Ciro Santilli @cirosantilli 40

Nichols radiometer Updated 2025-07-16

Microsoft Research Updated 2025-07-16

Nerds 2.0.1 Updated 2025-07-16

Very very good. Those nice pre-Dot-com bubble vibes.

Might be freely watchable? Wikipedia links to:

But they do start with an FBI warning about copyright. So... erm.

Part 1 - Networking The Nerds talks about the TCP/IP and early machines implementing it:

21:00: shows inside The Pentagon. The way the dude who works there opens a his locked office door with an electric switch is just amazing. Cringely also mentions that there's an actual official speed limit in the corridors as he rides a carrier bike slowly through them.
21:45: the universities weren't enthusiastic, because people from other locations would be able to use your precious computer time. But finally ARPA forced the universities' hands, and they joined.
24:24 mentions that some of the guys who created ARPANET were actually previously counting cards at Casinos in Las Vegas, just like in the 21 (2008) film
one of the centerpieces of development was at UCLA. The other was the BBN company. 33:55 shows the first router, then called them Interface Message Processor
the first message was from UCLA to Stanford University. He was trying to write "Login", and it crashed at the 'g'. Epic. They later debugged it.
towards the end talks about ALOHAnet, the first wireless computer communication done

Part 2 - Serving the Suits

Robert Metcalfe. He's nice. Xerox PARC. Ethernet.
Explains what is a "Workstation", notably showing one by Sun Microsystems. This is now an obscure "passé" thing in 2020 that young people like Ciro Santilli have only heard of in legend (or in outdated university computer labs!). Funny to think that so many people have had this idea before, including e.g. the Chromebook
10:46 mentions that all of Cisco, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems and where founded at Margaret Jacks Hall, Building 460, at Stanford University.
he then talks a lot about Sun. Sun became dominant in Wall Street.
19:05: Novell, from Utah. How they almost went bust, but were saved at the last moment by Ray Noorda, who refocused them to their NetWare product which was under recent development. It allowed file and printer sharing in IBM PCs. 22:55 shows how they had a live radio host for people waiting on customer support calls!
33:56 mentions how The Grateful Dead had in impact on the Internet, as people wanted computers to be able to access The WELL online forum. They still own the domain as of 2022: www.well.com/. It is interesting how Larry Page also liked The Grateful Dead as mentioned at The Google Story, his dad would take him to shows. Larry is a bit younger of course than the people in this documentary.
37 show McAfee
43:56: fantastic portrait of Cisco

Part 3 - Wiring the World:

Berners-Lee at CERN and the invention of the URL.
1992: US Government allow commerce on the Internet
Web browser history, Mosaic and Marc Andresseeen.
20:45: America Online
23:29: search engines and Excite. Google was a bit too small to be on his radar!
25:50: porn
27: The Motley Fool and advertising
30: Planet U grocery shopping
31:50: Amazon
33:00: immigrant workers, Indians playing cricket, outsourcing, Wipro Systems
41:25: Java
46:30: Microsoft joins the Internet. The Internet Tidal Wave Internet memo. Pearl Harbour day talk.
56:40: Excite Tour. If they had survived, they would have been Google with their quirky offices.