When did Geek become cool?

Well, well well. A film about the founder of Facebook? Are you kidding? I created a social networking site for cookery enthusiasts before Facebook became big (worldwidekitchen.com), but for some reason, it didnt take off. How many other people have had great ideas that didnt take off? Somehow Mark Zuckerbergs idea came to fruition, and grew into the monster it is today. What did Zuckerberg do differently?  Well, he played on the egos of fired up teenagers. Teenagers love to rag on each other, and love to show off. Launching his embryonic facebook project during his time at Harvard was the making of it.  If he had tried to start a social networking site later on, when he could have been recruited by Microsoft or Google, I doubt it would have gained the same momentum. Facebook would never have reached the critical mass necessary for a social networking site to work  had he not had the immediate and ultra enthusiastic support of fellow students (whether they liked him or not is another matter). Plenty of other people have tried to start social networking sites, and plenty of failed - mostly due to the fact that they have to rely on advertising to get their system known. That requires huge amounts of funding, and a great deal of risk. Zuckerberg had the right idea, at the right time - and history yet again records the victor. PS - I dont think he's a genius per se.  He just happened to be the one who exploited other peoples ideas, and combined them.  He didnt even create the algorithms used- that was the work of Eduardo Saverin.  The ones who make the biggest money are often the strangest of business people.  For instance - does anyone  know how Alan Sugar made his money?He's lauded as some industrial genius, but his products (as I remember from the 80's and 90's) were nasty copies of other peoples products - such as the CPC 464, which was architecturally very similar to the Sinclair spectrum, and would actually run Spectrum games! Later, shug brought out some very bad PC clones with non standard 3" disks - technology bought at a bargain price from some swedish company (using standard 3 1/2" disks would have pushed the price up).  This seems to me to be wide boy shistering at a slightly less grubby level than selling pirate VHS films at camden market.  And this guy is now a lord! Give me strength.