American History 1988
Chapter 126 - 120 Inventory

Chapter 126: Chapter 120 Inventory

All throughout January, Dean and his two partners busied themselves with the backlog of orders accumulated over the Christmas holidays, but thankfully, four new employees joined the team a week later.

They were all computer enthusiasts, and after Byte Software offered a slightly higher salary than the market rate, these young people began calling to inquire about recruitment.

Eventually, Dean hired four of them at an hourly rate of 8 US Dollars, which was considered a high salary in 1990, especially since the federal government’s minimum wage was only around 3.5 US Dollars.

With the addition of these four individuals, Dean was instantly relieved from the overwhelming business matters. Teams was easy to operate, and the training process was relatively simple.

After an intensive three-day training, these engineers were already capable of handling the software installation work within the enterprise.

As new staff continued to arrive, future maintenance and after-sales services would also be their responsibility.

The manpower liberation allowed Dean and his partners to avoid the hectic travel between companies, but they each had their matters to attend to.

David continued to be in charge of other system porting work, Marcus concentrated on training the technical and after-sales personnel, and as for Dean, he was contacting other magazines to place more Teams advertisements.

Since the effect of "Global Overview" had proven to be good, the natural next step was to scale up and advertise in neighboring states.

Of course, matters were not that easy, as some electronic magazines or other business magazine headquarters were not located in California. Securing advertising might require someone from Byte Software to make a trip in person.

Dean planned to consider these business trips after completing all orders in Silicon Valley. After all, the business right in front of him was tangible, and by completing these orders, Dean would receive payment.

When the Teams software from Sun Microsystems officially launched, it was already the 23rd of January, and it happened to be the same day Stanford University started its term.

Dean handed over the subsequent training and ongoing follow-up work to the newly hired engineers, as he planned to return to campus to handle the start of term activities.

In passing, he would see if he could find anyone from the Computer Science Department willing to work at Byte Software; after all, talent is the eternal theme for a company that wants to grow.

Backed by a talent pool like Stanford, it would simply be wasteful for Dean not to take advantage of it. Byte Software might be small, but it could be more appealing to students.

These young people, who grew up in the hippie generation, innately possess a rebellious spirit; they dislike large and rigid corporations.

Entrepreneurs like Dean, who also come from a student background, are more likely to resonate with each other.

Additionally, with the significant market investment in Teams this time around, Dean also needed people to track customer usage feedback in real time.

Any new software on the market is bound to come with numerous bugs. Every software company that has grown has undergone the painful process of bug fixing in the beginning.

The temporarily recruited personnel were not thoroughly vetted by Dean due to time constraints, and the educational requirements were relatively low. He needed professional IT personnel; even interns were acceptable, as Byte Software had plenty of training opportunities.

Back at the school, Dean quickly received some unexpected news from Professor Donald Knuth.

"Acceptable Use Policy?" Dean was somewhat puzzled by the National Science Foundation’s latest initiative.

"Yes, we call it AUP for short." Because Dean was responsible for developing compatible protocols, Knuth began to share some inside information with him.

"Previously, NSF did not allow any commercial Internet activities because it contradicted the intent of the National Science Foundation’s Charter.

But now, more and more people are opposing this, so the National Science Foundation has made a slight concession."

Following Knuth’s explanation, Dean got a rough understanding of the policy.

In the early days of the internet, if students wanted to set up a flea market using the NSF network, such as selling second-hand goods or football tickets, network administrators would likely delete such posts after spotting them.

But now, the AUP policy permits students to conduct personal transactions on private BBSs, while large-scale commercial activities are still forbidden.

In fact, such personal transactions have always existed, but they were carried out covertly. Now, the AUP formally acknowledges these activities, marking an important step in the history of the internet.

At least it’s apparent that the NSF’s restrictions on commercial Internet activities are slightly loosened, which is a good sign!

"There’s another piece of news you might be interested in," Knuth said with a chuckle, handing Dean the latest policy from Stanford University.

"Allowing students to use personal computers in their dorms to access the NSF network?" If the AUP policy was a good sign, then this news was a surprise!

"Yes, but there might be a cost issue involved." Knuth reminded Dean to read the details carefully.

Stanford’s network nodes and equipment maintenance were funded by the university itself; if access to the NSF network was extended to students, it would inevitably create operational pressure.

To balance these expenses, students requiring access to the NSF network would have to pay a certain fee.

However, for students at a private university like this, money was hardly a concern; not many of them came from families that were short on funds.

"Professor Knuth, is it only Stanford that has issued such a policy, or have all schools..." Dean was particularly concerned about this issue because it related to how the National Science Foundation regarded the NSF network.

Adjusting his glasses on his face, Knuth didn’t play coy. "The NSF network doesn’t participate in specific decision-making; whether to open it up to students is up to each university to decide."

Good! Another piece of good news! This means that more and more people will flock to the network, and the gradually increasing pressure on the servers will in turn push forward the privatization process of the NSFnet.

It seems like internet freedom is just around the corner, and Dean is already considering the expansion of Price’s List.

"How’s the progress on the network protocol thing?" Knuth hadn’t forgotten the task he had initially assigned to Dean.

"It’s being perfected, just the final touches left," Dean replied without a change in expression or heartbeat.

In fact, during this period, he had devoted all his energy to the Byte software, and the progress on the protocol was slow as a tortoise.

"Submit it for my review next month. The National Science Foundation office is likely to conduct a technical validation in the first half of the year." If the results were good, Knuth would, of course, put forward some additional recommendations to the NSFnet.

Dean understood Professor Knuth’s words, so he nodded earnestly and agreed.

It looks like for the coming period, he’d have to take his assignment more seriously, especially since he was also hoping to discuss another deal with the American National network.

Indeed, that’s what he did; after delegating the Teams software to his subordinates, Dean spent a little over a week meticulously perfecting the agreement.

By the time he finished the final tests, it was already February. The first thing Dean did at the start of the new month was to check the previous month’s accounts with Anna.

Since they didn’t have a financial officer, Dean personally managed the sales data for Byte software. After nearly a month of hard work, all the orders for the Teams software from Silicon Valley had been fulfilled.

After completing the final acceptance, the final payments were also gradually credited to the account. Naturally, all three founders of Byte Software were present when taking stock of their earnings.

However, before the accounts were fully reconciled, a Ford pickup truck stopped in front of Byte Company’s door with the squeal of brakes—yes, right in front of the villa’s garage.

"Dean, where are my little darlings?" Casually closing the car door, Kevin walked in familiarly.

This month, because the physical store had frequent requests for restocking, Kevin simply stopped pretending and made several trips to pick up the goods in person.

Honestly, the salary of a magazine editor-in-chief didn’t come close to the commission he made this month. Kevin now cared about the Teams software more than his magazine job.

Seeing him enter, Marcus casually nodded his head towards him. "They’ve been ready for a while, Kevin~"

"300 copies, do you need to count them?" Marcus said, moving a cardboard box out from the corner of the office.

"No, we’re old friends now." What lay before Kevin was a full box of floppy disks.

The gray disk surface had a blue label with the white italicized "Teams" prominently in the center.

This was the logo of the Teams software, identical to the interface that loaded on computers. Of course, "BIT Software" also appeared prominently below, as a trademark.

With such a product label for decoration, the originally dull floppy disks suddenly looked a bit more upscale.

"Dean, it’s a pleasure doing business with you. The payment from the computer shop will be promptly deposited into Byte Software’s account in a week." Kevin briefly checked the goods and signed the delivery slip, then prepared to return to his son’s electronics store with the floppies.

"Kevin, wait a second." Dean signaled Anna to wait for a moment, then he got up and went outside with Kevin. "Can you help me find a bigger office?"

"Wow~ Already starting the first expansion, huh?" Kevin wasn’t surprised by Dean’s plans; he had been here many times recently.

"Yes, as you can see." Dean shrugged, "We’ve hired some new people, and the office that was originally expected to last six months didn’t even last three."

"OK, leave it to me." Kevin, due to his job, had the most extensive network of all the people Dean knew.

"Pleasure doing business, but try not to make those guides on the BBS so obvious." Dean referred to the global power link BBS tutorials on how to use Teams for free calls.

He was worried it might cause trouble, but Kevin thought differently. "Dean, why do you think the computer shop sold over a thousand copies of Teams in one month?

They aren’t attracted to its instant text messaging or file transfers; those are unappealing to them. The free voice calls are the key point!"

"But..." Dean spread his hands, still wanting to persuade him further.

"Don’t worry, Dean. For the sake of our fortune, we just need to turn a blind eye. After all, the responsibility isn’t on us, but on the users, right?"

Patting Dean on the shoulder, Kevin cheerfully returned to his truck with the box.

Damn, over a thousand copies in a month, just from commission he made over thirty thousand US dollars!

Thirty thousand dollars in 1990, and in just one month—Kevin was certainly not going to easily give up on such fortune.

Watching the Chevrolet pickup speeding away, Dean planned to make another trip to the Stanford computer lab later; the Teams software protocol still needed further review.

But the most important thing now was to take stock of the gains from the large volume of orders. To date, Teams had sold over eight thousand copies!

Seeing the barely concealable smiles on Marcus’ and David’s faces, Dean also started to smile—it was time to divide the money!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.