American as Apple π: Defragging the First 35 Years of Personal Computing
On this, the occasion of the 35th birthday of personal computing — or rather — the 35th anniversary of the birth of the Apple I computer, I bugged my friend Craig of @S33Light to recount some of his personal computing history for my hinternetz. I often enjoy these anecdotes from him, but I thought others could too & his story is as American as (techy) Apple Pie.
Below, I’ve edited his piece freely, bolding my favorite parts, placing some content into footnotes & adding pics and my commentary as I pleased. Hope you enjoy! //
I had been exposed to computers before anyone else I knew. The first time was in the mid 70s when my friend’s dad had brought home a briefcase with an acoustic coupler modem and a printer in it. He showed us how to put the phone receiver in the rubber cradle and dial the 800 number for it to connect. You knew it was connected when the printer began spewing type out on a roll of paper. I grew up with an electric typewriter in the house so the keyboard was familiar, but it was interesting to me that this one provided only plastic to tap rather than a small steel hammer snapping down with a life of it’s own. I don’t remember a screen, but I remember playing ELIZA and Lunar Lander on it for several hours on a couple of occasions.
In 1977, I had never heard of ‘Silicon Valley’ or Apple computers. I recall watching the premiere of Star Wars at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood [1] that summer.Had I known that somewhere in Northern California, the real science fiction future had been born in the form of 200 brand new Apple 1 computers 18 months earlier (on April 11, 1976), I would probably have run away from home to see what those guys were up to — that real life Star Wars adventure they were beginning.
