Vacuum Tube Valley

  I work in silicon valley, as part of the semi-conductor industry. Yesterday, someone was telling me that he worked in computers in a third world country. I’m unaware of any concentration of software or hardware developers outside of the U.S. Can you tell me where he worked?

———- from Dennis Coffey of San Jose, CA

  You haven’t heard of Vacuum Tube Valley? It’s just beyond the Ural mountains, in what used to be Tavlookastan, a region famous for beet and cabbage growing. Now, thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union, private enterprise has spawned a computer industry, starting with the conversion of a few beet warehouses. Eventually, they hope to have assembly lines, chip manufacture, and injection molded plastics, but right now each computer is made by hand, using parts taken out of discarded answering machines and military surplus radar. The housing, or chassis, is made from metal plate. For industrial applications, they use stone.