Steve Ballmer

So he does the same thing again. They get the manual and they have an emulator and they write it against an emulator.

And does Paul have like a rockin' beard at this point yet?

And does Paul have like a rockin' beard at this point yet?

On paper, by hand, he is hand-coding octal, not even assembly language instructions, like he's hand-coding in pure octal the instructions to load their basic interpreter program into memory.

On paper, by hand, he is hand-coding octal, not even assembly language instructions, like he's hand-coding in pure octal the instructions to load their basic interpreter program into memory.

And Ed actually has more eggs in this basket than he sort of let on because when Bill and Paul call and say, hey, can you give us the teletype instructions? He reveals they're actually the only ones who called about that. So everyone else who said they were writing a basic never got far enough to ask, how do we actually interact with your computer?

And Ed actually has more eggs in this basket than he sort of let on because when Bill and Paul call and say, hey, can you give us the teletype instructions? He reveals they're actually the only ones who called about that. So everyone else who said they were writing a basic never got far enough to ask, how do we actually interact with your computer?

Which Albuquerque is a great place to do that.

Which Albuquerque is a great place to do that.

And their little gambit worked and got a couple of college kids to pounce.

And their little gambit worked and got a couple of college kids to pounce.

I mean, either the list price is like wildly wrong or they were cutting deals all over the place. Or one thing it could have been is just that, and I'm totally speculating, but Chips are the ultimate high fixed cost investment, low marginal costs next to software.

I mean, either the list price is like wildly wrong or they were cutting deals all over the place. Or one thing it could have been is just that, and I'm totally speculating, but Chips are the ultimate high fixed cost investment, low marginal costs next to software.

You could imagine maybe Intel had already put all the money into the fixed cost of spinning up the fabs and was expecting a certain amount of market demand and they weren't seeing it. They were like, crap, we got to recoup our investment. I don't know, lower the price, let them just sell. Maybe we'll make it up in volume.

You could imagine maybe Intel had already put all the money into the fixed cost of spinning up the fabs and was expecting a certain amount of market demand and they weren't seeing it. They were like, crap, we got to recoup our investment. I don't know, lower the price, let them just sell. Maybe we'll make it up in volume.

That'll save a company.

That'll save a company.

And at decent margins too. I mean, if they're getting the processor for 72 bucks and they're selling it for, what did you say?

And at decent margins too. I mean, if they're getting the processor for 72 bucks and they're selling it for, what did you say?

So, I mean, everything else in there is much cheaper than the processor. So I don't know, depending on how much they have to give to the sales channel they're selling through, if it's retail or distributors.