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Subject: Dead Media Working Note 11.3
Dead medium: Dead Personal Computers and Typewriters:
Some Recommended Books
From SeJ_AT_aol.com (Stefan Jones) and Darryl_Rehr_AT_lamg.com
(Darryl Rehr)
Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer: From Altair
to IBM, A History of the PC Revolution
by Stan Veit
Published by WorldComm, 65 Macedonia Road, Alexander, NC
28701 ISBN 1-56664-023-7 $19.95
Reviewed by Stefan Jones
For many years, Stan Veit edited the original incarnation
of *The Computer Shopper*, a newsprint computer hobbyist
want-ad monthly that was the last place die-hard Atari,
Commodore, Osborne and Apple II users could find sources
of hardware and software.
The classified ad section of this tome was worth the
cover price alone, but it also had articles for the major
dying computer standards, and Veit's own history column.
While *The Computer Shopper* is now a professionally
managed, hernia-inducing monthly dedicated to the PC
market, Veit's columns are now available in book form.
The chapters of *Stan Veit's History of the Personal
Computer* show their origin as magazine columns. The same
incidents (e.g., the first months of Stan's Computer Mart
store in midtown Manhattan) are described again and
again, albeit from slightly different perspectives. This
isn't a problem if you read the chapters one at a time and
don't expect a consistent narrative.
Each chapter covers Veit's dealings with a particular
company: Altair (the folks who arguably started it all),
Sphere, IMSAI, and so on. Most of the systems and
companies that Veit surveys are long dead; victims of the
Apple II with its reliable disk drives and built-in video,
or of IBM and its CP/M-squishing Personal Computer. Some
of the firms passed on gracefully; others were frauds and
cheats.
The most entertaining chapter is the tale of the
early days of Apple. Veit rubbed elbows with the two
Steves when they were still ragged, long haired hackers;
he relates how his mother-in-law made Steve Jobs take off
his jeans at a crucial early trade show so she could sew
up the rents and tears. Veit also mentions the time that
Jobs offered him a chance to buy a significant chunk of
the nascent computer giant for $10,000. Had he not had the
money tied up in his store, Veit probably would have taken
him up on the deal and today would be worth billions . . .
Another highlight: The time that a computer graphics
display == the Cromemco "Dazzler" == placed in the store
window caused a late-night traffic jam on 5th Avenue.
Drivers were so amazed that they stopped and stared . . .
and stared... until police rousted Veit's landlord from
bed to turn off the monitor.
Veit doesn't neglect the experiences of his
customers. The feats of soldering and switch-flipping the
early computer hobbyists had to perform to get a working
computer are explained in exquisite detail, making one
damn appreciative for BIOS chips and floppy drives. The
tales of vaporware BASIC, dirty tricks, memory boards that
periodically blanked and some systems that just plain
didn't work are almost enough to make one grateful for IBM
and Microsoft. The computerists of the mid seventies were
a different breed, and true pioneers.
Stefan Jones
Dead
Media | 0.01-02.0 | 02.1-04.0
| 04.1-06.0 | 06.1-08.0 |
08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |