Tag: movie 21

Another reason to go to SolidWorks World 2011?

There is yet another contest for those of us who register to attend SolidWorks World 2011.  SolidWorks Corp is conducting a random drawing for a one-hour group blackjack lesson with Jon Hirschtick (SolidWorks Corp founder) at SolidWorks World 2011 in San Antonio, TX.  According to Vic Leventhal (another SolidWorks Corp founder), Mr. Hirschtick was part of the MIT Blackjack team and he used money earned from that effort to start SolidWorks.  Mr. Hirschtick has conducted similar sessions at past SolidWorks Worlds.  I was fortunate to join one such event at SolidWorks World 2009 in Orlando, FL.  The experience was amazing.

For more information and rules from SolidWorks about their contest, see the Contest Website.

Jon Hirschtick and the movie 21

I didn’t realize what I was hearing when I witnessed Vic Leventhal’s presentation at the Tri-Valley SolidWorks User Group (T-VSWUG) kick-off meeting.  He made a comment about Jon Hirschtick (co-founder of SolidWorks) and the movie 21 almost in passing.

I made my own little presentation at this new SWUG to support the new group at its kick-off meeting.  I have my own article about the meeting.  Gabi Jack (another Blog Squad member) happened to record Vic Leventhal’s presentation.  This single act has turned out to be at the center of recent buzz in the SolidWorks community about the new movie 21.  Vic Leventhal mentions that Jon Hirschtick was part of the MIT Blackjack team and that he used money earned from that effort to start SolidWorks.

I ask a question that has already been answered in a rather spectacular way.  “Was Jon Hirschtick, co-founder of SolidWorks, part of the former MIT Blackjack team that the movie 21 is about?”  Jason Raak at RockSolid Perspective asked this question in a recent article on his blog.  He mentioned how he studied Mrs. Jack’s video of Vic Leventhal’s speech.  He also linked to another source that made the connection in a news article.  And, he disclaimered his comments about the link between the movie and Mr. Hirschtick by saying he hadn’t heard from him about this matter.

Well, the very first comment to his article is Jon Hirschtick himself responding with an undeniable confirmation that he was indeed involved in the MIT Blackjack team!  Assuming this comment is actually from Jon Hirschtick, this is prolly the best comment that has ever been placed on any SolidWorks community blog.  If it wasn’t for that comment, I wouldn’t have even wrote this article.  I invite anyone who hasn’t seen the RockSolid Perspective article to go HERE now to check out Mr. Hirschtick’s comment.