Volume 3: My days in a college fraternity Chapter 100: Only by witnessing it with your own eyes can you feel at ease
In the garage, Jason bit a straw, stared at the computer screen, and followed Tommy's instructions to take over Tommy's job of adjusting the software.
Tommy was holding a bowl of pasta and wolfing it down. As he swallowed, he mumbled to Jason, "Professor Simmons said there will be an exam next week. You'd better hurry up, Jason. We still have a lot of homework to review when we get back."
Jason spit out the straw, kept typing away on the keyboard, and cursed angrily, "What a warm reminder from my roommate. This caring tone almost made me forget who made me become like this. Man, in order to help you, I was almost tricked by a fool into making a small movie. You know, the kind of one-day movie that is rougher and more violent than the small movies on adult pay channels. Even low-class prostitutes won't participate. Only drug addicts and stowaways are willing to appear in it. It's an artistic job. Yes, an artistic job."
One-day movies are a type of adult short film, a paid short film played on TV that only shows the upper body, and guarantees that the male lead has a muscular body and handsome looks, and the female lead has a graceful figure and delicate face. There will be a complete plot and beautiful framing.
The one-day movie that Mark persuaded Jason to shoot was a pure AV product that was directly released on videotapes. The actors would change without changing the scenes, or the scenes would change without changing the actors. In short, many films could be shot in one day, and the requirements for the actors' appearance were much lower than those for TV short films.
It was for this reason that when Jason White learned that Mark was trying to trick him into making this kind of movie, he couldn't help it any longer and punched the other person. He had worked as a gigolo once by chance, and yes, he had accepted money from that woman, but he was not prepared to do it forever. This had become a laughing stock in the fraternity. Now, this bastard named Mark actually thought that he was not famous enough and was going to send his image to thousands of households?
"Look at the bright side, Jason. At least we know that besides being a gigolo, you now have the potential to become an actor." Tommy said after swallowing the food in his mouth.
At this time, Holly came in from outside, looking exhausted. She dropped her handbag, walked over, picked up the black pepper beef cubes from Tommy's plate with her fingers and put them into her mouth. Then she looked at Tommy:
"Registration is complete, so when will the ads for Cosmopolitan California and Children and Parents magazines be considered for publication? You can't just recruit a large number of cheap prostitutes for training, right? Other unemployed women are not considered at all."
"Why do you suddenly ask this question?" Tommy looked at Holly.
Holly poured herself a glass of water and held it in her hands. "Why? Tommy, you asked me to register a human resources company and then recruit a large number of prostitutes. It is normal . I am planning to invest in the computer software industry, not to open a cheap brothel in Silicon Valley."
"I told you not to be impatient and take your time. The reason why we chose to place an advertisement in the magazine "Pleasure Seeker" first is because cheap prostitutes are more tolerant than ordinary housewives. They have more unbearable experiences than ordinary women. They have dealt with all kinds of men and have seen all kinds of bad environments. Compared with ordinary women, they are more adaptable to new environments." Tommy ate the food in his mouth and looked at Holly:
"If you look at this as a software development process, you will find that cheap prostitutes are actually our first version of software. Putting them into Silicon Valley means installing the software into the MS DOS system. Their main job is to ensure compatibility. The most important thing is that Silicon Valley can be compatible with these cheap prostitutes. After getting the preliminary data, we can consider other functional issues, that is, adjust and guide other women according to the feedback from the preliminary data."
Jason and Holly both stopped and looked at Tommy Hawke.
Tommy saw the expressions of the two and asked uncertainly, "What? You look weird."
“Stanford Women’s Equality had a damn good eye for choosing a partner. They picked someone who would define women as a group.” Jason exhaled. “You really respect those poor women, Tommy.”
Tommy said calmly, "I only respect people who deserve respect, like Mark and Susan, and I respect them very much."
"What do we do next?" Holly asked Tommy.
Tommy put the last bite of food into his mouth: "Keep polishing the software, continue training, and put products into Silicon Valley until Lotus really realizes our existence."
…
Jim Manz flipped through several computer magazines published this week and found that the advertising space was still dominated by his company and a few old competitors. There were no new software released and no new faces in the interviews. He licked his lips and asked the secretary in the office next to him, "Who is our distributor in California?"
"Kinneil Software Chain Store." The secretary thought for a moment and answered in a positive tone.
Jim nodded. "Yes, it's Kinnear. I asked you to contact them before and ask them to help me find out about a software company called Actor in California. Did they call us?"
"They not only called, but also faxed us the relevant information." The secretary quickly searched through the documents and handed them to Jim. "The information shows that the company poses no threat, so I will wait until after get off work to have you review it. After all, you are busy dealing with the issue with Moses Software."
According to the information Kinnear helped to obtain, this company called Actor was founded by three Stanford University students who received startup funds provided by Stanford University. The company is located in a garage on Liberty Avenue in Stanford and has no plans to start selling software in the near future.
The reason why he is so sure is that Kinnear has asked various computer-related magazines and media near Silicon Valley, but Actor does not seem to have contacted any professional media.
According to the normal thinking of startup software companies, if the other party is preparing to launch the software to the market in the near future, no matter how tight the funds are, the startup company will find a way to appear in these professional magazines to attract the attention of peers and investors. At the very least, it will pay some computer magazine reporters to help write a usage review or something like that.
In the secretary's opinion, a small startup company that had no sales plan this quarter was not worth Jim's time. After all, Lotus' biggest rival now was Wicresoft, which recently acquired a small company called Moses. Moses had previously developed a spreadsheet software called DeskCalc, but because it was compatible with Lotus 1-2-3 files without authorization, it was blocked by Lotus at the legal level as soon as it was launched on the market.
Just when the court was about to rule that Moses had infringed the rights and ordered it to hand over the software code and all data, MicroPort acquired Moses and supported Moses' counter-suit against Lotus for monopolizing the computer application programming interface (API) level and attempting to build an isolated software ecosystem.
Moses Company originally had no money to fight the lawsuit, but with MicroPort behind it, its fighting power naturally soared. MicroPort's legal team has been assembled and is ready to help Moses Company defeat Lotus' legal team.
"Moses Software has now been acquired by MicroPort. This lawsuit, which was supposed to be a sure win, has become a time-consuming stalemate. The situation won't be clear for two or three years. It's a complete waste of time in the short term. Don't pay attention to it. Let the lawyer team study the computer-related legal provisions." Jim held the thin fax paper and said:
"But I find this Actor company very strange. If they don't have plans to release it this quarter, how did Lotus get this software? I heard from Mickey and his team that this software is already a complete version, a fully developed software with no plans to release it in the near future, but it was obtained by Lotus first. This is not normal. Mickey said before that it was sent by a Lotus user, but now I think it is very likely that Actor sent it themselves."
"Maybe they received the lawyer's letter we sent, so they canceled the sales plan?" the secretary reminded cautiously.
Jim Manz raised his finger, signaling the other party not to interrupt his thoughts. He stood up from his seat, walked to the French window, and looked at the scenery outside the window: "What if we change our thinking? They are not engineers like Mickey, but businessmen. They deliberately leaked the information to us before, just hoping that we can help them get free publicity?"
“But they have no plans to sell it,” the secretary said puzzledly.
"That's because Jonathan didn't go despite my persuasion. They once wove a net, hoping that Mickey or Jonathan would fall into it and then launch their software, but in the end no one went and their plan failed." Jim Manz turned his head and looked at the secretary, his eyes lit up:
"If my guess is true, it means that the other party is not a nerdy programmer like Mickey and Jonathan. They know how to use means other than software. Mickey and Jonathan would never do that."
The secretary shook her head in confusion: "But that company has confirmed that there is no plan to sell the product this quarter..."
"Stop reminding me of the damn release plan! Who told you that the only way to sell software is to entrust software distributors to help you? If you want to be a call girl, what else can you do besides placing an advertisement in a magazine or registering with an entertainment company?" Jim looked at the secretary and asked, "By the way, you have received a lawyer's letter."
"I don't want to and don't know how to be a call girl, sir." The secretary was stunned at first, then said nervously.
Jim turned his head to look out the window and said, "You can also dress yourself up in a pitiful way, stand on the street with a lawyer's letter, and trick those stupid men into paying money to line up to have sex with you in the name of seeking help."
The secretary couldn't stand Jim's vulgar talk and was about to quietly leave, but Jim said again: "See if there is any Silicon Valley exhibition I can attend recently, and then book two plane tickets in the name of the company. Mickey invited me to come to solve all possible threats to Lotus, so I have to see with my own eyes that they are not standing on the street to solicit customers, then I will feel at ease."
