Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

Ken Williams took the concerns of his young programmers seriously. A happyJohn Harris would be a John Harris writing hit games. Roberta Williams also feltaffection for the ingenuous twenty-year-old, and was touched by what she believedwas a secret crush he harbored for her. "He would look at me with those puppy-dogeyes," she later recalled. The Williamses resolved to clear up John's problem, andfor a considerable length of time an unofficial corporate goal of On-Line Systemswas Getting John Harris Laid. It was not so easy. Though John Harris couldconceivably be called "cute" by women his age, though he could be verbally cleverand was certainly making enough money to please all but the most exacting of golddiggers, women did not seem to react to him sexually.Around Oakhurst, of course, even finding women was a problem. John Harris hadtaken a part-time job in the local arcade, figuring that any girl who liked gameswould have something in common with him; he made it a point to stay aroundalmost all the hours the arcade was open. But the girls who spent time at the arcadewere still in high school. Any local girl with much in the way of brains would goaway to college; the ones that stayed were into motorcycle types, and didn't relateto gentle guys who were nervous around women, as John Harris was. John asked alot of girls out, and they usually said no, probably making him feel as he did whenpeople would choose sides for basketball games and he'd be standing thereunchosen.Ken vowed to change all that. "I'm going to get you laid, John Harris," he wouldalways say, and though John was embarrassed and urged Ken to stop saying thosethings, he secretly hoped that Ken would keep his promise. But the mishapscontinued.Every time John went out, there were calamities. First the teenage girl he met in afast-food restaurant who accompanied him for pizza and would not go out with himagain. Then a woman who packaged disks for On-Line, a date arranged by Ken.John embarrassed himself by locking his keys in his new four-wheel-drive, hadtrouble getting into the saloon where they all went, and was mortified when Ken, infront of the woman, began making crude remarks about how homy John was "Thatreally embarrassed me," John Harris later said. When everybody went back to theWilliamses' house to get in the hot tub, John's four-wheel-drive got stuck in thesnow; and finally, the girl met up with her old boyfriend and left with him. Thatwas the end of a typical John Harris date.Ken Williams did not give up that easily. The Williamses took John Harris to theClub Med in Haiti. How can a guy not get laid at Club Med? When a womanwearing no bikini top vow could see her breasts right there in front of you askedJohn if he'd like to go snorkeling, Ken just laughed. Pay dirt! The woman wasaround ten years older, but perhaps an experienced woman was what John Harris