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Palmer Luckey : The Home School Kid Who Brought a Revolution in the Virtual Reality

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An idea really can change your life, and if the idea is related to the technology, it is definitely going to turn your life around and give you many perks. The virtual reality was far from reality and only limited to the science-fiction stories and movies. But, a teenager brought the fiction into reality with its Virtual Reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift. Palmer Luckey is the mind behind such creative idea, that has changed the world of gaming and has opened new ways for Virtual Reality. The spotlight-shy engineer gives the credit to his home-schooling for his invention and the success that he earned at a young age.

Early Life

Palmer Luckey was born on 19 September 1992, in Long Beach, California, to parents Donald and Julie. His father was a salesman at a car dealership. Luckey did his initial schooling at his home, and it was her mother who tutored him. He grew an interest in the field of electronics and engineering at an early age and taught himself the same, through online classes. He grew up playing video games and watching sci-fi movies, developing an interest in virtual reality. During his childhood, he also went for the sailing lessons.

Palmer Luckey
Image Source: forbes.com

His passion for electronics engineering and virtual reality led him to try his hands on projects like coil guns, Tesla coils, and lasers. Also, based on the virtual reality, he created over 50 different head-mounted displays. One of his most expensive experiment was the development of a PC gaming rig using the elaborate six-monitor setup, costing him tens of thousands of U.S. dollars.

Along with the homeschooling, to earn the funding for his experiments, he worked at many places as a part-timer, including a groundskeeper job, youth sailing coach job, and a computer repair technician job. He also repaired and resold the old iPhones, earning at least US$36,000, from the business.

After completing the basic education, he took the community college courses at Golden West College and Long Beach City College, at the age of 14. He later took a journalism course in the California State University, Long Beach, and wrote for the student-run newspaper, Daily 49er, as an Online editor. At the same time, he started working as a part-time engineer at the Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) at the Institute for Creative Technologies and worked on a cost-effective virtual reality project.

Oculus Rift

Fascinated by electronics, lasers and virtual reality, Luckey at the age of 17, started experimenting with the head mounted virtual reality gears as he was not happy with his PC gaming rig. As it was not serving the purpose of creating a 3D environment for the gaming. In 2010, he developed his first prototype named PR1, followed by some other prototypes exploring features like 3D stereoscopy, wireless, and extreme 270-degree field-of-view. After developing the sixth generation VR box, he put it on crowdfunding website Kickstarter. By the year 2012, he received thousand of request regarding the availability of the VR box, and he dropped out of college so that he could focus on the advancement of the device.

During the process, he met the former executive of Gaikai and Scaleform, Brendan Iribe, and discussed the scope of the device, in the gaming world. Iribe liked the product and invested a thousand dollars in the production of the VR box for the Kickstarter campaign. The two started a company named Oculus VR, Iribe becoming the CEO and appointed Michael Antonov, as the chief software architect of the company. Luckey presented the VR box in front of Gabe Newell, Valve’s Managing director, Michael Abrash, a few gamers, as well as at many gaming conventions, including PAX, Gamescom, and QuakeCon 2012.

The Oculus Rift raised $2.4 million funding, during the Kickstarter campaign. Before the Kickstarter campaign, Luckey had shared that he is expecting to earn enough money that could compensate the money spent on the costs of parts, manufacturing, shipping, and credit card/Kickstarter fees, with about $10 left over for a celebratory pizza and beer. In fact, he had earned 974% of the original target, enough amount to buy a new office space and employ more staff for the company.

In March 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus VR for $3 billion, resulting in Luckey’s estimated net worth equal to $700 million, in 2015. Luckey continued working on Oculus within the Facebook office, till 2017. In 2017, he left the company without disclosing any particular reason to the media.

Personal Life

Luckey, even after, achieving so much at a young age, does not consider himself as a celebrity or a VIP. In fact, he is often seen in a casual look with a pair of sandals. After gaining the profits in the Facebook deal, Luckey bought a party house in the ritzy Silicon Valley town of Atherton, where he lives with his seven friends. He also spent $120,000 to buy a Tesla Model S. saying, “Elon Musk is a cool guy who deserves my money.”

The Journey of the World’s Largest Telecom Company

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at&t
Image Source: cbsistatic.com

Telecommunication industry is considered the most progressive industry in the world. In the past more than a hundred years, from its origin to until now, it has seen a radical change. The time changed, but the company that belonged to the inventor of the telephone, Graham Bell, is still standing strong as the leading multinational conglomerate holding company. AT&T known as the largest telecommunication company has its own part in the history of the development of the telecom industry.

Birth of AT&T

After the discovery of the telephone, Graham Bell founded a company named the Bell Telephone Company, in 1880. By 1885, the company evolved as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the AT&T Co. AT&T, later, acquired the Bell Telephone Company, in December 1899. It started getting a hold on the customers in Canada and the United States, resulting in AT&T’s monopoly in the telecommunication industry. This growing monopoly of AT&T provoked the US government to drag the company to the court for an antitrust challenge. Later, it was settled outside the court on the basis of the Kingsbury Commitment, resulting in the government-authorised monopoly with the name of Bells System. The merger continued for the entire 20th century. Also, the company became the largest telephone company in the world.

After continuing for over 80 years, in 1981, the government-authorised monopoly was dissolved by the US regulations and resulted in the origin of smaller companies, including the Southwestern Bell. All the smaller companies started due to the break-up of the monopoly were known as Regional Bell Operating Companies or Baby Bells. The breaking-up of the monopoly also resulted in a rise in competition for AT&T as other independent telecommunication companies, like MCI and Sprint also came into the business.

The new Southwestern Bell company was founded by Robert G. Pope, who led the company with some really successful acquisitions. The company not only worked in the telecommunication but also acquired some of the cable companies and entered into the business of cable connections. In 1990, the company was rebranded as SBC Communications. The success of the company led it to the list of top 500 Fortune companies, in 1999.

In 2005, the SBC Communications was rebranded again, as AT&T Co., after it acquired its previous parent company, AT&T, for $16 billion. It also retained the iconic logo and stock-trading symbol of older AT&T.

Current Status & Achievements

The AT&T’s acquisition was followed by the other important ones as well, including the Mexican carrier Iusacell (2014), NII Holdings (2014), DirecTV (2015), Time Warner (2016), etc. The DirecTV deal was worth $48.5 billion and AT&T spent $108.7 billion for the acquisition of Time Warner. By 2017, AT&T became the world’s largest telecommunications company and second largest provider of the mobile telephone. AT&T is also the largest provider of fixed telephone services in the United States.

Bruce McLaren : The Kiwi Motorsport Ace From New Zealand

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The great racer who not only raced the cars, also designed and engineered the best racing cars for the world of the car race. At an early age, Mclaren founded the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd. He was not just a racer but his extraordinary, but short life left a legacy behind him. The Kiwi motorsport icon Bruce McLaren lived his life devoted entirely to his passion.

Early Life

Bruce McLaren was born on August 30 1937, as Bruce Leslie McLaren, Auckland, New Zealand. His father, Les McLaren, was an engineer and motor car man. His father along with his wife Ruth McLaren ran a service station and workshop. Bruce completed his primary education from Meadowbank Primary School, Auckland. Suffering from the Perthes disease, at the age of nine, his left leg remained shorter than his right leg. Due to the disease, he spent the next two years of his life, in the Wilson Home in Takapuna, on a Bradford Frame for treatment and had to leave the school. After two years, he came back to his family and started correspondence classes with a tutor. After completing his high school education, he graduated in engineering from the Seddon Technical Memorial College.

Bruce’s father, being a motor car man, loved cars and car racing. In fact, before the birth of Bruce, he used to participate in the motorcycle racing. Due to some injury, during one of his races, he had to leave motorcycle racing. But, he continued car racing, even after the accident. As Bruce had spent most of his childhood among motors and racing enthusiasts, he also grew a passion for automobiles and racing.

Career in Racing

Bruce was 14 when his father brought an old Austin Ulster to their workshop. His father wanted to repair the car so that he could take part in a car race. The car needed repair and took almost a year, to get back onto the roads. Bruce and his father even skipped meals to get the car done. After getting a driver’s license, at the age of 16, Bruce entered the first race of his life, a hill climb, about 25 miles outside Auckland.

mclaren
Image Source: grandprixhistory.org

For his first real race, he drove the Ford 10 special, and later, moved to the Austin-Healey and an F2 Cooper-Climax sports. In March 1958, he participated in the New Zealand International Grand Prix and was the first runner-up. In the competition, he won the “Driver to Europe” scholarship and became first New Zealander to do so. On 15th March, Bruce left for England, where he drove for John Cooper of Cooper Cars, starting in the very first year in England.

In late 1958, he participated in the German Grand Prix, a combined F1 and F2 race, where he earned his name among the people of England. The next year, in 1959, he joined the Cooper factory F1 team, alongside Jack Brabham, and at the age 22, Bruce won the United States Grand Prix, becoming the youngest ever GP winner of that time. Brabham was the Australian car race driver, who was also in the NZIGP Association’s selection committee. After this win, he won the Argentine Grand Prix (1960), Monaco Grand Prix (1962), and New Zealand GP (1964).

In 1963, Bruce founded the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd, along with an American sponsor Teddy Mayer, and continued racing, winning many Cooper races. In 1965, he announced his own GP team. Like his father, in the same year, he also invested in a service station. The station was established in his hometown Aukland and was named as Bruce McLaren Motors. He worked with Cooper for 7 long years, and left it, to develop his own Formula One race car, winning the team’s first Grand Prix in 1968. In the same year, he won the 24 hours of Le Mans in a 7-litre Ford Mark IIA, and in 1969, the 12 hours of Sebring in a Ford Mark IV.

Personal Life

Bruce married his wife, Patricia Broad, on 9 December 1961. The couple had a daughter named Amanda. On 2 June 1970, while testing his new M8D, at the Goodwood Circuit in England, his car crashed on the Lavant Straight, just before Woodcote corner and he died in the accident, at the age of 32.

The racing team founded by Bruce continued participating in Formula One races and won 8 Constructors’ Championships and 12 Drivers’ Championships. He has got the Taupo Motorsport Park, in New Zealand, renamed Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in 2015. His name is inducted in the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, International Motorsports Hall of Fame and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.

Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner : The Founder & Former CEO of Opera Software

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Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner is one of the early pioneers of mobile web browser development. The Icelandic entrepreneur had always wanted to create browsers that fulfil the specific needs of the users. The man behind Opera, the much in demand, mobile web browser, and the former CEO of Opera Software is a browser Visionary. The values, that this 6’5” businessman holds, has led the two of his browsers to become the most loved browsers of all.

Early Life

Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner was born on 29 August 1967, in Reykjavík, Iceland. His father Stephen von Tetzchner is of Norwegian ethnicity and worked as a professor of psychology. His mother Elsa Jónsdóttir belongs to the Icelands. Tetzchner spent most of his childhood in Seltjarnarnes with his grandparents. He completed his education from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík School and later, moved to Norway, to pursue a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Oslo.

Founding Opera

In 1991, after graduating with a master’s degree from the University of Oslo, Tetzchner started working at the Norwegian state phone company, that was later, renamed as Telenor. Tetzchner was a member of a research team of the company, where he met Geir Ivarsøy. Tetzchner and Geir, with the team, developed a browsing software called MultiTorg Opera. Due to some reasons, Telenor abandoned the project. Tetzchner and Geir were familiar with the potential of the project, hence acquired the rights related to it. In 1995, both Tetzchner and Geir, left the company to establish their own software development firm, named as Opera Software, Tetzchner becoming the CEO, and Geir the lead programmer of the company. The two kept on working on and improving the Opera browser to make it more user-friendly.

Tetzchner Jon
Image Source: www.tu.no

In 1998, the two started working on the different platform compatibility of Opera Browser, and in 2000, launched Opera 4.0, a multi-platform compatible browser. The first four of the versions of the browser that Opera launched, were all paid, providing the user one month trial period. But, after Opera’s fifth version came, all of the Opera versions were free to use. The new versions of Opera browser received sponsorship from displaying ads on it.

On 21 April 2005, the company launched Opera 8. At the launch meeting, Tetzchner announced that he would swim in the Atlantic Ocean from Norway to the United States if the new Opera 8 will get one million downloads, within four days. He made the statement and had to complete the challenge only after two days of its launch, as the downloads for Opera 8 reached 1,050,000 by 23 April. Though he could not complete the challenge and fail in no time.

As soon as Opera Software launched the Opera 8.5, the ads were removed from the browser, and Opera received a sponsorship from Google, making Google its default search engine.

As the CEO of the company, Tetzchner led Opera Software successfully, making it global, and established its offices in 13 different countries, including Poland, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, US, Iceland and Singapore.

In January 2010, Tetzchner left the post of the CEO of Opera, and in June 2011, he officially left Opera, to found Vivaldi Technologies. At the time he was the CEO of Opera Software, the Opera browser had reached 350 million users. Now, Opera Software is a Chinese company.

Tetzchner, in December 2013, started a new venture Vivaldi Technologies, and launched its new web browser Vivaldi 1.0 version, in April 2016. Tetzchner serves as the CEO of the company. Vivaldi Technologies is a self-funded company, in which the employees hold the equity.

Jerry Yang : An Internet Entrepreneur & Founder of Yahoo!

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Destiny and hard work play a vital role in the success of a person. Not neglecting the hard work, to achieve something big, you have to be at the right place at the right time. The Taiwanese-American Internet entrepreneur, Jerry Yang had his circumstances, that brought him from Taiwanese to California, when he just knew a single word from Engish, i.e. Shoe. It took him only three years to master the language. As soon he became proficient with English, his aptitude proved his excellence in other fields too.

Early Life

Yang was born on 6 November 1968, as Yang Chih-Yuan in Taipei, Taiwan, to an English professor mother. He lost his father at the age of two. Yang was just ten, when his mother, along with him and his younger brother, moved to San Jose, California, in 1978. His mother taught English to the other immigrants, and the two children grew with their grandparents.

Jerry Yang
Image Source: South China Morning Post

Yang joined the United States Educational System in San Jose, where he excelled at every other subject. His remarkable performance made his teachers to put him in advanced classes for gifted students. He attended the Stanford University, where he earned the bachelor’s as well as the master’s degree in electrical engineering, just in four years. In 1989, at the university, he met his future partner and a fellow Stanford student, David Filo.

Founding Yahoo!

During the time, Yang was studying at the Stanford University, the internet was making its base in the city of San Jose. Yang became familiar with this new technology and decided to learn more about it. In 1994, he along with his friend David Filo created a web directory, that included the names and addresses of other websites. The two, named the website, as Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web. After a few months, it became popular and was renamed as Yahoo Inc.!! Within a few months, the website gained 100,000 unique visitors.

With the increasing popularity, Sequoia Capital became its first official investor by investing $2 million in the venture. Yang and Filo becoming the Chief Yahoo appointed Tim Koogle as the first CEO of the company. Within one year of Yahoo’s launch, it gained the attention of other venture capitalists too, gaining more and more fundings.

In 1998, Yahoo was the most popular starting point for web users, and by 2004, Yahoo had its own search software. In 2007, Yang replaced the second CEO of Yahoo, Terry Semel and served as the CEO for two years. In 2012, Yang left Yahoo.

Share in Alibaba

In 1997, Yang had gone for a trip to China, where he met the founder of Alibaba; Jack Ma. At the time Jack Ma was working as a government employed tour guide and had taken Yang to the Great Wall of China. Their meeting included a conversation based on the development of the web. And after a few months, Jack Ma started working on Alibaba.

In 2005, Yang made Yahoo buy a 40% stake in Alibaba paying $1 billion. Yahoo, under Yang’s direction also bought the assets of Yahoo! China, for $700 million. Later, there was an alteration in the shares, as Yahoo sold a small portion of it, later buying another portion from the Alibaba stakes, again.

Yang as an Angel Capitalist

In 2015, Yang started his capital venture named as AME Cloud Ventures. According to another venture capitalist, Rob Solomon, Yang was “a great founder, evangelist, strategist and mentor”, having “created the blueprint for what is possible on the Internet. Till date, Yang has funded over 50 startups including Tango, Evernote, Wattpad, Vectra Networks Inc.

Personal Life

Yang is married to Akiko Yamazaki, whom he met during his student-exchange program to Japan, in 1992. The two are currently living in Los Altos Hills, California. Yang is the member of the boards of many technology companies and is also involved in philanthropy.

Karl Benz : The German Inventor & the Founder of Mercedes Benz

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The founder of the world’s first automobile, powered by an internal combustion engine, and one of the most expensive cars in the world, Karl Benz was a German engineer and entrepreneur. The great inventor who introduced the world with his signature design of the first horse-less carriage has been inspiring the world for years.

Early Life

Karl Benz was born on 25 November 1844, as Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant, to Johann Georg Benz, a locomotive driver, and Josephine Vaillant, in Mühlburg, Germany. During the time of his birth, his parents were not married, but, tied the knots, only after a few months of his birth. After the wedding, Karl received his father’s surname Benz. But, his father died of pneumonia when Karl was just 2 years old.

Karl Friedrich Benz
Image Source: jarmunaplo.hu

Karl completed his school education from the local Grammar School, and joined the Poly-Technical University, for further education. The founder of the science-based mechanical engineering, Ferdinand Redtenbacher, was one of his professors, at the University. In 1860, he started studying mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe. On 9 July 1864, he graduated from the university as a mechanical engineer, at the age of 19.

Career

As soon Karl graduated, he looked for a job and started working as a mechanical engineer. He switched between many companies for almost 7 years, but could not fit in. He worked as a draftsman in a scales factory, worked for a bridge building company, and even worked in an iron construction company.

In 1872, Karl joined his hands with August Ritter and started an Iron Foundry and Mechanical Workshop, named as Machines for Sheet-metal Working, in Mannheim. Due to his partner’s irresponsible behaviour, the first year of the company went really bad. The company was facing losses, so, Karl’s fiancée Bertha Ringer, acquired the shares of August Ritter, with the money of her dowry.

Karl started working on the various vehicle parts, including ignition, spark plugs, gear, carburettor, water radiator, and clutch. He loved running bicycles and always wanted to make an automotive bicycle. His another dream was to replace the horse carts with the automotive engine carriages. In December 1885, Karl assembled his first two-seater, fully powered gas car. He received the patent for the two-stroke engine in 1879.

Karl was clear about his intentions, and soon he patented the speed regulation system, the ignition using sparks with battery, the spark plug, the carburettor, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator.

Due to the high expenditure on the experiments, Karl and Bertha became weaker, financially, and were forced to sell the shares of their company to photographer Emil Bühler and his brother. The company was renamed to Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim, in 1882, and Karl had only 5% of shares left in it. In 1883, Karl resigned from the company.

The Rise of Benz Motors

In 1883, After leaving Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim, Karl with Max Rose, the owner of a bicycle repair shop, founded Benz & Companie Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik. The company had 25 employees and became popular with the name Benz & Cie.

With the company, Karl started working on a horse-less carriage, named as Benz Patent Motorwagen, and registered the patent for the same, on 29 January 1886, as DRP-37435. With the four-stroke engine, he developed the carriage, that was pulled by a bicycle and, was based on the similar technology, when he created an automobile.

Karl kept on improving the vehicles and launched the next version of the same, the Motorwagen Model 2, in 1889, followed by the Model 3 in the same year. In 1988, the Motorwagen was open for sale and received a good response from the public.

In 1988, Bertha Karl’s wife along with their two children, went on a drive on the Motorwagen, from their hometown to Bertha’s mother’s house, in Pforzheim. The distance between the two places was 106 km, and it is said to be the first longest trip done on the Motorwagen. The motive behind the drive was to make people aware of the feasibility of the newly invented carriage. Interestingly, Karl was not aware of the trip and Bertha informed him about her success through a telegram.

Karl kept on experimenting, and by 1899, his company had 430 employees, producing 572 units of their product, becoming the largest automobile company in the world.

Soon, with the time, Karl produced a few racing cars and some affordable personal vehicles for people. Karl also gets the credits for building the first truck with an internal combustion engine (1895) and the flat engine (1896).

In 1906, Karl Benz, Bertha Benz, and their son, Eugen, founded the private company, C. Benz Sons, Karl remaining the director of Benz & Cie. The company was established 10 kilometres east of Mannheim, nearby Ladenburg, producing automobiles, gas and petrol engines. The company produced affordable vehicles, becoming most popular in London as taxis.

In 1923, Germany went through a rapid inflation, resulting in a lesser production of vehicles. Benz & Cie signed the “Agreement of Mutual Interest” with the infamous DMG (Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft), that was valid till 2000. Under the agreement, the two brands produced vehicles with mixed technologies, maintaining their own brands. It lifted both the companies shares, and the two managed to fight the economic crisis.

The two companies together launched the diesel trucks line, in 1927, and Karl served as the board member of the newly founded company until he died. Many of the Karl’s first and most important inventions are still preserved in Mannheim.

Personal Life

Karl Benz married his fiancee, Bertha Ringer, on 20 July 1872. The couple had five children. On 25 November 1914, on his seventieth birthday, the Karlsruhe University awarded Karl Benz an honorary doctorate.

On 4 April 1929, Karl Benz died from a bronchial inflammation, at the age of eighty-four. In 2011, a movie named Carl & Bertha was made on the life story of Karl and Bertha.