{"id":604179,"date":"2023-02-03T07:49:05","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T13:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/03\/skim-through-steve-jobs-era-70s-computer-newsletter-coffee-stains-and-all-cnet\/"},"modified":"2023-02-03T07:49:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T13:49:05","slug":"skim-through-steve-jobs-era-70s-computer-newsletter-coffee-stains-and-all-cnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/03\/skim-through-steve-jobs-era-70s-computer-newsletter-coffee-stains-and-all-cnet\/","title":{"rendered":"Skim Through Steve Jobs-Era ’70s Computer Newsletter, Coffee Stains and All – CNET"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Visiting a friend in Silicon Valley in December, I drove by a local landmark just around the corner: Steve Jobs’ boyhood home. The modest ranch-style house doesn’t stand out much from other homes on the block, but it represents technology history. In that very garage, in the ’70s, Jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak put together the first 50 Apple I 8-bit desktop computers. That machine, Apple’s first product, went on sale in July 1976 for $666.66.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s stunning to think of the history-making coding and conversations that went on in that single-story home, and I felt a rush of amazement as I slowed down and imagined Jobs and Woz hunched over a garage workbench, analyzing semiconductor chips. I had a similar response when scrolling through the newly scanned first six issues of the Homebrew Computer Club newsletter on Arkive<\/a>, a nascent global community that aims to decentralize art by allowing anyone to acquire and vote for items that enter its collections. It calls itself a “museum curated by the people,” and the newsletters count among its early acquisitions. Arkive shared word of the newsletters’ procurement with CNET exclusively. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

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The fifth issue of the Homebrew Computer Club newsletter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Arkive
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The influential Homebrew computer hobbyist group brought together members to swap ideas, code and hardware. Many members would go on to become tech pioneers, including Jobs; Wozniak; Lee Felsenstein, who created the world’s first mass-produced portable computer, the Osborne; and Len Shustek, an early developer of PC networks and founding chairman emeritus of the Computer History Museum. The newsletter’s pages capture the early days of the personal-computer revolution and the spirit of its innovating, influential times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first issue, published just 10 days after the club’s initial meeting on March 5, 1975, contains treasures. There’s a list with names, addresses and interests of new members. Several note owning an Altair 8800, a microcomputer designed in 1974 by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems and sold to hobbyists in a kit, while others mention they have an Intel 8008, an early 8-bit programmable microprocessor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Issue 2 of the Homebrew Computer Club newsletter includes this priceless drawing of some of its members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Arkive
\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notes from the first get-together indicate lively speculation about what people would eventually do with home computers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We asked that question and the variety of responses show that the imagination of people has been underestimated,” the newsletter reads. “Uses ranged from the private secretary functions: text editing, mass storage, memory, etc., to control of house utilities: heating, alarms, sprinkler system, auto tune-up, cooking, etc., to GAMES…”<\/p>\n

Issue 2 contains a microprocessor scorecard and a great hand-drawn portrait of seven of the club’s members, some rocking distinctly ’70s hair and glasses. A list of local supply stores notes which ones take mail and phone orders. Early contenders for club name, I learned, included “Eight-Bit Byte Bangers.” \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s possible to thumb through online versions of the typewritten newsletter elsewhere online — on the Computer History Museum’s site<\/a> for example — but the ones at Arkive preserve extra details that really bring the artifacts to life: 10-cent stamps, smudged postmarks, passages underlined in green pen, and coffee stains, so many coffee stains, on the pages. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Osbornes.jpg\"<\/span>
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Created by the club’s Lee Felsenstein, the Osborne was the world’s first mass-produced portable computer. It’s pictured here in 2013, at a reunion of the famous club 38 years after its first meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Daniel Terdiman\/CNET
\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arkive’s 1,500 members include artists; private art dealers; former museum curators; Web3 experts; coders; and others who believe anyone should be able to help define and amplify culturally significant items. The team debuted its first collection, titled “When Technology Was a Game Changer,” at Art Basel Miami Beach in December. The collection includes objects “that reflect, embody and witness turning points in art or culture driven by technological advances.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to the scanned Homebrew Computer Club newsletters, there’s the 188-page patent for the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC, the first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, which was built during World War II.<\/p>\n

Fast Company global technology editor Harry McCracken once called the Homebrew Computer Club “the crucible for an entire industry<\/a>,” and Arkive’s members clearly appreciate the value of the newsletter’s weathered pages. “It’s a beautiful and humbling reminder that technology would not exist without community and human connection,” one said in explaining its cultural significance. Said another: “Their tinkering, hopeful, super badass good-guy giga-nerd spirit lives on.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

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A page from the sixth issue of the Homebrew Computer Club, preserved with coffee stains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Arkive
\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Leslie Katz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visiting a friend in Silicon Valley in December, I drove by a local landmark just around the corner: Steve Jobs’ boyhood home. The modest ranch-style house doesn’t stand out much from other homes on the block, but it represents technology history. In that very garage, in the ’70s, Jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak put<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":604180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290,46,3327],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-604179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-steve","8":"category-technology","9":"category-through"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}