Hunting in Hollywood

To create a Westeros Tower in Manhattan reminiscent of the 'Avengers Tower' from his memories, Simon had over the past few years acquired a full block of properties and land between 59th and 60th streets on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, totaling six buildings.

It was impossible to vacate all the residents of the six buildings at once, and since it wasn't yet time to start construction, Simon had treated these buildings as commercial properties, signing two to three-year leases with most tenants.

These leases would expire over the next one to two years, and by then, Simon's wealth would be sufficient to support the construction of the Westeros Tower.

Therefore, when James raised the question, Simon nodded and explained, "The design work for the tower has been ongoing for the last couple of years. Starting preparations now and breaking ground by the end of next year, the main construction alone will take about five years. Including the interior finishing, we're looking at nearly the turn of the millennium before we can officially move in. Given such a long timeline, even if it requires an investment of over one billion dollars, we can manage the fundraising comfortably."

Perhaps every boy harbors a dream to build a skyscraper.

The Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building, the Twin Towers—all likely fueled by a similar motive.

James couldn't help thinking, knowing Simon was determined, he still advised, "Simon, it's not just about the funds. Have you considered that a 2000-foot building with over a hundred floors and millions of square feet of interior space needs to be filled?"

"I have considered that, Jim. I know that many skyscrapers secure some tenants before construction begins. However, it will be seven or eight years before the Westeros Tower is actually completed and operational. So, I think there's no need to rush this aspect. We can find tenants while the building is under construction. At worst, our own companies could utilize the space."

Following the meeting, the construction plan for the Westeros Tower was officially scheduled, with Janet personally overseeing the project.

Simon, ensuring that every minute detail of the building achieved architectural perfection, decided not to set an upper limit on the budget. His current financial strength was more than sufficient to handle expenses surpassing one billion dollars.

While Simon was busy with various affairs within the Westeros system, other significant events were unfolding in May 1991.

The two major political parties in the United States began laying the groundwork for the 1992 presidential election.

On the Republican side, buoyed by the momentum from the Gulf War, George Bush was almost certain to be the party's candidate for the next presidential election.

The Democrats, despite winning the 1990 midterm elections, faced a dilemma with no clear frontrunner capable of contending against George Bush.

As is well known, American politicians typically only get one shot at the presidency, barring re-elections.

Once failed, securing a party's nomination again becomes significantly more challenging.

Therefore, several prominent Democrats, wary of the momentum George Bush gained from the Gulf War victory, opted to step aside.

Even with the momentum on the Republican side, someone still needed to challenge George Bush.

Thus, in May, Bill Clinton, the then-governor of Arkansas, and Mario Cuomo, the aging governor of New York who could no longer afford to wait, announced their candidacies for the 1992 presidential election.

However, what caught Simon's attention the most was the intention to run expressed by Ross Perot, a business tycoon in the top ranks of America's wealthiest, with a fortune exceeding two billion dollars.

Ross Perot was dissatisfied with both major parties and thus announced his intention to form his own party and run in the 1992 election.

Simon remembered clearly, in the original timeline, although George Bush's domestic popularity plummeted, he still had the upper hand against Bill Clinton.

However, it was Ross Perot, also leaning towards the conservative camp, who split Bush's vote with a record 19% support for a third-party candidate, leading to Bush's re-election failure.

There's more to the story: Bill Clinton, initially with little hope of winning, unexpectedly moved into the White House. Accused of gaining his position illegitimately, his eight-year administration was constantly surrounded by various scandals, even leading to his impeachment—one of the few in American history.

This was somewhat similar to a completely inexperienced businessman who unexpectedly made it to the White House in Simon's memory.

Interestingly, another election loss involved Clinton's wife, Hillary Clinton.

This could be considered a type of political ecosystem in the United States.

Established political families or senior politicians who are widely supported, like George Bush at the time, do not face similar 'troubles.'

Although Simon's political strategies were focused on Congress and not the White House, this time, he instructed James Lebould to establish a private connection with the Clintons, promising full support for their campaign.

It was somewhat unwise to make such promises before Clinton secured the

 party nomination.

However, it's always better to offer help when it's most needed rather than when it's merely convenient. To gain more, one must take greater risks. Since his main focus wasn't the White House, investing in a dark horse wouldn't significantly impact Simon or the Westeros system if it failed.

In Greenwich, Connecticut.

Simon was preparing a birthday party at his estate here; tomorrow was the 8th birthday of Sophia's daughter, Gemma Fesi. Sophia's apartment in Greenwich wasn't large, so Janet volunteered their estate for Gemma's birthday celebration.

Not only that, but they would also screen the documentary about Antarctica that Janet had promised as a birthday gift to Gemma.

The documentary, named "Ice World" with a budget of three million dollars, started production last year. It focused not on penguins but on showcasing the various landscapes of Antarctica.

After its 'premiere' as Gemma's birthday gift tomorrow night, the documentary would hit North American theaters the following Friday.

If it received a positive response, Simon planned to immediately start on the "March of the Penguins" project he remembered, using the experience gained from the first documentary.

May was also the start of the new annual season for American TV shows. Since Simon wanted to strengthen Daenerys Entertainment's presence in the television sector, he had recently come to New York to personally participate in the selection and preparation of some projects.

Janet couldn't make it due to her pregnancy. Although it was a weekend, Simon stayed on the East Coast, planning to attend Gemma's birthday party before leaving.

In the evening, after Sophia had checked the party preparations managed by the housekeeper Alice and the maids, she went to the second-floor study, where Simon was earnestly reviewing some documents at his desk.

Intending to sit across from him, Sophia hesitated when Simon looked up and gestured for her to come over. Moving to the side of the desk where Simon was, she was soon drawn into his embrace.

Feeling somewhat anxious about what Simon might do, she relaxed when she realized he was just holding her.

Her face couldn't help but turn a shade redder.

This posture, it was more like an adult holding a child, or a boy holding his girlfriend.

Yet, she was so much older than him.

She tried to focus her attention on the documents in Simon's hand: "What is this?"

Simon leaned his head against Sophia's smooth cheek and explained, "A development plan for a data interface."

Sophia hummed, her mind still wandering, showing little interest.

Simon finished explaining and fell silent, continuing to peruse the documents while holding her.

After previously conceiving the idea of building a hardware system ecosystem around the USB interface, the project had made considerable progress during this period.

In fact, Apple had been developing a similar data interface since 1986, known as the FireWire, which was used in many Apple computers during the 90s but failed to become mainstream.

Simon remembered that this interface, which actually appeared before USB and had a higher data transmission efficiency, did not become popular mainly due to Apple's rapid decline in the 90s and the high cost and conservative, expensive licensing strategy of Apple, which held the patents.

In simple terms, the difference between the FireWire and USB interfaces was similar to the difference between the CCD and CMOS sensors in digital cameras.

Due to advantages in cost and energy consumption, CMOS was destined to be the future trend for consumer-grade digital cameras, and similarly, USB was destined to outpace FireWire.

However, FireWire had the advantage of time.

If Simon controlled Apple, he would initially promote the FireWire interface as a transition, and then promote another standard once a cheaper and more convenient USB interface plan was completed.

Unfortunately, Simon could not interfere with Apple's operations.

He also did not wish to waste too much time on Apple.

Fortunately, the team at Ygritte had successfully found a similar plan to the USB interface.

Simon didn't have much memory of this, but he was almost certain that this was the USB interface from his memories.

The plan came from an Indian hardware engineer named Ajay Bhatt under Intel, who had submitted his plan to Intel's upper management two years ago, aiming to develop a data transmission interface that was more versatile, convenient, and plug-and-play than the existing serial and parallel interfaces.

However, after three revisions and submissions over two years, Ajay Bhatt's plan had not been approved, and he had been working in Intel's processor chip team.

Information inside Silicon Valley was very open.

The proliferation of the World Wide Web further accelerated the exchange of information within Silicon Valley.

After Simon expressed his idea, Ygritte spread the word about looking for similar plans or talents, and Ajay Bhatt quickly made contact.

Ygritte, quickly becoming a rising star in Silicon Valley like America Online and Cisco from the Westeros system, had been receiving a lot of attention over the past year.

Thus, this matter unsurprisingly

 caught the attention of Intel's upper management.

Ajay Bhatt's data interface plan, which had gone unnoticed for two years, suddenly garnered a lot of interest.

Building an ecosystem around personal computers was not exactly Ygritte's focus, and since Westeros Corporation still held a 15% share in Intel, making it the largest shareholder, Simon did not insist on poaching talent and even brought Microsoft into the fold.

The promotion of the USB interface required joint efforts from hardware manufacturers, operating system developers, and peripheral manufacturers.

Intel would handle the hardware, Microsoft the software, and Ygritte or Westeros Corporation would focus on developing peripheral hardware systems like digital cameras, USB drives, and MP3 players.

The collaboration of these three companies would perfectly achieve the goal of promoting USB.

Thus, the 'Universal Serial Bus (USB)' project team, jointly participated by the three companies, was officially formed recently, with Ajay Bhatt as the project lead. The technical patents would be co-owned by Intel, Microsoft, and Ygritte.

With ample budget and support from hardware systems and operating system platforms, the development cycle for USB was expected to be one to two years, with the initial phase of peripheral hardware promotion primarily targeting essential PC peripherals like mice and keyboards.

Westeros Corporation would also invest in developing USB interface versions of digital cameras, USB drives, and other peripheral hardware products.

Simon quietly finished reading the materials about the USB project, put down the folder, and noticed that the woman in his arms was almost dozing off, her face flushed and her eyes half-closed.

He just smiled mischievously and placed her on the desk. Sophia immediately woke up, pushing away Simon's hands as they began to unbutton her clothes: "It's getting late, and I need to go home to have dinner with the kids."

Simon feigned disappointment: "What about me, then?"

Seeing that Simon was not insisting, Sophia pressed his hands against her chest and said, "I'll come back after dinner, hm, after the kids are asleep."

Simon laughed: "How about I come over? I've been quite curious about what a night raid feels like."

Sophia rolled her eyes flirtatiously and patted Simon's hand on the desk. The two maintained a romantically ambiguous posture behind the desk, not making any further moves. Sophia didn't rush to escape, her legs still rubbing against his, and she changed the subject: "By the way, about the detective team, I've already found some people."

"The Stasi from Germany?"

Sophia nodded: "I've made contact with about a dozen people, including some high-ranking ones. I'll compile some information for you soon. Or, if you want to meet them personally, should I bring them to the US?"

Simon thought for a moment and said, "No need for now. Arrange some tasks to test their capabilities first."

Sophia nodded: "I plan to have them handle the background checks for your European butler and maid teams as a test. Additionally, I've recently visited some major universities in Europe and found quite a few impressive women. According to your idea, we might really be able to create a large group of female millionaires and billionaires. It does feel like quite an achievement. This world, after all, tends to underestimate women."

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