SATURDAY STORY - FEBRUARY 18, 2023 - DANIEL BROWN COMPUTING - CHAPTER 1

 SATURDAY STORY, FEBRUARY 18, 2023

On Saturdays, I write fiction (and I’m going to keep trying until I get it right).

I’m starting a series (not sure how long - planning is part of writing) that relates to Valentine’s Day and young love.  

*****

Daniel Jackson - rarely known as Dan Jackson (and to a select few - like his two grandmothers as Danny) loved math and science.  Born on March 14, 1966 (also known as Pi Day). Daniel was a technology whiz.

Psychologists have debated “nature versus nurture” for centuries.  If nature had its way, Daniel would have to be a technology person.  His mother was a physics professor at the University of Illinois, and his father was a computer director at State Farm Insurance and had programmed in FORTRAN before moving into technology management.  Both parents had met in college as members of the cross-country track team.  His Mom, Beth, had been a Big Ten cross-country champion but had missed out on the Olympic team.  His Dad, Wilfred, had been a middle-distance runner and a pole vaulter.  

In 1980 when the first PC came out, Daniel started assembling PCs in his parent’s basement in Bloomington, Illinois.  Friends heard of the project and Daniel made some personal computers for neighbors, and then for friends of the neighbors.

The mailman must have thought there was something strange going on - packages from Intel, Microsoft, IBM, and solder, soldering irons, pliers, coils of electrical wires.  There was a steady stream to the Jackson household.  

At first, Daniel did the assembly and hardware with some help from his mother, Beth. .  Wilfred (Will) did the operating system and software. As they went on Daniel got stronger in software and even tried some Unix operating system activities.

 The “DJ” computer (for Daniel Jackson) was sold for $400 while the IBM PC was selling for $800.  Beth put up posters on campus - and soon there was a waiting list for the DJ computer.  Daniel wanted to drop out of high school and make computers full time, but his parents said “no way”.  With his schedule, he could make about four DJ Computers a week.  His cost (not counting his labor) was about $200, so Daniel made about $800 a week - not bad for a 14-year-old!!  

His waiting list kept growing - at first maybe 10 people, but by July 1st, 1981, there were 100 people wanting a DJ Computer.  Uncle Steve, Mom’s older brother,  was a business consultant and Will, Beth, and Daniel asked Uncle Steve for suggestions.  

Uncle Steve listened to Daniel and his sister Beth and brother-in-law Will describe the situation.  Uncle Steve’s first suggestion was simple economics - supply, and demand.  If the demand is high and the supply is low, you raise your price.  So, the DJ Computer went to a retail price of $600 (still cheaper than an IBM PC at $800).  

The second suggestion was having some help - that is employees.  Was the soldering and assembly a skilled position?  Could DJ Computers have an assembly line?  Could the jobs be attractive to some of Beth’s college students?  What would be their wages?  Would they have to provide benefits?

The third suggestion was to move it out of the Jackson’s basement.  Was there an old storefront or warehouse they could rent?  Will thought he could lean on State Farm to rent out some unused space and maybe even support the young entrepreneur with the space.  Will could see the local paper saying “Local company supports young entrepreneur”. 

The fourth suggestion was building parts in bulk - getting four motherboards a week cost about $125 a motherboard, but getting 100 motherboards at a time would lower the cost to about $80 a motherboard.  But they would have to store them someplace.

The fifth suggestion was to analyze the future.  Were personal computers a fad?  Was the technology changing?  The tech forecasters said the 8086 chip was going to be replaced by an 80286 chip soon.  What would that do to the business?  

The last suggestion was to incorporate to protect the liability.  If a buyer’s house burned down and it was discovered that a faulty DJ Computer was the cause, they could lose everything.  They could issue stock to finance the expansion.  Probably private stock to Will, Beth, and Daniel, then family - Uncle Steve and others.  

Daniel as a minor was unable to officially make the decisions, but as a teenage inventor, it was his business.  

The family (and Daniel) tackled the last suggestion first - to incorporate in the State of Illinois.  Will and Beth had a family attorney and asked him to help.  Louis Termin was very willing to help out.  They were incorporated as a family business.  Since it was Daniel’s business he got 20% of the stock, Dad and Mom got 35% between, Uncle Steve got 15%, and the last 30% was distributed to Daniel’s grandparents, sister, and other relatives. Uncle Steve was set up as the “Chief Financial Officer” and helped with taxes and financial decisions.  

*****

This simple business was taking off.  Daniel was still a high school student and did want to take part in high school activities.  He was tall but awkward.  He was on the junior varsity basketball team but didn’t play much - unless the team was way ahead or way behind.  His body was still growing and he was already, at age 15, 6 feet 3 inches tall, and a skinny 170 pounds.  

The board of directors (that is, the family) had a lot of planning to do.  Will had worked with State Farm to rent an empty 40-foot by 40-foot room.  State Farm had left over shelves and tables that they lent out to the DJ Computer Company.  So, the setting was ready.

Beth had a graduate student, Carlos Lopez, who needed a practicum for his master’s degree and they hired Carlos as interim director.  Carlos and Daniel got along quite well in analyzing the best chips, motherboards, peripherals, wiring, and other components.  

In about a month after the families initial meeting with Uncle Steve, DJ Computers Incorporated officially moved into 4125 El Dorado Road in Bloomington Illinois.  

*****

But, not all was rosy for DJ Computers.  All of a sudden, the PC market took off.  Everybody wanted a personal computer.  Some wanted the cute, user-friendly Apple II computer.  Others trusted the IBM model - after all, IBM was still the king of computing. Compact introduced a PC.  Even Oliveri, the Italian typewriter company, had a personal computer.

Carlos added a part-time employee who was majoring in marketing.  They put a sales ad in the Chicago Tribune and orders poured in.  It seemed like even with a facility, and money they could keep up, but they couldn’t.  Carlos, Will, and Daniel added a shuttle bus to and from the campus so they could hire students to work.  The students' picked up shifts from 4 to midnight.    They were making 500 computers a week, and the demand was for about 800 a week.  

Uncle Steve got sucked into the business full-time as purchasing agent, sales manager, human resources, and financial. With Beth’s help, he hired an MBA student in accounting to be his assistant.  As part of the hiring package, the MBA student assistant wanted a PC for his own use.  So Steve moved the assistant’s request to the top of the line.

Daniel was pushed to his limit.  He was a sophomore in high school, he still had assignments and school activities, and was now the CEO of a high-flying computer company.  It was fun sitting in his parent's basement, assembling computers, getting the right components, putting the chips in place, and installing the operating system, the disk drives (and controllers), speakers, printers (and interfaces).  But now, he wasn’t even getting his hands dirty. 

He decided he could sneak in (it really wasn’t sneaking) after 7 p.m. and get a chair and assemble a computer - just for fun.  He had a name badge that said “Roger Svabo”.  One of the security guards knew who he was but didn’t let anyone know.  

It was almost like being a spy.  Daniel could see some of the workers being a little sloppy in their work.  Maybe they didn’t really set the chips properly, or use a minimum of solder instead of dripping solder all over the motherboard.  For him, it was personal, for most others, it was only a job.  

One night, the student next to Daniel’s workbench had a name badge of Tom Wisnewski.  He had seen Tom before and liked him.  On the other side was John Reynolds.  That night, John was drunk and was making all kinds of mistakes.  Daniel took it as long as he could.  As a high school kid, it was out of place for him to tell John to go home, but it was HIS company, so he turned to John and said “John you have been drinking go home”.  

John replied “And who do you think you are?”

Daniel didn’t want to reveal that he was Daniel Jackson (or the “DJ” for DJ computers).  He flashed his name tag that said Roger Svabo and said “I’m Roger Svabo” in a calm voice.

John Reynolds laughed “Well kid, you are just a punk, so keep your mouth shut and mind your own business”.

Daniel repeated, “John, your work tonight is sloppy.  I can smell alcohol on your breath.  I think you should go home, otherwise, when we ship out the computer you're working on, it won’t work properly and the buyer will send it back”.

John was getting mad, “F**K YOU Punk.”

Well, that was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’.  Daniel stood.  He was maybe an inch or two taller than John Reynolds, but John was maybe 50 pounds heavier.  John stood face-to-face with Daniel.  

John Reynolds said, “Go home kiddie, you are wasting my time.”

Daniel said, “Go home John before you get in trouble”.

John laughed “And who's going to get me in trouble? Not you pipsqueak”.

Most of the workers had stopped and were watching the exchange. 

Daniel said to Tom Wisnewski, “Tom, get a manager and a guard”.  

Tom looked bewildered.  Who was this high school kid that was ordering him around?  And then looking closely at his co-worker, the pictures in the paper of Daniel Jackson matched this kid.  He gasped and blurted out, “You’re Daniel Jackson!!”.  

Meanwhile, John Reynolds was about to smack Roger Svado, but Tom Wisnewski yelled “STOP IT!!  He IS DANIEL JACKSON”.  

Now it was John Reynold’s turn to be confused.  He may have heard the name Daniel Jackson but he didn’t know what Daniel Jackson looked like.  He didn’t even associate the name Daniel Jackson with DJ Computers.  

Now there was a circle around John and Daniel - a big college student facing off against a tall but weak, nerdy, high school student.  It wasn’t going to be a fair fight.  

Tom Wisnewski jumped in-between John Reynolds and Daniel and red-faced yelled at John “Stop it, it is the owner of the company”.  

John laughed “Yeah, sure it is - a pimply-faced high school kid owns a big computer company like this”. 

But, the situation was dawning on some of the others who were working - they recognized Daniel from the pictures.  They were yelling at John “Stop”, and “It really is Daniel Jackson”. 

John’s brain was slow on the uptake - and took a big roundhouse swing at Daniel (or as the name tag said “Roger Svabo”).  Fortunately, his accuracy wasn’t good, and missed Daniel’s jaw by a few inches.

The night supervisor had rushed over as had a security guard.  Neither one recognized Daniel as the founder of the company.  The supervisor grabbed Daniel, and the security guard grabbed John and pulled him back.  

Tom Wisnewski jumped in between and yelled at the supervisor.  Tom said, “Let the kid go, he IS DANIEL JACKSON”. 

The supervisor stopped long enough to take a good look at Daniel.  He said, “Oh My God, it is Daniel Jackson”.  

Daniel with his flushed face and rapid pulse - blurted out, “Yes, I am Daniel Jackson.  Now send this guy home - he’s drunk and doing a lousy job”.

John Reynolds still didn’t understand - he yelled “You got the wrong guy, the kid is causing all the trouble.” But, by now, the supervisor, guard, Tom Wisnewski, and most of the other workers had recognized Daniel as the real Daniel Jackson - the creator of the DJ Computer.

The guard escorted John Reynolds to the door, John turned around and yelled “I’ll get you punk”. 

*****

Daniel turned to Tom Wisnewski - and said “Thank you” and gave him a hug.  He wasn’t quite sure what to do in such a situation, but hey, a hug for the guy who broke up the fight was good enough.

There wasn’t much work that night.  The workers crowded around Daniel and asked questions like “What are you doing here?”, “What’s it like to be a kid-millionaire”, “Are you really Daniel Jackson”.  The supervisor - a high school teacher doing some moonlighting to make a few bucks - said “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you, Mr. Jackson”.

That was over-the-top for Daniel “Just call me Daniel”.  

*****

News of the fight (or the almost fight) spread through the community.  John Reynolds apologized to Daniel and did admit he was drunk.  Daniel with Uncle Steve, and the board decided to forgive John Reynolds.  

John Reynolds did gain a negative reputation and formally quit a few weeks later.  

*****

Daniel, Dad, Mom, Steve, and all the board met that weekend.  Daniel had been talking with his parents and was going to step away from working on the assembly line.  Daniel had a development lab with some computer science and electrical engineers and that became his sandbox.

*****

End of week 1 - Daniel Brown Computing

So what will a millionaire high school computer geek do next week?  Will he invent something else?  Will he be like Michael Dell (who was a college student when he started making computers in his dorm room).  

Will he go on to college?  Will there be a girlfriend in his life?  (Or a boyfriend?)   Will he fill out and become the next Michael Jordan basketball player (I don’t think so).  Will he take up the tuba for fun and relaxation?

*****

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, FEBRUARY 18, 2023