This was an era before my time but the book "Hackers" by Steven Levy does a great job of painting an evocative picture of this era. It evokes a feeling of nostalgia (as in, we missed being in those times) but when you think properly, you see that you still have the same types of opportunities in a field where the frontiers are ever widening.
> Felsenstein was influenced in his philosophy by the works of Ivan Illich, particularly Tools for Conviviality (Harper and Row, 1973). This book advocated a "convivial" approach to design which allowed users of technologies to learn about the technology by encouraging exploration, tinkering, and modification. Felsenstein had learned about electronics in much the same fashion, and summarized his conclusions in several aphorisms, to wit – "In order to survive in a public-access environment, a computer must grow a computer club around itself." Others were – "To change the rules, change the tools," and "If work is to become play, then tools must become toys."
This was an era before my time but the book "Hackers" by Steven Levy does a great job of painting an evocative picture of this era. It evokes a feeling of nostalgia (as in, we missed being in those times) but when you think properly, you see that you still have the same types of opportunities in a field where the frontiers are ever widening.
> Felsenstein was influenced in his philosophy by the works of Ivan Illich, particularly Tools for Conviviality (Harper and Row, 1973). This book advocated a "convivial" approach to design which allowed users of technologies to learn about the technology by encouraging exploration, tinkering, and modification. Felsenstein had learned about electronics in much the same fashion, and summarized his conclusions in several aphorisms, to wit – "In order to survive in a public-access environment, a computer must grow a computer club around itself." Others were – "To change the rules, change the tools," and "If work is to become play, then tools must become toys."
Could we maybe change the title to something like "Lee Felsenstein is still alive"? I was worried when I saw the title.
i'd suggest "Lee Felsenstein turned 80 this year" :)
Good call. I would feel extremely weird seeing "[my full name] is still alive" as a title somewhere...
Oh, yeah, my suggestion was pretty dumb.
Yeah, that’s a good one. I also thought that he had passed away because of his age and how the title was not very informative.
( ;^^)b
I wanted an Osborne 1 so badly when I was a kid - all that power in a handy portable suitcase form factor!
8 bit guy on YouTube has a nice three part series on restoring and demoing the Osborne 1, I watched the last part this morning.
Looked like a neat little machine but (just a little) before my time, I’d have been in nursery when it released.