day 9
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the next big thing 1: bucking bronco billy fry | 
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Computer nerd heaven is Silicon Valley, and its
hot spot is Fry's Electronics, the original warehouse for computer stuff. Fry's has several branches, but the one I like best is just off Highway 17 in Campbell. It is a crassly commercial re-creation of the Cairo Museum. Sarcophagi (that is plural for "sarcophagus," for those of you who squandered your time reading How to Install Windows95 instead of pursuing your liberal education) and full-sized leopards hold up tables piled high with Macintosh, Wintel, and Brand X PCs, printers of every kind, and laptops that defy description. Fry's is the Mother of All Computer Stores. In addition to giving a bad name to such "supermarkets," this mini-bazaar speaks volumes about Silicon Valley, its people, and the culture of wizbang. What impress me most are the racks of junk food located strategically along the freeway-sized checkout lanes. They are a blitzkrieg upon gastronomic and financial tranquillity, a last chance for programmers, software managers, and their partners to get a quick fix before returning to the sweatshops of Intel, HP, Apple, Sun, Tandem, Netscape, Adobe, Symantec, etc. This is where I met Bucking Bronco Billy. This is not his real name. His real name uses up all of the letters of the alphabet just to spell the first syllable. I think he was named after some ancient Brahman god. We call him "Buck" for short. Like most of the hi-tech labor force in SV, Buck was educated outside of the USA. This should not surprise anyone; most Americans are too lazy to take difficult courses in college (but this is another story). Buck and his partner Aroo are typical of SV habitants. They spend most of their paycheck on their house mortgage and entertain themselves on weekends by revving their credit cards at Fry's. Why should we care about Buck and/or Fry's? Because the future of the world rests on Buck's shoulders. Everyone is counting on him and thousands like him. This and other Secrets of the Universe are explained in our next episode. Meanwhile, look up the meaning of "sarcophagus"; there might be a test.
shop, the photo at top shows the Aztec store in Fremont. The first time I took a picture, Fry's personnel demanded my camera, forced me to erase the image, and told me that I could not photograph their "proprietary" store. I snapped this parting shot as I drove away. Fry's doesn't need the publicity, but I thought it would be nice to see a "proprietary" building on the Web. |
the next big thing:
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 Daily Dose Index |