SATURDAY STORY - DANIEL JACKSON - PART II

 SATURDAY STORY - DANIEL JACKSON - PART II

On Saturday I write fiction (and I’m going to keep doing it until I get it right)

Last week, we looked at Daniel Jackson, a middle school kid that assembled his first personal computer at age 14.  His business took off.  His uncle and other relatives took an active role in the fledgling business.  

*****

The demand for personal computers was phenomenal.  Compaq, Dell, IBM, HP, Gateway, and others made personal computers based on the IBM model using the Microsoft operating system.  

DJ Computers maintained about a 12 to 15% market share by 1984.  

Daniel Jackson had a counselor by the time he was 16.  The stress of being a student, and is the CEO of a computer company was too much for the young man.  

It seemed once DJ Computers started as more of a hobby.  Daniel made a computer to prove he could do it, then he made more for people in the Bloomington, Illinois area - friends of the family, neighbors, and college students.  It was almost a societal issue “Be the first on your block to own a personal computer”.  Neighbors told their friends, school districts wanted computer labs, and offices found that computing with word processing, spreadsheets, and databases made them more efficient and effective.   

“Bigger - more - grow faster - compete” became thorns in Daniel’s side.  A 16-year-old kid was still a kid who wanted to play some basketball, have friends, and hang out with them.  It was too much.  With input from his parents and family, Daniel went from CEO to Founder.  It was a nice term - he had founded “DJ Computers” - which was named after himself.  The counselor, Dr. Emily Frazee, saw the stress was eating away from his normal adolescent development.  Her suggestion of no more than ten hours a week of DJ Computers for the young man was accepted.  Tall and lanky, he opted for cross-country running rather than basketball.  Both of his parents had been runners in high school and college.  He fit in well with the cross-country team.  He wasn’t the fastest but lacing up his running shoes and running four or five miles helped clear his brain.  On weekends, he sometimes ran with his parents for local events - like the annual Turkey Trot Thanksgiving Day run in Bloomington.

The running helped in other ways.  For a 16-year-old, the stress had elevated his blood pressure.  Running lowered that down to a level where he didn’t need medication.  He actually liked getting up early and running two or three miles before getting his shower and breakfast and going off to school.  It became a time of meditation.  The endorphins released while running flowed through his body and gave him a “runner's high”. 

Dr. Frazee suggested (and really almost demanded) that Daniel not do any work for DJ Computing.  The family reacted and tried to avoid talking about the company at dinner.  But technology fever ran through his veins and Daniel helped as the company moved from the Intel 8086 chip to the Intel 80286 chip and found possibilities from the faster speeds.  It was the tinkering that Daniel liked.  

As peripherals developed and computers could play music, Daniel tinkered with some of the high-end speakers that had more realistic sound than cheaper speakers. He kept on the edge.  He avoided the main manufacturing aspect of DJ Computing and didn’t help out on the assembly line.  

In school, he was trying to be a 16-year-old male, not a superstar computing expert.  He had a cadre of loyal friends (mostly his cross-country friends) who was like a barrier.  When a runner from another school might try to harass Daniel, his posse would surround him to keep him safe.  

Some students thought Daniel was rich (and yes, he was - at least on paper) and trying to gain his friends so they somehow could get money from him.  

Like other students, he bought his lunch at the high school cafeteria and sat with his friends at lunch and laughed at their jokes and slowly became a teenage boy again.  He was shy with girls and the only exception was the cross-country girls.  Some tried to flirt with him.  He was easy to embarrass and would turn red when a girl flirted with him.

Maybe his girlfriend was Katrina Kirkpatrick, a cross-country girl. Katrina was faster than Daniel.  That motivated him to try to run faster, and to train more.  There wasn’t a romantic attraction - other than in his head.  16-year-old males seem to have a lot of romantic ideas as they went through the ending years of puberty.  

*****

Meanwhile, on the DJ Computers front, PC wars were getting hot.  Gateway Computers started in South Dakota.  Gateway shipped their computers in boxes that looked like cows.  DJ Computers put a stylized disk jockey on their box with musical notes floating in the air about him.  

Quantity became the goal, and quality suffered.  For every 100 computers DJ Computers made, about ten came back from some kind of problem.  The company devised stronger testing methods to verify that its products were good.  It took two years to get the faulty rate down to about three problems per one-hundred computers.  

There were supply chain issues.  Intel was working at full speed making the various chips and motherboards.  Computer cases were harder to find.  DJ Computers found a company in the Chicago area that could make solid cases for a better price.  DJ Computers thought about buying that company, but opted to be good partners.  

DJ Computers also needed more space.  State Farm Insurance had another large empty space that they used, but after 18 months, they had to have more space. Steve Jackson, still known as Uncle Steve, worked with the board and found an old grocery store for some short-term space.  The board decided to build a new facility.  They issued stock to finance their plans.  On the first day - the initial public offering (IPO) - the stock sold for $50 a share and by the end of the day was trading at $200 a share.  

The company needed the space as soon as possible - so the architects and engineers devised a large building with input on the west side and output on the right side.  So, chips, boards, and monitors came in on conveyor belts and the process worked its way across the large open space until it was boxed in the disk jockey cartons and shipped out.  

To get the space, it was a non-frills building - mostly open, but needing restrooms, storage, cafeteria, and employee lockers.  They kept the building at State Fair Insurance for ongoing research and development, and the accounting and marketing functions.  The building took nine months from the first shovel of dirt moved to the opening.  

The software was also changing - demanding more memory and faster speeds.  Visicalc (visible calculator) was first developed for Apple computers and some variations were available for the various IBM clones.  WordPerfect was the accepted leader in Word Processing.  

Microsoft took on the software challenge and made Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft Access the Microsoft Office suite.  That made personal computers a necessity in businesses.  Businesses demanded programmers and analysts.  With their control over the operating system market, Microsoft dominated software.

*****

In Daniel’s biweekly sessions with Dr. Frazee, she would quiz him about how much time he spent directly with the company.  She was finding a good correlation with the more running he did, the less time directly with DJ Computers, the happier he was.  

*****

Daniel was a so-so student. He always got As in mathematics, and physics classes, Bs in biology and chemistry classes, and B minuses in English and social studies classes.  He didn’t get invited to join the National Honor Society.  He wasn’t the class valedictorian. On senior day he got the Mathematics Association of America award, and the outstanding science student award (Daniel thought maybe the physics teacher swayed the biology and chemistry teachers in his favor).  

He took Katina Kirkpatrick to the Senior Prom.  It was still an awkward rite of passage for the young man.  With three of the cross-country boys, they rented a limo for four couples.  They ate at Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano with their dates and at the prom, they tried to dance some.  Guys who could run ten miles without breaking a sweat could barely do 4 minutes on the dance floor with a girl without getting weak in the knees. 

*****

So, Daniel Jackson, founder of DJ Computers graduated from high school.  He had a wealth of experiences, unlike any other kid in his school.  But, now what?

Off to college.

*****

Since he was old enough to understand language, it was implicit to Daniel that he would be going to college.  Mom was a college professor, and Dad was a college graduate with a master’s degree.  It was his heritage.  It was an expectation

Where would he go to college was another story.  He took his SAT scores and did outstanding in math, logic, and science, and average in English and social studies.  He could afford to go to any college, any place.  He could go to a big campus or a small campus.  Where would he fit best - with fifty thousand people wandering around campus, or with three thousand people on campus?  Where could he find physics professors that would challenge him and mentor him?  Where would he find friends and hide from those that would take advantage of him and his wealth?  

In the end, after scanning brochures, visiting campuses, and extensive research, Daniel Jackson selected Purdue University - not too far away, but far enough; big - maybe too big; but also on the geeky side of technology.  

*****

That last summer before going to Purdue, Daniel came back to DJ Computers full-time.  He worked in the research and development shop most of the time but made sure he worked on the assembly floor part-time.

Katrina Kirkpatrick also worked at DJ Computers that summer on the assembly line.  It seemed like any able-bodied person in the Bloomington Illinois area could get a job at DJ Computers.  They paid well and had good benefits, But that sometimes meant that some new employees weren’t quite skilled enough.

The company organized softball leagues, computer clubs, volleyball teams, runners, and other clubs.  They brought in local bands on Friday afternoons and had picnics.  

Daniel and Katrina occasionally went to a movie or to a dance.  They would also run with the DJ Computers running club. It was two friends that liked each other, not a torrid romance.  

Katrina was going to the University of Illinois and majoring in computer science.  On their last date before heading off to college, Daniel kissed Katrina for the first time.  

*****

THE END OF WEEK TWO OF DANIEL JACKSON / DJComputers.  

What will happen next?  Will Daniel be successful in college?  Will he keep seeing Katrina?  Will an earthquake swallow the new building (I don’t think so)? Will the business keep growing?  

Come back next week!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, FEBRUARY 25, 2023