America 1982-Chapter 646 - 149: New Life_3

Then, another American actor arranged by Charles took the stage, Al Gore’s personal friend, the former president of Tennessee State University, now the Deputy Secretary of Education for the United States, Ted Sanders. He had his secretary call VOX News Network to get in touch with Zoey. Over the phone, he said that after watching the news, he discussed with the minister the issues currently facing East Germany, and both the minister and he were very willing to show America’s goodwill. The United States Department of Education was considering offering cross-national higher education accreditation and pre-accreditation to those students in East Germany who were at risk of dropping out or losing their education. That is to say, as long as these East German high school students passed the accreditation, their qualifications would be recognized by American universities. Once recognized, they could apply to study in the United States and might be admitted into an American university.

Then he sent the complicated text materials required for American accreditation via a series of emails to Zoey in Germany. Zoey had her assistant print them out and handed them to Hans, who was very moved. He was somewhat choked up as he thanked the United States for its help and marveled at the miracle of American technology. He asked why Zoey’s laptop could do all this and then expressed his envy for the lucky American children who could use such convenient technology to spread messages and knowledge.

Zoey also emotionally contacted the Vox headquarters right away, and the headquarters expressed their willingness to purchase a thousand laptops equipped with AmigaOS to give to the other party. The members of the Peace Corps present also expressed their willingness to run a computer training school.

With that, the advertisement ended. The reason why this interview is referred to as an advertisement is that on the surface, the help offered by the United States sounded good. After all, it was the Deputy Secretary of Education of the leading nation in the world who personally called during a live broadcast. It couldn’t be a scam, but in reality, those words were of no use. They were just an opportunity to move the American public watching the news.

Aside from creating the illusion of sending a stack of documents needed for transnational education accreditation, there were no official promises.

As for when the accreditation would be approved, that depended on the minister’s mood. The Deputy Secretary of Education’s tone and stance during the live phone call made it seem as though the East German high school students could come to the United States to enjoy a free university life just by filling out a form, thereby garnering more goodwill toward the United States from the television audience.

A simple inquiry would reveal that even American students have to take out loans for college. How could a group of East Germans expect to easily enjoy such benefits, and who knows if there are any East German spies among them?

Similar advertisements kept popping up in the following days. This included, but was not limited to, a large number of photos of East German beauties posted on websites under the guise of searching for family members who had gone to places like France, Italy, the United States, etc. The website was also able to get the East German Minister of Family and Women to endorse it. Honestly, rather than a family search website, it looked more like a cross-national matchmaking site, with details such as body type, height, and contact information posted.

Then there were stories of romance between East German beauties, new to the United States and without friends or family, and the kind, gentle American Peace Corps male students willing to offer assistance. The parties involved even made a high-profile return to the United States to register their marriages.

These emerging news stories suddenly made Americans realize that AmigaOS was much more practical than a regular gaming console. Owning an AmigaOS could give you the chance to marry a gentle and virtuous East German beauty who wasn’t picky about ordinary American rural life. Many young white Americans in rural areas or young people from the lower strata of urban areas purchased AmigaOS and MCI telecommunications services with this wonderful idea in mind, all to log into that family search website. The subsequent chain reaction even led citizens of other Soviet states to see the happy lives of young East German women and realize that technology could change their fate. They began to self-learn how to use the AmigaOS and the Midas browser from Stanford, trying to get online for a different way of life, but it was challenging because those countries barely had access to the United States-led public nodal network. They would have to wait until the First Ladies of the Soviet Union and the United States came to an agreement, which might give them a chance to go online.

For those American users who simply entered the world of the Internet out of curiosity, once they mastered the basics of surfing, they realized that giving it up might be harder than quitting smoking.

When you open the Midas browser, a navigation page pops up. While there aren’t many websites listed, the variety is already quite comprehensive, covering everything from arts and culture to world affairs, political news, to supermarket discounts, celebrity gossip, and prostitution prices. Whatever your hobby, if you want to find people to talk to, you will find the right place to go. There will always be a website forum where someone is willing to discuss with you why a streetwalker in Queens, New York charges $50 per service, while in Brooklyn, the price is $70.

There will also always be two music fans from different cities on a message BBS discussing the performance of their favorite singer when they give a concert in their city.

After attracting user attention with historical events, sales of AmigaOS began to rise gradually.

When the latest million computers sold in the whole country showed that 44% were purchased by home users, with AmigaOS installations accounting for a staggering 63%, Microsoft promptly abandoned its overseas plans in England and, together with a group of companies, submitted a detailed explanation report to the Federal Congress and the Department of Education accusing Stanford University of maliciously holding various patents for graphic browsing software that allegedly hindered industry development.

The content can be summarized in one sentence: Stanford University must hand over the key to the Internet because the Internet is free.

Stanford was bound to lose this battle, but with stalling tactics, it could probably be dragged out for two to three years. Microsoft clearly could not wait that long. It, or they, would surely engage in some very covert actions to enter the Internet’s gateway as soon as possible, such as getting a few small overseas and domestic companies to ignore patent rights and develop browser software for free distribution to users.

However, dealing with Microsoft was no longer Tommy’s job, because on the same day that Microsoft submitted its report to Congress, he formally announced at a board meeting that he was resigning from his current position, retaining only his board member status and his shares. He completely handed over the company’s management to Susy and Jason. The shareholders approved Tommy’s decision based on the company’s sales data over that period; after all, it had been Susy at the forefront during this time, with sales climbing steadily.

Tommy liked Susy’s decisiveness and ruthlessness. Susy had already anticipated and prepared countermeasures to Microsoft’s typical little tricks. Actually, it was quite simple: bundle some of the patents for graphic browsing software held by Stanford University and the company with some even more advanced patents and license them to the Department of Defense’s military research and development agencies. If those companies infringed, they could expect special forces to kick down their doors on grounds like damaging or leaking military secrets. If the military found out those companies were instructed by Microsoft, the Pentagon would understand extortion better than Susy.

As for Tommy Hawk, he had more important things waiting for him—the Hawk Family was about to welcome a new life.