By the way, I added the Triumph of the Nerds to the top of my Netflix queue, much to the dismay of my darling wife. Mwuahahahaha.
“Accidental Empires” is terrific. I received a copy as a Christmas present last year and have been slowly working my way through it as time permits. I’ve enjoyed every second of it.
There was a sequel to Triumph of the Nerds, called a href="http://www.pbs.org/opb/nerds2.0.1/"Nerds 2.0.1/a – sadly it doesn’t appear to be available on DVD, and when I saw it, it wasn’t quite as compelling as the original.
Jeff, if you liked those two, have you ever watched NerdTV? It’s somewhere on the pulpit… ah, http://www.pbs.org/nerdtv/
It’s an ongoing collection of interviews, much like revenge of the nerds, but these are an hour long each, and full of some fascinating history, insight, social commentary, and future plans. Some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt, sure, but he hits all the big names and gets so much out of them. Too bad Hewlett and Packard are dead, along with some of the other great voices of the early era.
I haven’t kept up, though. ^^;
I feel so young now, i was brutally dumped on this awkward planet in 1979. Still, i would kill for a real Apple //c+ you know, the one with the 3.5" unidisk internally.
Daniel, very interesting. Here’s the PBS site for Nerds 2.0.1
http://www.pbs.org/opb/nerds2.0.1/
And the videos on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Nerds-2-0-1-Brief-History-Internet/dp/6305128235
Looks like it’s about the rise of the Internet, more or less.
I am surprised no one has mentioned my first love - the TRS-80. As a writer, I know that no machine, even today, has since matched that beauty for ease of use, cleanliness of display, and gorgeousness of its feel. It was just easy and fun to use.
Actually, it wasn’t the TRS-80 - now I have forgotten the name! (Let’s just say that when Traf-O-Data was founded, I was in high school, so age is a factor here…)
What was the model numbel for that sleek little 15-line screen, white handheld doodad that Radio Shck came out with?
TRS-80 Model 100 - now THAT was a machine…
isn’t the xerox alto (1973), technically the archetypal personal computer and the real template for all personal computers after, including the apple II?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto
can i use some images from google images in my Alevel I.C.T work
many thanks
Jaye
my last post was a bit rubbish LOL
can i use some images of the Apple II computer and also can i use a image of the old multicolourd logo please
many thanks jaye
A Speccy? I was the original zx81 here. I later moved to the Timex Sinclair 1000. All 16k there.
My opinion is that the machines have grown up, but mentality behind them has not. As processors increase, the ease of coding stays in line bloating the overall “use” of a box.
Prime examples can be found from games to word processors. Though not as easy, I could write my letters just as easy in Wordperfect in 1993 as I can today in Word. The difference? About 300 meg. Bigger is not always better, and simplicity shines in the games of yesteryear. The example of M.U.L.E. brings to light true gameplay. This is something we have traded for flashing lights, bells, and whistles.
Just my .02
1970, also. A great vintage for programmers. 
My first PC was a ZX-81. Ah, those where the days.
Thanks for the history book/DVD tips. Will order today. I’ve build up a decent sized computer history library so far and these will be splendid additions.
I nearly cried the day Byte went out of publication. May 1999 was the last edition, if memory serves me correctly.
It is amazing how much I learned from reading Byte, tinkering with my ZX-81 and later Apple //c.
Long live 300 baud modems!
Stu
1998, I mean…oops.