Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

He was instantly on the phone to Albuquerque, asking for their catalog, and whenhe got it, everything looked great the computer kit, the optional disk drives,memory modules, clock modules. So he sent for everything. Four thousand dollars'worth. His excuse to himself was that he would use his new computer system tocatalog all his Popular Science magazines; if he wondered where that article about,say, heat pipes was, he'd type HEAT PIPES on the computer and it would say,ISSUE 4, PAGE 76, STEVE! Ten years and many computers later, he stillwouldn't have gotten around to that task. Because he really wanted a computer tohack on, not to make any stupid index.MITS wrote back to him saying he sent too much money; half the equipment heordered was only in vague planning stages. The other half of the equipment heordered didn't exist either, but MITS was working on those products. So SteveDompier waited.He waited that January, he waited that February, and in early March the wait hadbecome so excruciating that he drove down to the airport, got into a plane, flew toAlbuquerque, rented a car, and, armed only with the street name, began drivingaround Albuquerque looking for this computer company. He had been to variousfirms in Silicon Valley, so he figured he knew what to look for ... a long,modernistic one-story building on a big green lawn, sprinklers whirring, with asign out front with "MITS" chiseled in rustic wood. But the neighborhood wherethe address seemed to be was nothing like that. It was a shabby industrial area.After he drove back and forth a few times he saw a little sign, "MITS," in thecomer of a window in a tiny shopping center, between a massage parlor and aLaundromat. If he'd looked in the parking lot nearby, he would have seen a trailerthat some hacker had been living in for the past three weeks while waiting for hismachine to be ready for delivery.Dompier went in and saw that MITS headquarters was two tiny offices, with onesecretary trying to cope with a phone that would ring as soon as the receiver washung up. She was assuring one phone caller after another that yes, one day thecomputer would come. Dompier met Ed Roberts, who was taking all this withgood cheer. Roberts spun a golden tale of the computer future, how MITS wasgoing to be bigger than IBM, and then they went into the back room, piled to theceiling with parts, where an engineer held up a front panel in one hand and ahandful of LEDs in the other. And that was all there was of the Altair so far.The MITS system of kit delivery did not quite conform to United States postalregulations, which frowned upon accepting money through the mail for items thatdid not exist except in pictures on magazine covers. But the post office did notreceive many complaints. When Ed Roberts' friend Eddie Currie joined the