ACN Volume 2 No  4 Fall 1989

                           TRUE HEROS
                                 by Michael Hauben

      A hero is not someone who only appears a hero in our eyes, but 
one who achieves good for the common man, against the will of the 
establishment. This person must be able to stand up against the 
common bad, instead of pleasing somebody. Often this person will 
either have all or most of society going against him. The hero must 
be able to stand up for what he believes in and not succumb to 
outside pressure.
      Galileo is a good example of a hero. He challenged the Church 
by publishing his scientific findings, which were against the then 
current and less accurate Aristotelian science. He kept on studying 
and his mind was unchanged even after the Inquisition challenged him. 
So in the end, when the Inquisition tried to silence him by putting 
him under house arrest, he still got his writings out to the people. 
Galileo would not be silenced by the Inquisition because in his 
search for the truth he was not afraid to oppose authority!
      Gary Kindall is another hero or at least part of a heroic 
movement. He was the creator of CP/M (Control Program for Micro-
processors), the first operating system for micro-computers. CP/M 
was developed during the beginning of the micro computer revolution. 
Before micro computers were developed, IBM (International Business 
Machines) and other big companies produced the only computers 
available. The computers that they marketed were incompatible 
mainframes and mini computers which only big businesses and big 
universities could afford. What the micro computer revolution 
brought together was a community of people who wanted to bring the 
power of computers to the common people, instead of just to these 
institutions. This community succeeded in making the personal 
computer. They insisted that the personal computer have an open 
architecture and be compatible. CP/M played a big part in making the 
personal computers compatible. After a while, IBM wanted to get into 
the micro computer market, so they introduced a micro computer that 
was incompatible with everything else. No one would have anything to 
do with this machine, so IBM was forced to come out with a more 
compatible and open machine! IBM went to Gary Kindall and asked to 
use a version of CP/M for the IBM PC (Personal Computer), but first 
they wanted him to sign a nondisclosure agreement. He wouldn't 
agree to IBM's requirement of secrecy because that would be 
breaking the micro computer principle of keeping everything open and 
available to all the people. So IBM didn't use CP/M. Instead they 
used something that was almost exactly like CP/M except it was 
developed especially for IBM's PC. Gary Kindall and the people who 
brought the micro computer into existence are heroes! They brought 
the secret of computer power from IBM and other big companies to all 
the people!
      Sports heroes and celebrities are not true heroes because they 
cannot bring about real changes. People like Galileo and Kindall are 
real heroes because they make a significant change in the world 
benefitting the common person. All ages have untrue heroes, but true 
heroes are rare.

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