0)
□□llegE FnotbaU
Prevkeku ‘U1
The season's almost
over, see how right
(or wrong) we were!
Page 7
Severely Terdy
We give you the rundown on
the new tardy policy
Page 4
SHinies!
Are real diamonds worth
their price in blood?
Page 5
stentorian
vol. XXXVI
the north Carolina school of science and mathematics 1219 broad street, durham nc 27705
http://www.ncssm.edu/stentorian
October 2003
Steve & Bill - The Minds Behind the PC
Justin Fleming
P ersonal computers.You
probably have one. If
you don't, your room
mate or your parents have one.
That's sort of the meaning
behind the term "personal."
Your computer helps you with
your homework, gets you in
touch with your friends, keeps
track of your busy life, and
entertains you when you are
bored. Your computer plays
music for you, checks spelling
for you, and connects you,
through the Internet, to more
resources and people world
wide than has ever been possi
ble before.
And yet, how many of
you know how your computer
works? Well, bad question, I
guess, since the people reading
this article are tech masters at
the School of Science and
Math. How many of you
know the story behind the little
gray boxes that sit on so many
of our desks, quietly working
their magic for us? There is a
rich history behind the person
al computer, one that is often
clouded by myth and story
telling, a history of genius and
vision, entrepreneurship and
espionage. This history is the
story of two men. Bill Gates of
Microsoft and Steve Jobs of
Apple, and following the tale
leads to a much deeper appre
ciation of what the PC is, and
how it came to mean what it
does today.
In the beginning, there
was the Altair. Little blinking
box-o-technology, absolutely
no software ... picture a DELL
without Windows (gasp) or
any other OS. Cut to Harvard
in 1975, where Bill Gates and
his best fnend Paul Allen first
saw the MITS Altair on the
cover of Popular Electronics.
It wasn't long before they
decided to code the first
microcomputer operating sys
tem for the Altair. The two tal
ented programmers lied to
MITS, telling them they had
created an OS for the comput
er and were willing to sell it.
Interestingly enough, not a line
of code had been written when
the deal was sealed (we'll see
more of this strategy later).
Once they were sure of a
buyer. Bill and Paul wrote
BASIC for the Altair rather
quickly and sold it, and thus
Microsoft was bom. The duo
quickly assembled a team of
programmers and fiiends and
continued to write software for
small computer companies,
raking in plenty of business ...
until something happened in
1981.
Meanwhile, back at the
ranch (Silicon Valley), another
pair of dreamers got together
and started working. Steve
Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Woz)
were both working tech jobs
(Jobs was working at Atari to
pay his way through Reed
College, while Woz was engi
neering for Hewlett-Packard),
and together the pair were
working on microcomputer
designs for a different and
visionary reason: instead of
being a corporate/govemment
box for crunching numbers
and handling databases. Jobs
saw the future of the micro
computer in homes and small
businesses, where everyday
people could use them for
typing, learning, and gam
ing (think there'll be a market
for that?). Working out of
Jobs' garage, the two cobbled
together the Apple I from a tel
evision, a keyboard, and a
wooden box. Since Woz's
contract with HP stated that
they held the rights to anything'
he produced at the time, they
took the Apple I to them hop
ing to sell it for $666 or at least
get financial support. HP
rejected the idea outright,
unwilling to believe that there
would be a market among nor
mal consumers for a personal
computer, and Jobs and Woz,
freed of their obligations to
Woz's contract, began to sell
the product themselves, there
by giving birth to Apple
Computer. The Apple I sold
well enough in 1977 and 1978
that Jobs was encouraged in
his vision of the personal com
puter. The next step was the
Apple II, which was much
more powerful, but smaller
and able to run a variety of
programs. It wasn't long
before Apple was a large cor
poration and Jobs one of the
youngest multi-millionaires in
Lf.S. history.
By the time 1981 rolled
around. Gates and his still-
small Microsoft had relocated
to the west coast and had
become a private corporation.
It was in this year that he and
Logan Couce
several other Microsoft execu
tives decided to approach the
board of directors for
International Business
Machines (IBM) concerning
their soon-to-be-released per
sonal computer (the IBM PC).
As was the case with the
Altair, the IBM PC was a
machine without a brain, creat
ed because IBM wanted a
piece of the lucrative market
that was dominated by the
Apple IPs amazing popularity.
Gates saw an opportunity to
pioneer one of the most bold
and groundbreaking business
practices of all time (the one
See “Steve and Bill”
Page 2
Tuition Grant Approved for NCSSM Graduates
Logan Couce
Students in Supervised Study work hard for their tuition.
Jessica Gibson, Lucie Guo,
AND Jennifer Huang
magine that it's your senior
year here at NCSSM.
You've come a long way
I
since you were an inexperi
enced junior, and now you are
about to venture into the real
world. It has taken blood,
sweat and tears, but you have
finally made it. What do you
do next? Hopefully, you go to
college and now that you've
graduated from Science and
Math, your education is partly
paid for, if you choose to
attend a school in the UNC
system.
A bill was passed last
summer with some help from
the State Educational "
Assistance Authority. The bill
gives tuition grants to Science
and Math graduates who
choose to attend any of the 16
schools in the LINC system.
Kay Hagen, a state senator
from Greensboro, drafted the
original bill while on the State
Appropriations Committee.
This version of the bill origi
nally applied starting with the
class of 2005, but after
response from the parents of
the class of 2004, the bill was
amended to include this year's
seniors.
To receive these benefits,
a student must first graduate
from Science and Math. The
first college that the student
enrolls in must be one in the
UNC system, but he or she
may take a gap year. The grant
is good for four consecutive
years, but one must maintain
satisfactory progress, which is
determined by each individual
university. If a student
receives other scholarship
money that is not specifically
directed towards any area, it
will be deducted from the
grant.
According to recent statis
tics, seventy percent of
Science and Math students
stay in state, but not just in the
UNC system. This money
comes from the General
Assembly, in hopes to increase
in-state enrollment of Science
and Math graduates. In an
interview with Dr. Warshaw,
he stated that he has confi
dence in the future of the free
tuition grant. He also said that
he would like to see the grant
expanded to include books and
board. To assure everyone
who doubts the permanence of
this bill, it is here to stay.
Many people have worked
long and hard to implement
this bill and their work will
surely be appreciated by all
those who receive the tuition.