Customer Reviews

Code Rush [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The bunch of programmers at Netscape actually come through as a nice bunch of people working hard against what seems like a hopeless situation. Gives a good insight to programmers and what drives them to do the things they do.

I saw this documentary about six months ago and it gave me a whole new understanding of what programmers have to go through. They have to put off their own lives (and their families) to finish their job.

Kudos to the filmamkers

Code development is a profession where one can work sixty hours a week and be considered a slacker. When the opportunity is there, all other things in your life are lowered to a position of secondary relevance. As technology companies are born, live fast and die, some do survive and make at least some of their employees wealthy. It is this dream of the great golden ring that keeps so many people up late pounding the keys, ingesting bad food and caffeine and sacrificing their personal health and that of their relationships.
This is the story of Netscape, the company that was the first to have an IPO that soared on the first day it was traded, which started the technology IPO frenzy. However, once the Microsoft giant awoke and aggressively pushed its' browser to the world, Netscape's fortunes declined rapidly, to the point where their primary product could not be sold. At that time, the Netscape management made a major decision, to post their source code to the world, in the hope that developers would take it and improve it for free. As a new business model, it was untested and the analysts really did not know how to react to such a move. However, it was clear that it generated very little excitement and you can visibly see how that deflates the Netscape employees.
As a story of a technology business, this tape is a lesson in how things can go very right and then very, very wrong in a very short time. As the major players rush to meet a hard deadline for release, you see what the pressure is like in such situations. Having been there myself, it brought back many memories as it clearly shows how tense it is and what it can do to the rest of your life. In this case, their gamble did not work and ultimately, Netscape was purchased by AOL. Some of the Netscape group left right away, but a few hung on for awhile and then they too walked out the door.
This tape is a microcosm of what it is like in a young technology company and so should be seen by all new developers. Even if you do things right and seem on top of the world, nothing is certain and you must always keep things in perspective and balance. This fundamental fact should be a part of the education of every software developer.

Published in Mathematics and Computer Education, reprinted with permission.

The film Code Rush has been released into the creative commons. It can be downloaded, or watched in its entirety at [...] . We hope you enjoy it.

Oh and its a really good movie.

Awesome A Gem in the world of computer history and a very hard find just wish they released it on DVD.

Too bad we all know the outcome. When will people realize that all that toil and sacrifice for the corporate machine is the misery of life.