Slashdot Mirror
Garage Startup Develops "Personal Computer"
Hugh Pickens writes "In the summer of 1980, MIT graduates Donald Faber and Peter Haberle moved into an empty two-car garage and started work building the first-ever 'personal home computer.' Now almost 30 years later, what began as a humble two-man operation has since grown into an even more humble, even more cramped computer company, based out of an even smaller single-car garage. According to Faber and Haberle, a lot has changed since Xalaga was first founded. What was once a struggling $7,500-a-year business with only a dozen or so paying customers is now a desperate $6,400-a-year business with only a half dozen or so paying customers. Faber, who turned down a promising position with GE in order to start Xalaga, a decision he now says he regrets each and every waking day, told reporters that he knew almost immediately that his company had something not-at-all special on its hands. 'We sold only one computer that first year, then the following year it was three computers, then suddenly 10 computers, then just as suddenly five computers, then back down to three computers again, and finally only one or two machines every other year for pretty much the next decade,' said Faber, standing up from the plastic milk crate that now serves as his desk. 'Had someone told us when we first started that we'd be here today, operating out of a much smaller, somehow less expensive garage, we probably would have laughed right in their face.'"
An onion article that I read IN PRINT yesterday is getting passed off as an April Fool's joke on slashdot? For shame.
Q.E.D.
Now I do not know which story to believe.
None of 'em. Seriously.
Well, duh.
They used 32k of RAM in the machine, but 4k of that was used to make the screen display ASCII porn on power-on, so only 28k was available to users.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Did you notice that it was on "the Onion" website? That's all "the Onion" is, a site with a comedy take on everything. Check out some of their vids and you will understand.
Duh, the article answered that question: no one. ;)
There is pizza and drinks in the lunch room. Come help yourselves.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.