Hackers, Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Chapters 1 and 2Levy, Steven
History
Hackers, Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Chapters 1 and 2
Levy, Steven
Computer hackers; Computer programming
IBM-PC
IBM's entry into the personal computer market
which amazingly included a bit of the Hacker Ethic,
and took over. [H.E. as open architecture.]
IBM 704
IBM was The Enemy, and this was its machine,
the Hulking Giant computer in MIT's Building 26.
Later modified into the IBM 709, then the IBM 7090.
Batch-processed and intolerable.
Jerry Jewell
Vietnam vet turned programmer who founded Sirius Software.
Steven Jobs
Visionary, beaded, non-hacking youngster who took
Wozniak's Apple II ][, made a lot of deals,
and formed a company that would make a billion dollars.
Tom Knight
At sixteen, an MIT hacker who would name the
Incompatible Time-sharing System. Later a
Greenblatt nemesis over the LISP machine schism.
Alan Kotok
The chubby MIT student from Jersey who worked
under the rail layout at TMRC, learned the phone system
at Western Electric, and became a legendary TX-0 and PDP-1 hacker.
Effrem Lipkin
Hacker-activist from New York who loved machines
but hated their uses. Co-Founded Community Memory;
friend of Felsenstein.
LISP Machine
The ultimate hacker computer, invented mosly by Greenblatt
and subject of a bitter dispute at MIT.
"Uncle" John McCarthy
Absent-minded but brilliant MIT [later Stanford] professor
who helped pioneer computer chess, artificial intelligence, LISP.
Bob Marsh
Berkeley-ite and Homebrewer who shared garage with Felsenstein
and founded Processor Technology, which made the Sol computer.
Roger Melen
Homebrewer who co-founded Cromemco company to make
circuit boards for Altair. His "Dazzler" played LIFE
programs on his kitchen table.
Louis Merton
Pseudonym for the AI chess hacker whose tendency
to go catatonic brought the hacker community together.
Jude Milhon
Met Lee Felsenstein through a classified ad in the
Berkeley Barb, and became more than a friend--
a member of the Community Memory collective.
Marvin Minsky
Playful and brilliant MIT prof who headed the AI lave
and allowed the hackers to run free.
Fred Moore
Vagabond pacifist who hated money, loved technology,
and co-founded Homebrew Club.
Stewart Nelson
Buck-toothed, diminutive, but fiery AI lab hacker
who connected the PDP-1 comptuer to hack the phone system.
Later co-founded the Systems Concepts company.
Ted Nelson
Self-described "innovator" and noted curmudgeon
who self-published the influential Computer Lib book.
Russel Noftsker
Harried administrator of MIT AI lab in the late sixties;
later president of Symbolics company.
Adam Osborne
Bangkok-born publisher-turned-computer-manufacturer
who considered himself a philsopher. Founded Osborne
Computer Company to make "adequate" machines.
PDP-1
Digital Equipment's first minicomputer, and in 1961
an interactive godsend to the MIT hackers and a
slap in the face to IBM fascism.
PDP-6
Designed in part by Kotok, this mainframe computer
was cornerstone of AI lab, with its gorgeious instruction set
and sixteen sexy registers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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