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Woz OK's Apple I Resurrection
A reader wrote to us with a story from Wired about a gentleman who's hand-crafting Apple Is for ordering. He's been unable to get a response from Apple, but Woz has graciously responded.
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What kind of demand is there for Apple I's? The people who I know who have bought one is for nostalgic purposes; will an replica Apple have the same effect? I'm not sure. The fact that he took the time to "unimplement" features to make the computer more realistic is neat though.
That aside, I bet the guy making them is having a really good time. Woz knows that home brewing computers is a lot of fun. It's good to see someone do something like this despite the patent situations that usually arise.
100% Crunchier
Is it just me or does the bezel on the NTSC video monitor have the Commodore logo on it (with the rainbow bit to the right)
The iBook logic board isn't that big and would easily fit
You know, in the beginning software usually was open and free, then it became closed and proprietry - exactly the thing that got Stallman into a rage and ultimately produced the FSF, the GPL and tons of GNU software etc.
Still, it was a nice thing of him to do - but I bet you dollars to doughnuts he didn't give it away because he had some ideals about freedom - I'm pretty sure, he like every other hacker in the 70's and 80's just wanted to show the others the cool stuff he had made. I know that is how I would have thought back then, almost noone cared about any licenses or anything then - it was all showing off, and lots of stuff went into public domain.
If it had been an idealistic thing already then, you would have seen a whole nother company later, I'm sure.
We never really had the Apple-1 here, but you can re-live the heady days of the British equivalent, CLive Sinclair's MK14.. (Precursor to ZX-80/81/Spectrum etc)
http://users.aol.com/mk14emu/emulator.htm
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
Lest anyone forget, this was the same Homebrew Computer Club where a certain Bill Gates got a little upset by the way some people were sharing software. RMS was just 23 years old then and hadn't had his Vision by then. That would take another nine years .....
I wonder what would have happened if the others at the HCC had decided to beat the whining nerd senseless with suitably-sized pieces of constructional timber instead of capitulating to his ridiculous assertions of ownership?
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Isn't it great that he's using a Commodore 1701 or 1702 monitor (Can't tell from that pic, they're identical aside from the label.) on his Apple computer? Those 170x monitors were actually very durable, they were made by JVC, I believe.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
"The best anyone could say was that it was mine and that I made it public," Woz said to Briel.
Seems like the Woz is saying that he originally published the specifications of the Apple I, including the ROM code into open source.
One wonders if he could be convinced to put it into the GNU license. Yes, it is ancient-ancient code that would be good for only esoteric or educational purposes, but it would also make a statement about obsoleted programs that have little or no commercial value being used to teach by example. Something Microsoft and other huge commercial code vendors should take a lesson from.
"You know, in the beginning software usually was open and free, then it became closed and proprietry - exactly the thing that got Stallman into a rage and ultimately produced the FSF, the GPL and tons of GNU software etc."
Actually, IIR, it all came to an end when Bill Gates sent out the first "you are all damn thieves" letter to members of the homebrew who were "sharing" his copyrighted basic interpreter. circa 1977?
I believe that RMS started the GPL after Gosling refused to share his patches to emacs.
I wonder how many people today realise that MS-DOS (and the DOS-based Windows 9x series) came with a machine code monitor/assembler/disassembler as standard? It was pretty feeble but it was always there and it taught me a lot. debug it was called. Those were the days...
Stick Men
Woz is a class act all the way. A true engineer that really enjoys tinkering with hardware. Oddly enough, the combination of Jobs and Woz was the only thing that got Apple off the ground, the business sense of Jobs (along with the overwhelming ego), and the hardware savvy of Woz.
I wrote Woz an email a couple years ago thanking him for creating the Apple and starting the whole ball rolling. It was the first computer I ever owned and it got me programming and using the machine at a young age. Love at first sight...
Woz replied to me! I still have his reply saved.
Like I said, a real class act!
N.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
something like a modern version of the IIgs - try to see how modern you can make a computer that's still shares the apple][ spirit (can run the same code natively, have a 6502-like CPU, etc.). and then mass produce it an sell it in an affordable price. :-)~
Of course you can, silly!
Let's consider a few examples:
a) Tom Clancy. He is a talentless hack. He is very successful. Mind you, he is a pretty good talentless hack.
b) Michael Bay.
The director that possesses the most incoherent cinematographic language in history. Armaggeddon: 36M opening weekend.
c) Michael Bolton.
Need I say anything? Other than he has sold like 8 million records or something insane like that?