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Monday morning is a bad time for nostalgia. C|NET News.com did a fascinating story on the Digibarn, a private collection of curiosities. The proprietors, Bruce Damer and Alan Lundell, obtained some of their exhibits straight from some of the biggest names in the development of the personal computer.
Just about everything is there, from old mechanical devices for pilots, scientists and race car engineers, to the seminal Xerox Alto. From the popular Commodore 64, PET, and VIC20, to the IBM 5150 (aka the IBM PC). From a 1979 granddaddy of the iPod, to evidence implicating Microsoft in work done for Apple in 1977. Successes, failures and oddities document the rise and rise of the ultimate geek toy.
Alongside is an autographed Apple II computer. I used one of those during school athletics meetings, before I decided to rewrite the software for the IBM PC. It would become my first commercial computer program, dedicated to my friend and co-designer, Frank Tintinger, who died at the age of 15 from a rare, invisible, but evidently serious condition.
Do check out the picture gallery.
Jeez, I’ve used half the equipment in that museum. Does that mean I’m old?
Nah. This is all newfangled PC stuff. Toys, really. It’s the Cobol, Fortran and OS/360 guys who are getting on.
Mention is made in your article of 20th August 2007 of “Frank Tintinger” to whom your computer program was dedicated. The chances are good (considering the surname) that the Frank you are referring to, was a pupil at President High in Johannesburg during the 80’s. If so, I’m his brother William. Pls confirm. Regards.
That would be right. He had twin brothers, a few years younger than he was. Frank and I planned the athletics program at “veldskool” (which was like summer camp indoctrination). I think that would have been 1986, not long before he passed away. I finally finished it 18 months later, used it at President, and sold it to a few schools in the then Transvaal Education Department. I still think of him often — he was a good friend.