After Tommy contacted Susan and asked her mentor Rice to make an appointment, he finished his morning run, washed up and went to WinStar in Silicon Valley with Jason to experience the latest AmigaOS on the computer in the conference room.

This thing is equipped with an Intel 386 chip, the display resolution is up to 640*480, 4MB of memory, 60M hard disk, equipped with a 2.5-inch floppy disk drive, if you cancel the floppy drive, you can also upgrade the hard disk to 120 megabytes, support battery power, after closing the screen, the thickness is comparable to a briefcase stuffed with documents.

This is Compaq's flagship laptop, which was launched last year, with a minimum price of $5,399, and if you upgrade to the top of the range, and complete accessories such as a docking station and battery backup, the price will quickly soar to $11,999.

Only real business people who often need to travel and have to deal with work on the plane are willing to buy this kind of thing, and when the general public hears that it costs as much as $999 for a docking station, they feel that this thing is the same as those luxury yachts and private jets, and they have no chance to have close contact.

"It could be a little simpler." Tommy looked away from the screen and looked at the trio: "What is the selling point of AmigaOS?" It's its name, intimate like the user's girlfriend, Microsoft Windows2.0 is now the main selling point is complete functions, as far as possible in their system to fill the user needs to pay for the purchase of software, drawing software, document software and even programming software, a white-collar worker who works on the computer, only need to buy a set of Windows installed on their own computer, there is no need to pay extra to buy other software, completely rely on the existing software in the computer to complete a lot of work, and we want to distinguish from Windows, that is, we give users intimate fool-level operation, Microsoft's user group is those who know how to operate the computer, and our user positioning is very simple,It's the real fool group all over the world,Ignorant of computer systems,Just like those idiots who bought back the TV,Need a salesperson to help search for the TV station signal,It turns out,Once these groups develop the habit of use,Unless the brand owner dies himself,Otherwise, they basically won't change their habits,To accept new things。 ”

Listening to Tommy talk about the features of Windows and AmigaOS, several people kept nodding their heads, and as for Apple's operating system System 6, it was completely ignored by those present, and there was no even the nature of mentioning it.

The sense of existence is so low, mainly after Jobs left, Apple's business strategy layout has various problems, System6 operating system is as bad as poop, claiming to have the world's first sense of art and color, in fact, it is indeed colorful, but there is nothing to do except color, everything is wanted, but everything is set limits, and there are a lot of anti-human intellectual retardation designs.

For example, in Windows and AmigaOS or other niche operating systems, there is a recycle bin or trash can function, but the name is slightly different, but the working principle is the same, that is, to throw useless files into it, and it will also add a restore function intimately, users delete some files to the trash, but soon regret it, you can use the restore function to pick up the files from the inside, just like the trash in the trash in real life.

But the operation of AppleSystem6 system is,After the user deletes the file and throws it into the trash,As long as you close the folder where the deleted file was originally located,Back to the desktop,Then the trash can will be automatically emptied,If there is no professional to restore the data,It is completely impossible to recover,And the data restoration service charge of the Apple computer sales store is sky-high,Charge according to the file size。

With this handicap design, Apple has directly increased the market share of Microsoft's systems by eight percentage points.

Bill Gates always smiles from ear to ear when talking about market share in public, and he doesn't forget to praise Apple's system for being very good.

Jobs, on the other hand, said in an interview that he had never considered returning to Apple at all, and that the development of System6 had nothing to do with him, and that he had been focusing on launching the new company's NEXT computer and operating system.

Only obsessive-compulsive people who like color will pay the bill, because it allows users to assign a color to each icon, which is the prototype of a custom desktop, in addition, there are no bright spots, and it is the design failure of the operating system in a row that has allowed Windows to eat away at the Apple computer market in the past few years since Jobs left, although it is also because of the reputation and user habits laid down by Jobs before he was in office to retain a certain market share, but it has opened a big gap with Windows.

"Tommy, I have a question, I talked to Jason about this, let's say, I'm an ordinary person who has no computer foundation before, I bought a computer with AmigaOS in it, it does look simpler and easier to use than other systems, but there are no great games in it, you have been refusing to add more fun built-in games on the grounds of refusing to be bloated, so why should I choose to turn it on when I get home from work instead of sitting in front of the TV in the living room with a bottle of beer and watching a small movie, What can this computer take me? Jay Meiner asked with a serious expression as he looked at Tommy.

This issue has actually been discussed internally many times, and as the developer of AmigaOS, Jay Meiner has always insisted that if you want to make AmigaOS into the average home, you must consider adding enough attractive playability.

But Tommy kept refusing to let them build in more fun games.

Tommy and Jay looked at each other and said affirmatively, "Bring him the whole world." ”

Seeing that Jay didn't react, Tommy pointed to the computer screen:

"On the Amiga in front of you, there is a browser application developed by the World Wide Web Information Resources Retrieval Office of the Linear Accelerator Center of Stanford University installed separately, codenamed Midas, that is, Monopoly, not to open this program to make you a real Monopoly, but to open this application, which means that you will become a rich man in the spiritual world, now, you can try to open it."

"I've used this thing, and the search and reference function of hypertext links is still pretty good, but I don't think ordinary people have a ...... on these academics" Although Jason is suspended, he is still a student at Stanford University, and he has tried several new achievements in several institutions involving computer software and hardware and the Internet under the name of Stanford University.

At this time, he opened the web browser icon familiarly, and said with certainty that ordinary people would use this thing to read various university materials.

He is not unfamiliar with this application, the software produced by Stanford University, after opening the window page, will list the links of each university that are connected to the Stanford University network, so that people can easily click to reach the relevant pages of the university network they want to visit, and no longer need to deliberately remember the IP addresses or network domain names of those universities as before.

But now the window page that pops up,It's completely different from the interface he used to check information when he was developing,This browser is set up with a new loading page,There is no link to each university,But a variety of classified network addresses,It's like a text version of a sightseeing map,It tells users,You like to read,Like to watch the news,Like to discuss games,Like to discuss sports,Like to learn about celebrity gossip,Want to know about TV lists,Where should you go if you like to give love, Jason even saw that there was a category in the corner for heterosexual dating, and the first site was called Pimp...... Can you make friends of the opposite sex on a pimp?

Jason clicked on the address of a game category, and the page jumped to a simple message discussion board, like some university page programs used to discuss a certain issue, and there were already many discussions about well-known games.

"That's what I said, see the world, I asked Susie to help do a survey in her phone BBS, and then sort out twenty-four classified sites of public interest, browser applications belong to Stanford, but twenty-four websites do not belong to Stanford, they are also the world's first public websites on the commercial Internet, according to the statistics of the Internet Digital Assignment Address Association, counting Europe, there are only more than fifty websites on the whole planet today, except for our twenty-four, The rest are all scientific research institutions or academic organizations, these websites are not those very regional, every time you need to remember a variety of numbers and have to queue up to log in to the phone BBS, as long as your country has an Internet node connected to the network, as long as you open this browser, you can enter these website forums and people around the world who have the same hobbies as you leave a message and chat. ”

Jason carefully looked at the links of these twenty-four websites, and at this moment these hypertext links in his eyes are the twenty-four future well-known Internet brands, as long as they cultivate good user habits, just like people are always used to shopping at Wal-Mart, they will also be accustomed to only going to the websites they provide to ask for the information they want on the Internet.

"You're not the only owner of these sites, are you?" Jason looked at Tommy worriedly.

Although Tommy has amended the supplementary provisions of the Communications Act, if the appearance is too ugly, the antitrust will come to the door sooner or later.

"I don't even know who these sites belong to, maybe they belong to the Indian chiefs, maybe they belong to some ONE or SDD alumni, or even to my family's maids, in short, I'm sure they don't belong to me, I just have the right to decide what image it should appear in front of everyone." Tommy said to Jason.

Seeing that Jason was no longer speaking, Tommy continued:

"The second built-in software that I insist on, MCI-Mail, which you should be very familiar with, is the paid email software, I mean, as long as users buy our AmigaOS, they get a free mailbox from MCI-Mail for one year, as well as a waiver of twenty email delivery fees."

The three major telecommunications service providers in the United States have opened paid e-mail services, and the annual fee for an e-mail address is about 35 to 50 US dollars, and then the cost of an e-mail is charged according to the characters, 50 cents per 500 characters.

In the United States, the mailing cost of a physical letter is about $2, and the delivery speed is definitely slow, you write a letter to the postman to deliver it to your neighbor in the same village, and he can take a week.

If you can't stand the normal speed, you can choose an expedited service, such as wanting to write a love letter in New York and send it to a lover in Los Angeles, hoping that the lover will receive it the next day, then the cost jumps directly to $9.

The one-year subscription fee for an email address is really just the price of four expedited physical letters.

"As they interact with the various classified forum sites, they will most likely need to have an email address on the network to stay in touch, so while the annual fee is waived, the email delivery fee will normally increase a lot because they want to chat privately, either by expensive long-distance phone calls or by choosing an email of 50 cents and 500 characters." Tommy said.

Jay Meiner opened the interface of MCI-Mail's software, and then asked himself: "Why don't we develop our communication software built into the system based on the Stanford University Supercomputer Application Center, this software is not difficult, it was developed by Professor Winton and Stanford students, we just need to develop a similar one." ”

"Software development is not difficult, the difficulty is that we can't offend MCI for the time being, and we launch a replacement in the current network environment, which will only make MCI another opponent for us." Tommy explains to Jay Meiner why he doesn't make money with a built-in email system of his own:

"We'll only think about launching similar real-time messaging software when the Internet is really perfect, otherwise MCI will just be a little trick to get our Amiga into trouble right now, but don't worry, we've donated development work at Stanford University, and when the time comes, I promise we'll be the first to ......."

"Tommy, there's your phone." While Tommy was still talking to Jay, Sophia knocked lightly on the door of the conference room twice and whispered to Tommy.

Tommy stood up and walked towards the door, saying to Susie, who had been silent, "Susie, think about how you can promote our Miss Amiga. ”

Walking out of the conference room, Tommy looked at Sophia: "Susan's call?" ”

"No, it's Dennis." Sophia shook her head and gave Tommy a name that stunned Tommy.

Hearing that it was Dennis, Tommy was about to go back to the conference room: "I'm not interested in chatting with him, let him pick a good day and call again, or send me something written on a greeting card." ”

"He said that there were 100,000 urgent questions to talk to you, and that it would be more difficult to get to you from his country than it would be for Germany to invade the Soviet Union." Sophia held her phone earpiece and truthfully conveyed what Dennis had told her.

Tommy sighed: "Okay, 100,000 urgent questions, this sentence came out of his mouth, I think it basically means that he is going to ask me, hey, Tommy, do you know how I can call an American call girl on the other side of the world?" ”

As he spoke, he took the phone from Sophia's hand, "I'm Tommy, Dennis, tell me about your time taking up my precious time." ”

"Dude, we're rich, we have a big business of five million dollars now, as long as you promise the two of us to divide this money equally, I'll share it with you." Dennis said excitedly on the other end of the phone.

Tommy replied weakly, "I'm not interested in this kind of small business. ”

"It means that five million are mine? I know that you are my most reliable brother, then I can give Glenn an extra share, I was going to give him only 100,000 yuan, yes, I am still in Lebanon, but recently something has happened, I have been transferred to the southern region to be in charge of distributing leaflets, broadcasting and so on, that is, to call on those Lebanese to stand up bravely, to help us foreigners fight against their compatriots, to block bullets for us, to gather intelligence, we will give them money, food and freedom balabala, of course, In fact, nothing will be given to them except some unpalatable individual rations and verbal promises, and if it is really good, we will have to digest it internally, you know......" Dennis gushed and nagged.

Tommy immediately interrupted his tirade: "To the point, Dennis. ”

"Well, the great United States has a policy of justice assistance, which began in '84, that is, if someone provides valuable and important information, or provides very valuable help, the US State Department will give him a large cash reward, and I am in charge of promoting this policy with Glenn in the south to the Lebanese people, encouraging them to provide intelligence, it sounds stupid, right, but I didn't expect that there are really Lebanese fools willing to stand up and betray their compatriots for money." Dennis quickened his voice and explained the situation on his side as clearly as possible:

"Glenn and he know him very well, they have dealt with Beirut before, the other party trusts Glenn very much, and revealed to Glenn that he knows the location where a group of terrorists are holding hostages, because he is responsible for sending all kinds of supplies to the terrorists in that hiding place, and he told Glenn the names of the nine hostages held in that place, I originally thought that the guy was making it up casually, but Glenn carefully checked the rescue list of the Justice Assistance Policy in Lebanon, and found that five of the nine names that the guy said matched the names on the list, Three Americans, two Israelis, the Justice Assistance policy has a clear price, and if you can help the federal government of the United States rescue these people on this list, each of them will be rewarded with a million, and now there are five, so I say we're going to make five million, buddy! ”

"Then you just go and earn this money, what are you going to call me for?" Tommy asked suspiciously, "You have only called me all these years except for spending money." ”

"Because the United States fucking discriminates against military personnel, it stipulates that American soldiers cannot earn these bonuses, that is, I myself told the federal government this information, and the government will not give me a dime, they will tell me that this is my obligation, but if it is an ordinary citizen, you can get a reward, Pam is also a soldier, he can't participate, the most suitable person can only be you, so I hope that you will call the State Department or the Pentagon to provide information, cooperate with the informant to prove the whereabouts of the hostages, and then receive those bonuses." Dennis says:

"That's it, just a phone call away and we'll be able to ......"

"I'll think about it." Tommy hung up the phone after saying it and threw the phone to Sophia: "Five million, do you want to earn?" It's better to believe that SSD is a student organization that supports racial equality than to believe in his nonsense. ”

As soon as Sophia took it, the phone rang again, and Tommy stroked his forehead: "If you meet Charles one day, you must ask his father-in-law to help Dennis, the bastard, choose a strong boss, and send someone to keep an eye on Dennis twenty-four hours a day, and if he dares to leave his post without permission, he will be shot ......"

"It's not Dennis, it's Susan." Sophia said to Tommy after answering.

Tommy took the phone: "Susan, did you have a good chat with your professor?" What is she up to...... Hostage scandal? Someone mocked the president in the newspapers, the former director of the CIA, for not even being able to find out about the hostages? What hostages? …… You're not kidding? Shit~…… I'll hang up and talk later. ”

Tommy simply listened to Susan's words, then hung up immediately, and then called back Dennis's number just now, and Dennis asked after connecting over there, "You still have to think about this kind of thing for so long?" You ......"

"Dennis, you are the light in my life, help me check if any of the nine hostages you informant said were named Ricky Higgins, who works in the UN peacekeeping force." Tommy didn't wait for Dennis to complain, and immediately followed.

Dennis flipped over there: "Yes, the information I have registered here also shows that this guy is from Kentucky, and he is a man from the Marine Corps. ”

"Are you sure?" Tommy's breathing subconsciously stalled when he heard Dennis say that sometimes.

Dennis said in an affirmative tone: "It's true, this guy has a price tag of one million, which means that as long as this person is rescued, the United States will reward one million." ”

"I mean, isn't there a sure person in your bullshit informant's hiding place, it's not on the bounty list." Tommy said to Dennis dissatisfied, "Is there this person in the real hostage?" ”

"Informant? Glenn! Is your shit informant reliable? Reliable? You smuggled one of his wives and children to Turkey? Helped smuggle to Turkey? Sorry, I heard it wrong, I didn't expect you to be so kind, but I'm also curious, you've seen so many histories of your ancestors being trafficked, and you haven't thought of taking revenge on this world with the same means? Dennis spoke to Glenn on the other side of the phone, and then said to Tommy:

"Glenn said it was very reliable, and he helped the guy send a wife and two children to Turkey to enjoy a stable life."

"Continue to get more accurate news from the informant, wait for my call, don't be impulsive, don't worry, even if the federal government of the United States breaks its promise and doesn't give you a bonus, I will make it up to you." Tommy hung up the phone and dialed Susan's number again:

"Tell your teacher that her boss, the former director of the CIA, doesn't have to worry about being ridiculed in the newspaper anymore and can't even find a big person, I can do her a small favor."

(End of chapter)