Tuesday, May 24, 2011

eBay: Very Rare KENBAK-1 Computer For Sale, only $20K



The Kenbak-1 is regarded by the Computer History Museum of America as the worlds first personal computer. Robert Nielsen owned one of these machines since 1971 and in this video he shows you the inside of it. A rate KENBAK-1 computer is for sale on eBay.com right now.

Xerox PARC, Apple, and the Creation of the Mouse

The New Yorker reports: "ANNALS OF BUSINESS about Xerox PARC, Apple, and the creation of the personal computer. Describes a visit by Steve Jobs to Xerox PARC in 1979. Xerox PARC was the innovation arm of the Xerox Corporation. In 1970, Xerox had assembled the world’s greatest computer engineers and programmers, and for the next ten years they had an unparalleled run of innovation and invention. By 1979, Apple was already one of the hottest tech firms in the country. So Jobs proposed a deal: he would allow Xerox to buy a hundred thousand shares of his company for a million dollars—its highly anticipated I.P.O. was just a year away—if PARC would “open its kimono.”"

This is probably the best article on the subject I have seen.

Note: To read the full article requires a subscription.