The Layout

The rain falls steadily during the Qingming Festival.

Outside the software laboratory, a light drizzle began to fall. Huang Xiuyuan, Lu Xuedong, and the others, along with the dozen or so programmers hired in succession and a dozen fresh computer science graduates, were busy working, forgetting to eat or sleep.

As for the company's other affairs, aside from expenses exceeding a million and major issues, he dumped everything onto Lin Baijie and the others to resolve.

The Suiren Company official website went live for a low-key trial run on March 28th. In addition to the main company page, the website also included pages for two subsidiaries.

For the sake of convenience, Huang Xiuyuan merged the subsidiary websites into the Suiren Company official website.

After a week of trial runs and patching some obvious vulnerabilities, he selected a steady programmer and two interns from among the group to form a website management team, dedicated to managing the company site while testing and fixing bugs.

The remaining people were divided into two R&D groups: the Computer System R&D Group led by Lu Xuedong, and the Future Software R&D Group led by Huang Xiuyuan.

The focus of both R&D groups was on computer system development, though the specific details of their research differed.

Lu Xuedong's group was conducting secondary development based on the Linux kernel, as well as the Apple and Microsoft systems currently in use.

Regarding the R&D work of Lu Xuedong's group, Huang Xiuyuan's guiding principle was very simple: to occupy the high ground of patents while providing Suiren Company with usable software technology.

As for the R&D group led by Huang Xiuyuan himself, it was tasked with building an operating system that belonged entirely to Suiren Company, from the ground up, starting from the most basic state.

This task could only be led by him personally, because only Huang Xiuyuan knew the direction for future operating systems; he had participated in the development of a portion of domestic operating systems during the Fuxi Project.

Due to intense future confrontations, Google and Microsoft systems were subjected to a series of bans and sanctions, forcing the country to rely on its own efforts.

The endless patent wars pushed domestic systems to fight desperately, moving from the struggle for survival in the 2020s to standing on equal footing in the 2030s, and by the 2040s, they had achieved a slight advantage.

As Huang Xiuyuan had said before, the difficulty of the operating system problem did not lie in the creation of the system, but in its promotion and ecosystem.

It was not too late yet; at the very least, the Android system would not be officially launched on the market until September of this year, and it would not suppress Nokia's Symbian system until 2010.

The walled-garden Apple system and the Microsoft system, which dominated the PC market, were equally not to be underestimated.

The software patents he laid out included the "Scan" series, the "QR Code" series, "Page Redirection," "Touchscreen Operation," "Screen Recording and Screenshot," and "Verification Code Generation"—software technologies for the next dozen years.

Many of these software technologies had actually already been developed by others; for example, the Japanese inventor Masahiro Hara invented the QR code in 1994.

The idea that the Japanese invented the "QR code" is actually a misconception. It is indeed a type of two-dimensional code, but a two-dimensional code is not equivalent to a QR code; there are many types of two-dimensional codes.

Since the QR code is open source, there are no patent issues, and it can be used with peace of mind.

On the contrary, the "Scan" patent might have some issues, and a patent must be secured as soon as possible. Huang Xiuyuan had already instructed Shang Ninghua's patent team to go to Xi'an to acquire a patent.

This patent was titled Telephone with Image Recognition Capability, and the inventor was Liu Minkai, with an invention date of 2003.

This was similar to the patent <Method, Apparatus, and Mobile Terminal for Communication Using ****> which was only developed in 2011.

The two were essentially the same type of patent with minor differences.

If the Telephone with Image Recognition Capability could be successfully acquired, then Suiren Company could apply for the <Method, Apparatus, and Mobile Terminal for Communication Using ****> patent, which would form the patent foundation for the "Scan" function.

In addition to these patents, many patents from the era of domestic localization would also form an insurmountable "Patent Great Wall."

For example, the "Multi-layer Dynamic Verification Code" used to protect personal privacy; "Dual-color Optical Code Compression and Decoding" used for special storage; and "Multi-screen Management" and "Under-display Fingerprint Unlock" used for touchscreen control.

And the two technologies Huang Xiuyuan valued most were:

"Comprehensive Content Analysis," specifically for intelligent identification, which could precisely filter out the vast majority of harmful information based on set screening criteria. This technology was also used for text recognition, image recognition, and translation.

The other technology was called Software Image Conversion, which was designed to allow application software to quickly adapt to new hardware environments under different hardware conditions.

This technology could actually be called "Intelligent Imitation Programming Technology"—imitating a piece of software and applying the imitated software to new hardware.

Although a large number of vulnerabilities or incompatibilities would occur, with the support of supercomputing, this technology would use "plug-in programs" from a programming database to perform rapid "optimal selection" based on operating conditions.

The larger the "plug-in program" database, the higher the efficiency of the Software Image Conversion. In Huang Xiuyuan's memory, the software conversion of the 60s and 70s had an average functional imitation value of about 96% and an average efficacy imitation value of about 84%.

With manual assistance to fix some vulnerabilities, the two pieces of software could basically be made nearly identical in function and efficacy.

The reason for developing Software Image Conversion technology was to save development time.

For instance, when a small company develops a piece of software, it usually only applies to one system; to apply it to another, they have to start from scratch.

With Software Image Conversion technology, one could quickly generate software with similar functions and efficacy that could be applied to other systems, which could save more than 90% of secondary development time.

Huang Xiuyuan's current focus was on developing this technology.

Because this technology could also be used for reverse engineering, allowing companies with weak software R&D foundations to quickly skip some of the early time and reduce trial-and-error costs.

Inside the laboratory, the programmers in Huang Xiuyuan's group were writing the main framework bit by bit. The core of the Software Image Conversion technology consisted of software function identification, various general frameworks, and a large number of standardized sub-program plug-ins.

Among these, software function identification could only achieve semi-intelligence; to ensure quality, programmers had to check for omissions and fill in the gaps.

The general framework was like the rough frame of a house.

The standardized sub-program plug-ins were like the decoration materials, furniture, and appliances of the house. The creation of this part required the accumulation of time; the more plug-ins in the library, the more perfect the programs that the Software Image Conversion system could match.

During the process of perfecting the program, he collaborated with Lu Xuedong to attempt to generate a "blog-type" commercial software.

Amidst the busyness, Huang Xiuyuan also took time off to pay respects to his ancestors.

The company was also developing rapidly, despite the stumbles.

A total of 85 large and small garbage transport vehicles were shipped from the Dongfeng Motor factory; a large quantity of customized anti-tip trash cans, cleaning tools, and labor protection supplies also arrived at the Blue Era company one after another.

As for the preparations for the Hailu Environmental Protection Gas Company, Lin Baijie had initially set up a makeshift team, and the company site, gas storage stations, and various types of gas cylinders were also being prepared in an orderly manner.