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1976 Polaroids of an Apple-1 Resurface
harrymcc writes "In 1976, Paul Terrell, owner of the Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, placed an order for 50 Apple-1 computers, becoming Apple's first dealer. Over at TIME.com, I've published three Polaroid snapshots of the Apple-1 which Terrell shot at the time. They're fascinating history, and it's possible they're the oldest surviving photos of Apple products."
They are actually new photos with new instagram filters.
Ahhh chips all nicely laid out, not crammed in. Bliss.
Ahhh, look at the cute baby Apple
Table-ized A.I.
1000 years from now, stuff in 1976 and 2012 will be pretty much equally old. Archaeologist will eventually files these photos with instantgram shots of brand new iPads.
Look at the old keyboard in the pic. It's a bit sad to realize that it was probably far better than Apple's current stuff, or the huge majority of modern keyboards. How have we fallen! Seriously: if you pay some big bucks for a high-end PC, it's unjustifiable not to get a mechanical keyboard as well.
Circumcision is child abuse.
The author of the piece has a Slashdot account that he can use to submit and promote his own work, and at least one Slashdot staffer is willing to let him do it. Is that good or bad? McCracken apparently isn't an exceptionally shoddy writer, since he's been making a living at it for decades.
Very early Microsoft mouse, with solid steel textured ball and steel bearings instead of Teflon slider pads.
So maybe I can claim some space myself with these photos? I should probably de-BPA that housing (with the Oxiclean trick) and then enshrine it in a plexi case with a vacuum, huh?
I mean...photos of one [famous] American company's early products? What has Slashdot become? Geez! Is this still news for nerds, stuff that matters? I guess I should post photos of earlier Motorola products, then claim space on Slashdot, right?
In terms of the history of personal computing the Apple-1 and 2 are somewhat important. The same goes for the Motorola DynaTAC and MicroTAC series. If you are too young to appreciate the things that helped create the modern high-tech industry you take for granted you can always do something you perceive as being more important like going some place else to refight the Samsung-Google vs. Apple flame war for the umpteenth time and leave us old-timers to indulge in enjoyable recollection of times gone by.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Dinaao Is Not An Apple One.
I spoke with Steve Wozniak at the 30th anniversary of Apple held at the Computer History Museum - I asked him why the Apple One was so retarded. He really wasn't happy about that question. I then explained that I had built a Replica 1 and then written Dinaao to teach myself how the guts of the Apple One really worked, and had found that the input was limited to 60 characters a second, and the output as well even though the MOS 6502 CPU was running at one million clocks per second. :NEXT I
Woz then explained that the Apple One was originally designed to be a TV teletype allowing deaf people to type to each other over a phone line. The current TV teletypes ran at 30 characters per second - his was twice as fast. It was a short time later that he was dragged to a local computer club meeting where someone was talking about these new microprocessors that just became available when he realized that rather than typing to a person, you could be typing to a program running on a microprocessor, and watch it respond on your television, all of which normal people could afford. That was how the Apple One was born.
After getting this running, his friend Steve Jobs worked with him to start Apple, and he started using the Apple One to help design the Apple Two with color graphics so that you could play Brick-Out.
If you want to play with a pretty nice Apple One analog - please download Dinaao off Sourceforge.net - works on Linux / MacOSX (get xcode which includes gcc) or any other posix OS. Unpack, run make, run dinaao, type "E000R", and you've got Woz Basic up and running. Works in a console. You can even cut and paste basic programs from web sites like this one. Hit F9 to exit (might need to move function keys in MacOSX out of the way).
10 FOR I=1 TO 20:FOR J=1 TO I
20 PRINTJ;:NEXT J:PRINT
30 END
Enjoy!
Right, the Apple 1 is an important artefact. A store that bought 500 of them whole sale at $500 apiece to sell them for $666.66 apiece is also interesting. But seriously, just the "polaroid photos of the Apple 1" by themselves is not worthy of much, but surrounded by the facebook posting of these photos and a blog on the Time magazine website about these, well that just barely takes it up a millimeter above the floor level of being uninteresting. :) ) on it in the garage for play and giggles; so I do know about and appreciate the history of computing. But seriously, the title of this topic is "1976 Polaroids of an Apple-1 Resurface". Seriously. Sad. Seriously sad.
:>p
Where's the tech aspect? Where's the nerd aspect? Did they have to do cool digital image restoration to recover theimages? Did the polaroids somehow help Apple make enough money off the Apple 1 to keep them afloat until they could build and sell the apple ][ and move on to fame? I don't see any more gnews for gnerds capacity in this story. Time to move on.... And it's not that I'm so young that I can't see the importance of this. My parents have a trs80 and a running apple ][ bought in 1977 and some punchcard programs with fortran watfor (what for?
a is true because b is a fact therefore a is true which makes b a fact
also what's your problem? if you want something more interesting on the front page, maybe you should contribute something more interesting. what I really expected from your (drunken?) rant was an alternative to the story. instead you just explained how your parents have computer stuff and you are not interested in pictures of an apple 1...isn't it sort of sad you took so many letters to convey that message?
My parents have a trs80 and a running apple ][ bought in 1977 and some punchcard programs with fortran watfor (what for? :) ) on it in the garage for play and giggles; so I do know about and appreciate the history of computing. But seriously, the title of this topic is "1976 Polaroids of an Apple-1 Resurface". Seriously. Sad. Seriously sad.
Your parents, right so that is how young you are. You should ask them why this stuff is important enough to them that they don't scrap it. Why do we keep old cars around and expend more money on restoring them than they are worth? To you computers seem to be something you take for granted a mundane item like a toaster.... which is fair enough if you are not a computer geek. If you are not a car geek I can see how you would be puzzled over people who think it is a sin to crush a 1950s Chevrolet concept car or one of only 51 model 1948 Tucker Sedans ever made to turn them into beer cars or sewer lids. To me these pictures are interesting, because I can remember when there were no PCs. I used to have to laboriously type essays on a IBM 'golfball' typewriter (you should try it, the keys are so stiff you literally have to 'punch' them with your fingers). Getting a computer, being able to make changes and correct mistakes and then print out a new copy was a huge labor saving. Then there were games, first 2D an then Doom, nobody had seen anything like it.... Now, before you get off my lawn, please remind me why are you here taking the piss out of old-timers over our nostalgia when you could be doing something more important like refight the Google-Samsung vs. Apple flamewar for the umpteenth time or convincing politicians that music wants to be free.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
I would prefer this much more than the umpteen politics and yro posts here.
So, even though it might not pique your interest, there would be many others who might be interested.
Also, look at the comments on that site. It is quite illuminating and does give an idea of how computers really came through.
History does teaches lessons a lot.
rajmohan_h@yahoo.com
Can't be a Mac mouse - a) it has more than one button and b) it's made by Microsoft...
This mouse is much older than a Macintosh. It's so old that the only marking on it is the name "Microsoft" molded in relief into the housing... no part number, no other external markings, period. The little internal PCB has markings in Japanese. It's so old it doesn't even use an optical sensor: instead it has some sort of endless potentiometer with its spindle in contact with the ball. The connector probably predates the RS-232 PC connector standard.
Considering that the connector isn't the eventual female DB9 standard for PCs, it has no markings at all other than "Microsoft" in the housing, uses a potentiometer rather than an optical sensor, and has those roller bearings strongly reminiscent of a Xerox Alto mouse, I'm pretty sure that it at least doesn't post-date the first PC generation by much if at all....
Apart from the content of the actual photo, it is an antique and valuable. I (and many others) would like to own those photos not just because of the content, but of the provenance. They are a valuable marker in computing history.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
Where's the nerd aspect?
Clearly you are not a nerd if you have to ask that question.
Is this a joke? All mice were mechanical until just a little over 10 years ago: "The first commercially successful optical computer mice were the Microsoft IntelliMouse with IntelliEye and IntelliMouse Explorer, introduced in 1999." (wikipedia) If you've never popped the ball out of a mouse to pick out the belly button lint you are just a young pup :)
Sarcastic self referential spelling nazi humor. Only on slashdot, ladies and gentlemen, only on slashdot :)
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
I have fond memories of me and a couple junior high school buddies hanging out at the Palo Alto Byte Shop. Playing BASIC Star Trek, typing random shit and seeing what happened ("df" means "disk format" in CP/M; they removed that program from the IMSAI), a bit of BASIC programming... I don't remember any of the computer brands, other than the iconic IMSAI, with the switches on the front panel (as seen in the movie War Games).
at least one Slashdot staffer is willing to let him do it. Is that good or bad?
It's great. There's no reason people shouldn't submit their own work to Slashdot. It's the editor's job to decide if the readership would enjoy it or not. In this case - Apple I porn? C'mon, *of course*.
It's entirely consistent to both detest the actions of Apple, Inc., 2012 and be an admirer of what Woz did for computing.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)