Buy chain, the expensive Toshiba handheld computer has been broken down into scattered parts.

Eric looked at the small hard drive the size of a credit card in his hand, and asked Rett suspiciously? Jackman said: "1.8 inches, it shouldn't be so big, I think this hard drive is at least about 4 inches." ”

Eric's identity is revealed, Ritter? Jackman was a little more respectful and patiently explained: "Mr. Williams, the size of the hard drive does not refer to the external package, but to the diameter of the internal disk platter. ”

Rhett? Jackman said, took the small hard disk in Eric's hand, skillfully opened the back cover with a disassembly tool, and showed Eric the silver disk platter inside the hard drive that was slightly larger than a coin, and said: "These aluminum alloy platters are attached to countless magnetic particles that are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, and they are arranged to represent 0 and 1 through the operation of the magnetic head to record data. ”

Linda? Ivan Gorinsta has been very quietly a listener, listening to Ritter? Jackman described it succinctly and said in surprise: "It's amazing, I just heard you say that the CF card, this one has a capacity more than ten times that of it, doesn't it say that it can store more than a thousand photos?" ”

Rhett? Jackman was very impressed by Linda's reaction to the big beauty, and smiled: "According to the current separation rate of mainstream digital cameras, about 1,600 photos can be stored. ”

Linda asked, "Then why do digital cameras use CF cards with very small storage capacity instead of this kind of hard drive?" ”

Rhett? "There's a lot of stuff going on with that, such as technology, cost and market positioning, and even strategic considerations," Jackman said. Let's take an analogy. If I were the CEO of Kodak. I try to limit the use of hard disk storage technology to digital cameras as much as possible. Although Kodak produces photographic equipment, more than 70% of its turnover comes from the film business, and the emergence of high-capacity digital cameras is a disaster for this company. ”

Eric retrieved the small hard drive again, and was continuing to think about the MP3, when he heard that Ritter? Jackman's words, remembering the news of the collapse of Kodak, which had been very prosperous in his previous life, nodded appreciatively. Some surprises the other party still has such a vision.

In fact, Eric's current identity is already more inclined to the guardian of the old order, and according to his position as the major shareholder of Firefly Media Group, it is in his own interest to prevent the emergence of new media and new technology. But Eric knows better that if he does this, he will only be eliminated from the market in the end.

In the early days of the MP3 era, Sony's technology accumulation and music copyright resources far surpassed Apple's, but it was losing ground in the MP3 market. The fundamental reason for this is that Sony has been hesitant for a long time to decide whether to completely abandon the Walkman and devote itself to the MP3 field. At one time, he even tried to take advantage of Sony's strong position in the record industry to prevent the development of MP3 and Internet music sales models. The result of this contrarian trend is that the former hegemon of the music player industry has been completely squeezed out of the market in just a few years.

Eric knows that his plan to come up with an MP3 player will definitely be boycotted by several major record companies in the future, and even the record department within the Firefly Group will be criticized, but if he doesn't do this, it means that this market will be handed over to outsiders, and it will be more passive at that time.

After two hours of shopping at Best Buy, Eric left with two large boxes of completely antique, but at this time, electronics that used the most advanced technology.

Instead of returning to Cindy's apartment, Eric took Linda to his nearest residence on Sixth Avenue.

After a light lunch, Eric began to sort out the results of the morning's sweeping.

Linda walked around the luxury duplex apartment overlooking Central Park, smacking her lips and going downstairs greedily, and saw Eric fiddling with a brick-like IBM mobile phone in the living room full of electronics, occasionally tapping on the open laptop, leaning over and asking curiously, "Eric, is there anyone still using such a big mobile phone?" ”

Eric was holding an IBM-Simon mobile phone, and when he first saw the machine, Eric was a little surprised, although the machine was far larger than the mainstream mobile phones that have now shrunk to the size of the palm of his hand, but it was completely operated by a touch screen, and in addition to making calls, it also provided notepads, memos, perpetual calendars and other functions, basically a smartphone, and probably the world's first smartphone.

It's 1995. This proves once again that technology is never the problem, strategy is. If IBM could have persevered in R&D along this line of thought in the previous life, it is estimated that there would not be much to do without Apple.

Shaking the IBM-Simon in his hand, Eric asked Linda, "Would you like to use this phone if it shrunk to the size of our palms?" ”

Linda took it and fiddled with it for a while, shook her head and said, "I'm not interested, my mobile phone, I can make calls, these notepads and memos are useless, and a notebook of tens of cents can do it, who will spend a thousand dollars." ”

Eric smiled and nodded, from the morning Rit? From Jackman, Eric learned that this bulky IBM mobile phone, as well as Apple's Newton tablet, Sony's electronic notepad, and Toshiba's handheld computer, sold very poorly, and the root cause was similar to what Linda said. These seemingly high-end electronic products, because of their very simple functions, do not have much market prospects.

"Then let's make another hypothesis," Eric picked up the Newton tablet next to him and said, "If you can use this tablet to be an e-reader that can hold hundreds of books, would you be willing to buy it?" ”

"I don't like to read," Linda said, shaking her head, "but as long as it's not that expensive, people who like to read should be willing to buy it." ”

"Well, the pitch failed," Eric smiled, put down the Newton tablet, picked up Toshiba's small hard drive, and said, "according to the MP3 audio format developed by Yahoo." This hard drive can hold more than 50 songs. Technology evolves for a few more years. It's not a problem to pack one or two hundred songs, so if there is such a music player the size of a cigarette case, which allows you to put hundreds of songs in your pocket at once and listen to them anytime, anywhere, would you be willing to buy it? ”

"Of course I do," Linda nodded, gesturing to the scattered electronics throughout the room. Said: "Eric, did you buy these things with the intention of developing the music player you said?" ”

"yes."

Eric nodded, he bought these expensive and practical electronic products, mainly to understand the current level of technological development of major components in the electronic field such as LCD screens, flash memory, hard disks, lithium-ion batteries, etc., and to confirm whether some of the ideas in his heart are feasible through intuitive feelings.

Although the development of flash memory capacity has not yet reached the level of making practical MP3s, and the micro-hard disk technology that was once the main storage carrier for MP3 in the previous life has not appeared, it is not a problem to develop MP3s the size of cigarette boxes by relying on the small hard disks and lithium-ion battery technology that have appeared. Although it is not much bigger than chewing gum in its previous life, it is definitely more avant-garde than Sony's Walkman. Moreover, Eric's main purpose is to grasp the complete MP3 player patent technology in hand, so that the Western society with strict patent protection will at least not have the situation of many manufacturers rushing to produce MP3 players in the previous life because of the confusion of patent ownership and authorization.

After spending an afternoon disassembling most of the electronics he had bought into a pile of expensive parts, Eric put together a detailed memo for developing an e-book reader, MP3 player, and even a smartphone.

Coming out of his work state, it was already twilight outside the window, and Eric had planned to send this memo to several Yahoo executives and Nokia's Yoma? Aulella, but considering that Chris told him the other day about Microsoft's intention to poach people from Yahoo, I think it's better to give up for the time being, and plan to wait until the dust settles in July, and I can take the opportunity to do some preliminary preparations.

Eric found the two cardboard boxes that had been used to hold some electronic devices in the morning, picked out some equipment and parts related to the contents of the memo and put them in one box, and threw all the other messy things into the other box, Eric clapped his hands, only to remember that Linda should still be here.

The sound of the TV came from the living room next to the living room, Eric walked in, MTV TV was playing a fashion show on the TV, Linda was curled up in the sofa and fell asleep with a pillow, the delicate body looked like a lazy cat at this time, the body rose and fell slightly with the breathing, the blonde hair covered the cheeks, and the red lips were slightly open, a little less heroic and a little more charming.

After silently looking at the perfect baby brought to the world by the Creator for a while, Eric couldn't bear to wake her up, and sat down gently in the corner of the sofa at Linda's feet, sniffing the faint fragrance of women in the room, leaning on the back of the sofa chair and watching TV quietly.

After a lazy afternoon's sleep, Linda had already woken up when Eric walked into the living room.

Curious to see how Eric would react when he saw himself asleep, Linda didn't open her eyes immediately, and waited patiently for a while, but felt Eric sit down at her feet and watch TV quietly. She was very satisfied that Eric didn't have a beastly hair to hold himself down a hundred times or something, but she felt that the man's reaction was too abnormal.

So she continued to pretend to sleep, but her eyes opened secretly, and the light in the living room became dimer and dimer, and she could only see his angular side face with the light of the TV.

After a while, the program on the TV suddenly changed, and the host Barra called and played a music video.

*She-packed-my-bags-last-night-pre-flight

*Zero-hour-nine-a.m.

*And-I\'m-gonna-be-high-as-a-kite-by-then

*I-miss-the-earth-so-much，I-miss-my-wife

*It\'s-lonely-out-in-space

*On-such-a-timeless-flight

*And-I-think-it\'s-gonna-be-a-long-long-time

*……

*……

But is it the famous British singer Elton? John's "Rocket-man", she loved the song, Elton? John's voice was sad. Three points of decadence. Three points of helplessness. And the last minute of hysteria.

The lyrics tell the story of a rocket man who has been floating in space for a long time and misses his hometown and wife, but she thinks it's a fable, a fable about the prodigal son who wants to be safe but can't, this kind of story usually happens in movies, those bodyguards, agents, soldiers, who are about to retire, are always sent on one last mission and then die as a matter of course, of course. These people must be supporting characters, and the protagonist has to continue to traverse the world of flowers, pulling and pulling a movie series to the sixteenth installment.

Before falling asleep, MTV TV also played a trailer, what is the sixteenth 007 called, oh, "Golden Eye", it seems to be released in July.

Her thoughts drifted for a moment, and her eyes turned to the man sitting on the other side, she didn't know that it was cold in a high place, and she didn't know that no one listened to a broken string. Just instinctively think, maybe. He's a rocket man, presumably.

Feeling that his body was stiff, he was still a little hungry, and he didn't want to pretend to sleep anymore, so he opened his eyes and subconsciously stretched his body, and his small jade feet were just on his legs.

"You're awake," Eric said, turning his head and grinning, grinning as he took her slender ankles and placed them on his lap so she could stretch them.

Throwing away the pillow in her arms, she nodded, feeling a slight itch on her ankle held by Eric, her face was slightly red, she rubbed it embarrassedly, and said in a somewhat coquettish tone: "I dreamed that you gave me this house, and then I woke up laughing." ”

"Oh, it's good to wake up, or I'll be crying in your dreams."

Although she was very greedy, she didn't have any illusions that Eric could give this mansion worth tens of millions to herself, if it really happened, she didn't dare to accept it rashly, although she was not too smart, but she knew that anything in this world had a price. In the afternoon, she really dreamed of such a situation, and the dark environment created by the last touch of twilight made her speak calmly without any scheming.

Eric's words disappointed her a little, kicked her feet, and said: "In this case, even if the playboy doesn't want to give the girl something, he usually shouldn't be perfunctory, you're so lazy." ”

Eric pretended to be helpless and said, "Okay, let me brew my lines." ”

Linda stared at Eric with interest in her sparkling eyes against the fluorescent background of the TV, looking like she couldn't think of it.

After a moment, Eric slapped his head and said with a blank face, "Oh, I remember, this house is not mine." ”

"Ha, it's really uncreative, and it's a Hollywood gold medal screenwriter!"

"Listen to it," Eric laughed, and asked again, "Hungry or not, let's go out to eat." ”

"Okay," Linda nodded, she was far more familiar with Manhattan than Eric, and was about to make her suggestion when she heard her cell phone ring in the living room outside.

"I'll take a call, wait a minute," Eric said, getting up and walking outside.

She followed him out of the living room, didn't bother to get up, twisted her body, grabbed the armrest of the sofa with her little hand and probed her brain outward, and saw the man pick up his phone and sit down on the sofa in the living room. He was vaguely heard talking about "Jurassic Park 2", as if it was the arrangement of the premiere.

After nearly ten minutes of chatting with each other, Eric hung up the phone, and was just about to retract and get up when she heard the phone in Eric's hand ring again.

"Hey...... Oh, Cindy, it's you," Eric agreed, feeling her probe poking his head and waving his hand in this direction.

She smiled, roughly able to guess Cindy's intention to call, retracted her head and didn't bother to listen, and suddenly remembered the tone in which he had just talked to someone about work, serious, serious, and meticulous.

What about themselves.

She has a good background, no pressure in life, and is too lazy to study as an adult, so she started as a model with this good qualification given by God.

Started at the age of sixteen.

Fourteen years.

Step by step to the present.

The days also seem simple.

Job.

Play.

Not getting out of bed without a $10,000 a day.

Married too early.

It's not nice to meet people.

If you don't want to make do anymore, you get divorced.

I couldn't stand my boyfriend and broke up.

Do whatever you want.

Boundless.

Suddenly I realized, hey, it turned out that I was the rocket man.

No wonder you like Elton? John's song.

Listening to the voices outside, he was still chatting with Cindy in a gentle tone, looking patient.

Perhaps, although he is also floating in space, he controls everything, like the pilot of a space shuttle.

No, he didn't control everything, at least, he didn't know what was going on in her ambitious pseudo-girlfriend's mind.

She suddenly felt that she had a duty to do something, and her head buzzed for a moment, and she jumped up from the couch and walked towards the living room.

"Oh, George? Restaurant Jean, roughly what's the location? Eric saw Linda coming over and didn't mind, just with Cindy? As he spoke, Crawford saw Linda come to him, and the queen shook the blonde hair in front of her forehead, stepped up, rode on Eric's lap, and reached out to push him towards the back of the sofa.

Eric was listening to Cindy introduce the address of a certain restaurant, and was suddenly pushed onto the backrest by Linda, so he had to ask Linda with his eyes which one it was.

On the other end of the phone, Cindy had already finished the address, and Eric watched Linda unzip the back of the dress with her hands behind her back, pick up the shoulder straps and skillfully take off the skirt, leaning over her head and gently gnawing on his neck.

"Cindy, I, oh, I remember, Linda and I, well, will be over in fifteen minutes."

"No, dear Cindy, wait for us another hour," Linda shouted into the microphone without concealment, reaching for her phone and hanging up.

Eric helplessly reached out to support Linda's soft waist and smiled: "Okay, what kind of mental state are you in now, have you been bitten by some bug?" ”

"Of course not," Linda reached out to hold Eric's face, leaned over and kissed her wildly, and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm going to squeeze you dry." ”

Hmph, Cindy baby, see what you do tonight.

She thought to herself, a little smugly.

……

PS1: I recommend the song "Rocket-Man", it's very good.

PS2: I posted some Linda in the bar? The picture of Ivan Gorinsta is very tasteful, everyone can see it for themselves.

PS3: Occasionally, some characters will feel more and more as they write, and this chapter feels like it.

*(To be continued.) )