DigiBarn Newsletter #24: DigiBarn REBOOT! (April 7, 2016) "DigiDude" DigiBarn curator Dr. Bruce Damer welcomes you to REBOOT! Dear DigiBarn News subscribers (and welcome new subscribers who subscribed these past few years), This DigiBarn newsletter (#24) comes to your inbox after 7 long years (our last was in 2009) but that doesn't mean that there has been no activity! Far from it, the DigiBarn has continued to collect artifacts (thanks!) and stories of pioneers of computing and now is undergoing a total renovation and reorganization of the collections. See our story below and let me know if you would like to join the effort. DETAILED NEWS OF THE DIGIBARN and its "REBOOT" (some new stories, some you might have missed from 2010-2014) ****************** 1. Deep Dig and Reboot of the DigiBarn (2016) 2. DigiBarn featured in news stories around Apple's 40th anniversary (April 1, 2016)! 3. DigiBarn celebrates the life of Wesley A. Clark (Feb 2016) 4. DigiBarn in two Levity Zone podcasts: Woz visits the DigiBarn & Apple@30 (from 2006) 5. Catch all DigiBarn TV videos on our new YouTube Channel and follow us on Facebook! 6. Oral history with Paul Laughton, about the writing of the Apple II DOS and other microcomputer history (2014) 7. DigiBarn restores and releases Apple II DOS source & docs with Computer History Museum (2013) 8. Unique (and funky) early 1970s videos on the CTC Datapoint 9. DigiBarn tribute to MITS founder Ed Roberts (2010) 10. The worlds first microcomputer (?) the Sac State 8008 (1972-3) PROMs dumped! 11. DigiBarn designs "Mac Man" and his "computer family" for exhibit at Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (2012) 12. BASIC Computer Games by David Ahl returns (2010) 13. Thanks donors! Still looking for... 14. Archive of this and past Newsletters 15. Contacting us or Unsubscribing ****************** Find this and all other newsletters in HTML format at: https://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html ****************** STORIES: 1. Deep Dig and Reboot of the DigiBarn (2016) Hundreds of boxes have been opened, resorted and retubbed and real gems uncovered. Daniel Terdiman of FastCompany did a photo gallery of some of our rare Apple finds here: Four Decades of Apple Artifacts See a panoramic view of the galactic re-sorting below. If anyone would like to be a part of this epic project please let us know by sending us your interest at: https://www.digibarn.com/forms/newcomment.php ****************** 2. DigiBarn featured in news stories around Apple's 40th anniversary (April 1, 2016)! The DigiBarn was the organizers of the 30th birthday celebrations of Apple back in 2006 and this past April we supported the 40th by contributing video and live Macintosh and Apple II screens for the Voice of America story here: Apple Turns 40 in World It Helped Create ****************** 3. DigiBarn celebrates the life of Wesley A. Clark (Feb 2016) A dear friend of the DigiBarn and your curator, Bruce Damer, passed from this world on February 22, 2016. I had just visited  Wes and his wife Maxine at their home in Brooklyn, NY in December and was grateful to have one more lunch with Wes. We helped to get Wes' story to some news outlets including TechRepublic: Wesley A. Clark, legendary computer engineer, dies at 88 Wes was also honored in the New York Times: Wesley A. Clark, Made Computing Personal, Dies at 88 The DigiBarn is hosting a page for memories and tributes to this great pioneer of computing. See and contribute at: https://www.digibarn.com/stories/wes-clark-memorial/index.html My own tribute to Wes follows here: With his work in the late 1950s and 1960s designing the TX-0, the TX-2 and the LINC, Wes Clark created the first experience of what we today call "personal, interactive computing." Using the TX-2, Ivan Sutherland created Sketchpad, the ancestor of all interactive graphics systems, which was an inspiration for Douglas Engelbart's later oN-Line System at SRI. The LINC is considered to be the first workstation, built by the user from a kit, then transported to a lab, office and even used in a home. Alan Kay wrote that "..the feel of the LINC was the feel of personal computing." When we interact with the screen of a computer or touch a tablet or phone today, we are experiencing a vision first brought to life decades ago by Wes Clark. When we heard the news, Galen and I stood by the LINC in the DigiBarn for a quiet moment of remembrance and deep appreciation of a truly great man who humbly with humor, wit and genius changed our world (and who would rap your knuckles for saying so). ****************** 4. DigiBarn in two Levity Zone podcasts: Woz visits the DigiBarn & Apple@30 (from 2006) For several years the DigiBarn had its own podcast, which is still live at: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/digibarn-radio/id180269324?mt=2 Back in 2012 I started my own personal podcast: The Levity Zone with Dr. Bruce. I decided to wrap in some of the excellent recordings from the DigiBarn archives into the Levity Zone and this past month posted two surrounding Apple's 40th anniversary: The Levity Zone Podcast #46: Steve Wozniak visits the DigiBarn The Levity Zone Podcast #47: The DigiBarn does Apple@30 Find both at DigiBarn Radio: https://www.digibarn.com/collections/audio/index.html ****************** 5. Catch all DigiBarn TV videos on our new YouTube Channel and follow us on Facebook! The DigiBarn enters the 21st Century with its own YouTube Channel with 122 superb historical videos and recent events at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB69gAspqxjLySkgBprePNwJg8YAxAkEw and we are now on Facebook with our very own page (like us!) at: https://www.facebook.com/Digibarn/?fref=ts ****************** 6. Oral history with Paul Laughton, about the writing of the Apple ][ DOS and other microcomputer history (2014) As a part of our 2013 project to scan, restore and release the Apple ][ DOS source code and technical docs donated to the DigiBarn by Paul Laughton, the engineer who wrote the Apple ][ operating system back in Spring 1978, I performed an oral history interview at the Computer History Museum in August 2013. The transcript and full video of that interview is now online at: https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746741 and the Apple ][ DOS code is here: https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/apple-ii-dos-source-code/ ****************** 7. DigiBarn restores and releases Apple ][ DOS source & docs with Computer History Museum (2013) In 2010 Paul Laughton, the engineer who coded the DOS for the Apple ][ in Spring 1978 donated to the DigiBarn two original source listings of "Shep" (for Shepardson Microsystems) DOS plus technical docs and copies of the original contracts and letters to and from Steve Jobs and Wozniak. In 2013, after I had finished my PhD and gotten a whole lot done on the science, I finally opened the box and exclaimed "wow!" and took it on to fully preserve and develop these rare one of a kind artifacts. In April 2013 News.com's Daniel Terdiman ran an excellent story: The untold story behind Apple's $13,000 operating system See scans and the whole project at: https://www.digibarn.com/collections/business-docs/apple-II-DOS/index.html And our release of the Apple II source code: Apple ][ DOS Source Code is Released ****************** 8. Unique (and funky) early 1970s videos on the CTC Datapoint Thanks to Chris Kozel for digitizing three seminal CTC Datapoint promotional videos, now part of the DigiBarn cyber-collection at: https://www.digibarn.com/collections/movies/contributed/Datapoint-early-1970s-Chris-Kozel/index.html This little known product and company was at the seminal moments of the birth of not only the microprocessor but of the concept of networked computing itself. Its also an example of pretty funky (aka hip?) 70s style video! ****************** 10. The worlds first microcomputer (?) the Sac State 8008 (1972-3) PROMs dumped! An ongoing project to verify the provenance of the "Sac State 8008" putatively the first ever computer built around a microprocessor (the Intel 8008) in 1972-73 took a step forward with Dwight Elvey dumping the 1702 PROMs so that we could publish the disassembled code. Check it all out along with video interviews of project lead Bill Pentz at: https://www.digibarn.com/stories/bill-pentz-story/index.html ****************** 11. DigiBarn designs "Mac the Kid " and his "computer family" for exhibit at Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (2012) For a spell of real "fun with ancient computer artifacts" I was invited to design and build a display for the "Santa Cruz Collects" exhibit at the wonderful Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History back in 2012. I constructed a "Mac Man" within his "computer family". Take it all in at: https://www.digibarn.com/history/12-08-10-SantaCruz-MAH-collectors-DigiBarn-MacMan/index.htm ****************** 12. BASIC Computer Games by David Ahl returns (2010) David Ahl's classic BASIC Computer Games is back in an ebook format. This is the book the launched the home-brewed computer games revolution and helped microcomputers find a purpose in life! See our coverage of this at: https://www.digibarn.com/collections/books/basicgames/index.html ****************** 13. Thanks donors! Still looking for... A lot of great donations came in since the summer and we would like to thank all the many Friends of the Digibarn who contributed: https://www.digibarn.com/friends/index.html See the ever expanding collection at: https://www.digibarn.com/collections/index.html We are still looking for a bunch of good stuff and have updated our "wish list" at: https://www.digibarn.com/help/index.html so check it out and see if you have anything there we are desperately seeking (Apple 1, or weird prototypes, or a front bezel for a Lisa 1 anyone?). ****************** 14. Archive of this and past Newsletters You can find the archive of this and all past Digibarn Newsletters at: https://www.digibarn.com/history/newsletters/index.html ****************** 15. Contacting Us or Unsubscribing The best way to contact us is by our web form at: https://www.digibarn.com/forms/comment.html the form has a new security feature so you have to enter that automatically generated nonsense word, it prevents the posting robots from finding us! If you want to be unsubscribed please let us know through the form above and provide the email address you are receiving this newsletter on and it will be taken care of promptly. Digibarn News only comes out two or three times per year so it shouldn't clog your inbox! Alternatively, simply reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject. ****************** As you can see, there has been a LOT going on! Thats it for this newsletter, see you in the next one, Yours in gratitude, Bruce Damer, Curator end DigiBarn news.

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