Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 245 Oracle
In the summer of , after finishing the release of "Star Wars", Ethan and Evelyn went to Boston to meet with Ralph Bell, the inventor of the video game patent, and then transferred to Dow spent a day in Washington to see the new unit of Archmage Barbara Babcock, and was given a curious tour by Vinton Cerf, the patent owner of the TCP/IP protocol. DoD.

According to the two people's original intention, the trip was just a break from the busy schedule and to maintain the interpersonal relationships around them. But when communicating with Evelyn's teacher Vinton Cerf, he complained to them that the work of DoD was difficult. At that time, he was developing a joint communication system for the navy, army and air force for DoD. In order to ensure that ordinary people who don't know computers can use the system quickly, they need to develop a special and specific data storage and retrieval tool for ordinary people.

If we have to describe it, what the DoD wants is actually the convenience of later software. The software can be opened by double-clicking the mouse. What follows is a fool-proof operation process to check the information sent by the three armed forces and store it in the database. As long as you can understand the text, everything will be easy.

But these things that will be very easy in the future are not so easy to do in this era. When computers are not accepted by the general public, how can you connect the navy, army and air force together?

That is a very painful thing.

It would be the same even if Vinton Cerf did it.

What gave him even more headaches was that when he was leading his team to compile the software, the CIA next door was also working on something similar. If they were all doing research and development, then there would certainly be no problem. However, the CIA did not choose to develop it on its own, but chose to purchase it. Moreover, their purchase price was much lower than the funding for Vinton Cerf's self-research project. So, problems arose.

Every agency has limited funding. If you use more, others will get less. When the CIA said that they would not develop the software themselves but would purchase it, the DoD also expressed the same opinion. They also wanted to outsource the software and let Vinton Cerf's team concentrate on setting up the data transmission network.

It was not until Vinton Cerf said that it was impossible to outsource the database connecting the three armed forces to an individual, and that outsourcing to the CIA would most likely go wrong, that the DoD approved his self-developed project.

Then, Vinton Cerf, who felt that the DoD was too slow and the CIA was too stupid, complained about everything on the day he met Ethan. He also mentioned the name of the other party's outsourcing company, the Software Development Laboratory, and the other party's office address, the Bay Area, and asked Ethan to go and see if there was any problem with this shell company.

If there is……

He won't be polite if he's annoyed to death.

Ethan took Vinton Cerf's instructions very seriously, because he was not only Evelyn's teacher, but also a good friend of Barbara Babcock and the builder of the Internet. When the key to the next era was in his hands, Ethan would have to be kicked in the head by a donkey to do it perfunctorily.

So, after returning to Stanford, Ethan handed the matter over to Julis Noble, asking her to investigate first and he would come later. But during Julis's exploration, Nintendo, the traitor, made trouble and launched COLOR TV GAME in the book.

This situation forced Ethan to free his hands to knock it down.

After a busy period, Ethan, who had stuffed Nintendo's head into the toilet with his own hands, finally had time to look through the report given to him by Julis. When he found that there was nothing wrong with the software development laboratory and it did not seem like they were trying to cheat on subsidies, but he also estimated that nothing could be done, he sent a fax to Vinton Cerf to say that everything was fine.

But now——

The software development lab exploded?
Did they really develop what the CIA wanted?
What the hell! How is this possible!

Ethan couldn't believe it.

When he flipped through the fax and continued reading, the content made him frown even more.

Because in the fax sent by Vinton Cerf, the Software Development Laboratory had already delivered the first version of the database to the CIA, and Vinton Cerf also obtained the other party's research and development information.

The database of the Software Development Laboratory was built based on the paper 'R System: A Theory of Database Relations' published by IBM in 1976. The first version of the system they submitted was written in assembly language. Although it looked very simple, it already had the functions of data writing and querying, and could also implement transaction commit and rollback operations. According to the report received by the CIA, the next step for the Software Development Laboratory is to add functions such as inserting, deleting and updating old data to the database.

These facts satisfied the CIA.

Once the CIA was satisfied, the DoD was not.In other words, other teams that had previously proposed software outsourcing and did not want to have a large amount of funds taken up by Vinton Cerf were dissatisfied.

Although these things are just internal conflicts of the DoD and are unlikely to develop into public conflicts known to everyone in society, Vinton Cerf is now embarrassed. He wants to continue his research, but other teams are just trying to save money. He wants to refute, but the CIA's outsourced software is indeed good.

What was even more strange to him was that the storm this time came out of nowhere. Many teams were not attacking his technology, but his overall view. Many people praised his technology but criticized his narrow vision. This half-praise, half-criticism behavior made him feel like he was being targeted.

[Evelyn, I will figure out the situation here at DoD myself, but it will take time.]

[So, I'll leave the matter in California to you.]

[Earlier, after investigating the company, Ethan said that the company was not embezzling CIA funds, but at the same time, they only had eight people and should not be able to support the development of the project. But now they have succeeded, so I want to know, why did the company develop the database so quickly? ]

[I don’t understand how a R&D team of eight people could come up with something before us?]

【Is there someone else behind them? 】

【I think someone might be targeting me.】

Seeing this, Ethan breathed a sigh of relief at the last paragraph of the fax.

Although Vinton Cerf was somewhat angry, dissatisfied, and unhappy, he was still rational and did not put all the blame on him before the matter was investigated clearly.

And Vinton Cerf's still rational behavior also made Ethan feel a little guilty.

On the one hand, he attached great importance to his relationship with Vinton Cerf, but on the other hand, he did not go to the site to conduct research and investigation in person. This was really inappropriate.

Even if there are accidents by Nintendo, these can't actually be the reasons, can they?

He raised his head again and looked at his sister. The serious face made him purse his lips and said, "I don't know why things turned out like this, but... I can assure you that I didn't mean to be perfunctory to Wenton."

"I know he taught you a lot, and his things are your things, so..."

"I've never been perfunctory with you, right?"

Ethan looked at his sister with a frank expression.

Evelin's face also softened.

"So what do you think is going on now?"

"I don't know." Ethan shook his head. "But from Vinton Cerf's description, he should have been targeted? After all, where there are conflicts of interest, there will be different factions."

After reading the fax sent by Vinton Cerf, Ethan felt that the professor's feeling was correct.

As the saying goes, where there are people, there is the world, and where there is the world, there will be fighting.

The cause of this fight may be for fame or for profit, but no matter what it is for, everyone is fighting for an opportunity to succeed and limited resources.

And Ethan’s words also made Evelin fall into silence.

It seemed as if he was thinking about the probability, but it also seemed more like he was pondering Ethan's attitude.

But soon, she turned her eyes to the lunch box in front of Ethan.

Just as she was about to speak, Ethan covered the lunch she had just taken two bites of.

"I'm done eating."

"what?"

"Let's go and take a look at the scene."

Ethan took out a tissue and wiped his mouth, rolled up the fax document and walked out of the office.

After jumping a few meters away, he retreated again.

Looking at the stunned figure, he said: "Hey hey hey - you don't want to wait for me here, do you?"

Evelin came back to her senses and pointed at the lunch box. This action made Ethan curl his lips and said, "You won't starve to death if you don't eat a meal, but you will really die if you are targeted by the enemy."

"Let's go. If you have nothing else to do, come back and eat later."

Ethan stepped forward, grabbed Evelyn’s wrist, and dragged her out.

Two years ago, when Vinton Cerf told Ethan and Evelyn about the software development lab, he gave the address as Santa Clara, near Palo Alto, but when Ethan drove there himself, the company with the insurance sign made them blink.

After the accompanying bodyguard inquired clearly, he found out that the software development laboratory had moved long ago.

"Moved? Where did you move to?"

"Redwood City..."

This address made Ethan turn the car around, step on the accelerator and drive back to Silicon Valley, heading towards the license plate pointed out by the insurance company. When the huge sign of the associated software company appeared, Ethan instinctively narrowed his eyes.

He always felt like something was wrong.

The sudden strange feeling made him decisively give up the bodyguard and ask him about the operation of the door first. He got out of the car and took a step. As he appeared, the receptionist of this company suddenly opened his mouth wide.

"you you you you--"

The young female receptionist's eyes widened and she was speechless in shock.

"Ethan Jones."

Ethan introduced himself and nodded and smiled at the female receptionist.

After appearing on national radio and television networks many times, he was prepared to be recognized when he walked on the street, so he was not surprised at this moment. Looking around, the palm-sized storefront met the description of a startup company in the information.

but--

How could such a small company develop the software the CIA wanted before Vinton Cerf?

This is a bit unbelievable no matter how you look at it!
"Is your boss here? I need to talk to him about something."

After a brief observation, Ethan turned his gaze to the receptionist at the front desk.

He decided to go straight to the point.

Although he doesn't understand technology and doesn't understand why this company is so awesome, he knows how to tell whether this company is awesome or not - just by meeting the company's founder.

Because if the other party is really a technical master, Ethan will definitely be able to recognize him.

This is the confidence of a time traveler!

The straightforward words also helped the receptionist to calm down.

Even though Ethan smiled, his face was filled with spring breeze, but the female receptionist still chose to be businesslike at the moment, "Uh... I'm sorry, Mr. Jones, our boss is not in the company right now."

"When will he be back?" Ethan continued to ask with a smile.

"Mr. Jones, I can't answer your question." The receptionist said with regret, "Mr. Jones, what do you want to talk to our boss about? I can take note of it first."

"That way, when our boss returns, I can immediately tell him about your visit."

The neither humble nor arrogant words made Ethan turn his head.

When he looked at Evelyn, the girl gave him a knowing look.

At this moment, both of them felt that the owner of this company should be in Washington.

They may have been left there by the CIA and never returned.

And if this is the case, things will be a bit troublesome.

Because this means that the CIA had just obtained the database when the DoD got the news of the test. Perhaps before the test was completely completed, some people in the DoD had already attacked Vinton Cerf.

'enemy.'

Ethan winked at his sister.

'enemy.'

Evelyn returned the affirmative look.

"Okay." Since the two had reached a consensus, Ethan no longer concealed it.

He explained to the receptionist in a calm tone: "It's like this, I recently heard that your company is developing a computer database product, so I want to learn more about it."

"If there are results and they are useful, we will definitely be interested in purchasing them."

"Since you know me, you should know that we are preparing for a national video game competition. According to our partner, the National Football League, there should be a lot of contestants this time, so we need a tool that can aggregate their personal information."

“Rather than traditional paper documents.”

"We want the simplicity and convenience of Excel."

"do you understand?"

According to the normal visiting process, Ethan should leave a message and wait for the other party to contact him.

But when the enemy's identity has been revealed, catching the low-level employees off guard before they are alert is the best way to obtain information.

Sure enough, when Ethan explained his purpose, the receptionist immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

She smiled and nodded at Ethan, saying, "Oh - Mr. Jones - you are really well-informed."

"Our company is indeed developing a database product and has already started selling it. If you want to learn more about this database, you can sit in our reception room for a while. I'll call a technical specialist to introduce the product to you. Is that okay?"

"Of course!" Ethan liked this result very much.

“Then this is—” The receptionist looked at Evelin.

"My sister."

"Oh - Ms. Johnson, it's so nice to meet you."

The receptionist nodded and smiled at Evelin, walked out of the workbench, made a gesture of invitation to the two of them, and led them to the reception room on the side.

After serving the mineral water that Ethan and Evelin asked for, she stepped on high heels and walked upstairs.

Just like the small front of the company, the reception room of the associated software company only had two sofas and a coffee table, and there was no extra information for Ethan to capture.

But this is not important. Two minutes after they sat down, the sound of footsteps coming downstairs came from far away, and the receptionist came in with a white middle-aged man in his thirties.

This guy was wearing a blue plaid shirt and a pair of thick-bottomed black-framed glasses. He was not tall and had slightly round cheeks, giving people a naive look.

When he saw Ethan, he decisively reached out his hand and wanted to shake hands with him.

After a simple greeting, the three of them sat down again and started talking about business directly.

As soon as this little chubby guy opened his mouth, Ethan's heart skipped a beat, because——

"Mr. Jones, Ms. Johnson, we are glad that you have chosen our connected software company."

"Our product, Oracle, has been developed to the second version..."

"Wait!" When Ethan heard the word Oracle, he immediately interrupted the other person, "What did you say? The name of your product is Oracle?"

The rude behavior startled the two people in the reception room.

Evelyn gave Ethan a questioning look.

The little fat boy blinked his eyes and immediately returned to normal. "Oh - Mr. Jones, you heard it right. Our company's product is called Oracle."

"You may find this name a bit strange, because it is a religious term 'oracle' from ancient Greece, but this is actually a preference of our founder. He thought this name could bring him good luck, so he used it..."

"This behavior isn't weird, right?"

“Just like your company is named after destiny, all we want is a bright future.”

Although the little fat boy explained it beautifully, the smile no longer appeared on Ethan's face.

Isn't the name 'Oracle' a weird one?
of course!

For an American, this name is normal!
But for Ethan, all this is problematic!
Because in a few decades, someone will translate 'Oracle' into 'Oracle'!
And the product of the relational software company is called Oracle?
“Is your boss Larry Ellison?”

Ethan asked calmly.

But a tsunami has already set off in my heart.

"Yeah!"

The little fat boy was very surprised and asked, "Mr. Jones, have you heard of our boss's name?"

"Oh - this is really a pleasant surprise!"

“Fuck—”

Ethan didn't answer, he had already started cursing in his heart!

He doesn't know Larry Ellison!
But he knew that things were serious!
Because the company that made Vinton Cerf uncomfortable was Oracle!
Notes: ① In real life, Larry Ellison handed over the first version of Oracle database to the CIA in 1979. ② Before officially changing its name to Oracle in 1982, it used the names "Software Development Laboratory", "Relational Software Company" and "Associative Software Company". ③ Oracle literally means oracle, which is related to ancient Greek divination. It is translated into oracle for the sake of accuracy and elegance.

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(End of this chapter)