Silicon Valley
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
There is a stretch of land located in northern California, between San Francisco and San Jose, known as Silicon Valley. The name is derived from several seemingly unrelated coincidences.
First, the substance known as silicon (not to be confused with the more popular substance of similar name used for surgical augmentation of mammaries) is evidently required in the manufacturing of computer chips.
Second, it so happens that a number of successful companies in the computer industry have started it all here.(see "computer revolution")
These facts, combined with the huge success of the personal computer(PC), especially the ability to interconnect several PCs to form a network (the most widely known being the internet, of which the reader is undoubtedly aware) have allowed a number of small startups to make millions in a short while.
The apparent economic invincibility of anything related to the computer industry, more specifically the so called "internet startup", has attracted the attention of venture capitalists. Quick to realise the potential for profit, they began to pour large amounts of money into all sorts of these companies, resulting in hordes of young, relatively uneducated millionaires who have yet to turn a profit from their internet startups.
The above mentioned phenomenon has attracted more and more eager millionaire wanna be-s, resulting in a disproportionate number of single young males (see "nerd"), and a sharp rise in rent and real estate prices.
First, the substance known as silicon (not to be confused with the more popular substance of similar name used for surgical augmentation of mammaries) is evidently required in the manufacturing of computer chips.
Second, it so happens that a number of successful companies in the computer industry have started it all here.(see "computer revolution")
These facts, combined with the huge success of the personal computer(PC), especially the ability to interconnect several PCs to form a network (the most widely known being the internet, of which the reader is undoubtedly aware) have allowed a number of small startups to make millions in a short while.
The apparent economic invincibility of anything related to the computer industry, more specifically the so called "internet startup", has attracted the attention of venture capitalists. Quick to realise the potential for profit, they began to pour large amounts of money into all sorts of these companies, resulting in hordes of young, relatively uneducated millionaires who have yet to turn a profit from their internet startups.
The above mentioned phenomenon has attracted more and more eager millionaire wanna be-s, resulting in a disproportionate number of single young males (see "nerd"), and a sharp rise in rent and real estate prices.
