Ed Roberts: The Secret Father of Modern Computing
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every.to
In middle school. I was reading back issues of BYTE magazine, it was all technical jargon noise, but I just kept at it until I got the hang of it. This was back when BYTE still published full source code for featured programs, and there was Steve Ciracia's Circuit Cellar for electronic schematics and timing diagrams.
The computer industry seemed a different, glamorous planet from south-Georgia (not the island) slash pine swampland. And it was... but not that far from Carrollton.
Dang.
Proud to see it.
> Allen had even arranged for Roberts to be interviewed as part of a computer history project for high school students.
I'm not in a place where I can listen, but these seem likely candidates for these interviews:
- https://archive.org/details/EdRobertsInterview1995
- https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...
- https://archive.org/details/RememberingEdRobertsTheFatherOfT...
It was also preceded by some notable and influential machines such as the Xerox Alto. CP/M was developed for an intel machine which also preceded the Altair.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellec
The second sentence in that article says:
> The Intellec computers were among the first microcomputers ever sold, predating the Altair 8800 by at least two years.
of course, there's also the IMSAI. I personally lusted after the Sol (real wood sides!)
Intellec seems to have been missing from the hobbyist headspace, though, which was critical for that early phase of the industry - not to mention that kits were huge in those days. Adults with a couple grand (real money in those days) to blow on a mostly-impractical but cool toy...
It's so weird reading this thinking that bankers used to actually consider funding such ventures.
> For a second, Roberts thought that this was the end of MITS. Instead, the banker sighed and signed off on the loan.
Wow, I'm green with intergenerational envy. Sounds like a parallel universe where people were not worthless cogs in a big machine.
I've seen true honor, sincere client relationship, difficult pricing decisions, painful loss swallowing, etc. Banks are really made of humans, and I invite you to try working in one one day: it is really interesting, and I dare say really useful to society, even if I know most people smirk when I say this...
My dad had a small business in France, and all banks were ready to lend to him, no problem, with a competition on the rate. They would ask him for his business plan, discuss a bit, try to time the loan with their own need, increase the rate if it was a riskier plan. He did re-negotiation, emergency loans, growth-centric new loans, renovation loans, in several banks for over 30 years until he died last year and... one of his employees took a business loans to buy back the business for a million euros from us, his heirs.
How do your bakers, dentists, auto-shop people finance their business ? It cannot be cash-only, family-only, or lying on fake mortgage applications... Maybe your country is really special ? One thing maybe... I don't think banks advertise these very much on their website or whatnot, so maybe you have the impression it doesn't exist ? Usually people with small businesses have some accountant contacts first, then start having contacts in every bank's business loan division and they just meet directly to discuss. At least that's how my dad always seemed to do, when he did his "bank tours" to finance a new project.
But if the company borrows tens of millions of dollars, the home (which itself will already be financed, so realistically only the home equity) of the founder/owner of the company is small compared to the company's financing needs. Banks will prefer that the management 'have skin in the game', but from a purely recovery perspective ('loss given default', to the bank) it's negligible. So, non-recourse loans will be typical for large corporations. Unless they're owned by a billionaire.
This is why you and your spouse have a prenuptial agreement that keeps your finances separate, and the house out of reach of your creditors.
When people see stereotypes or “types”, the point is never—unless they are genuinely denigrating them—that they are completely alien or that whatever institution they belong to is not “made up of humans”.
If you're visiting Albuquerque you can see the plaque marking the spot where Microsoft started:
This is the money quote to show what type of person Roberts was
> “The most important thing is to be honorable, and kind of work from there,” he replied. He spoke about the various times MITS had come close to failure, only to be saved by the blind trust placed in him by others. “If you have integrity, that makes up for a lot of things. A lot of inadequacies. I never lied to anyone. I always told them exactly what the situation was and what we could do to get out of it. That’s true for life in general as well. Don’t lie to yourself.”
Such a sharp contrast to Gates’ behavior.
Microsoft's products from the 1970s and 1980s (notably BASIC, Word and Excel) were certainly influential. Windows delivered a Mac-style GUI for cheap PCs. MSR as noted has produced all sorts of good research.
Do you also appreciate the contributions of street robbers to trickling down of the wealth and drug dealers to the freedom of commerce?