Hackers, Heroes of the Computer Revolution Part 1

Hackers, Heroes of the Computer Revolution.

by Steven Levy.

Who's Who The Wizards and their Machines

Bob Albrecht Found of People's Computer Company who took visceral pleasure in exposing youngsters to computers.

Altair 8800 The pioneering microcomputer that galvanized hardware hackers.

Building this kit made you learn hacking. Then you tried to figure out what to DO with it.

Apple II ][ Steve Wozniak's friendly, flaky, good-looking computer, wildly successful and the spark and soul of a thriving industry.

Atari 800 This home computer gave great graphics to game hackers like John Harris, though the company that made it was loath to tell you how it worked.

Bob and Carolyn Box World-record-holding gold prospectors turned software stars, working for Sierra On-Line.

Doug Carlston Corporate lawyer who chucked it all to form the Broderbund software company.

Bob Davis Left job in liquor store to become best-selling author of Sierra On-Line computer game "Ulysses and the Golden Fleece."

Success was his downfall.

Peter Deutsch Bad in sports, brilliant at math, Peter was still in short pants when he stubled on the TX-0 at MIT--and hacked it along with the masters.

Steve Dompier Homebrew member who first made the Altair sing, and later wrote the "Targe" game on the Sol which entranced Tom Snyder.

John Draper The notorious "Captain Crunch" who fearlessly explored the phone systems, got jailed, hacked microprocessors.

Cigarettes made his violent.

Mark Duchaineau The young Dungeonmaster who copy-protected On-Lines disks at his whim.

Chris Esponosa Fourteen-year-old follower of Steve Wozniak and early Apple employee.

Lee Felsenstein Former "military editor" of Berkeley Barb, and hero of an imaginary science-fiction novel, he designed computers with "junkyard" approach and was central figure in Bay Area hardware hacking in the seventies.

Ed Fredkin Gentle founder of Information International, thought himself world's greates programmer until he met Stew Nelson. Father figure to hackers.

Gordon French Silver-haired hardware hacker whose garage held not cars but his homebrewed Chicken Hawk comptuer, then held the first Homebrew Computer Club meeting.

Richard Garriott Astronaut's son who, as Lord British, created Ultima world on computer disks.

Bill Gates c.o.c.ky wizard, Harvard dropout who wrote Altair BASIC, and complained when hackers copied it.

Bill Gosper Horwitz of computer keyboards, master math and LIFE hacker at MIT AI lab, guru of the Hacker Ethic and student of Chinese restaurant menus.

Richard Greenblatt Single-minded, unkempt, prolific, and canonical MIT hacker who went into night phase so often that he zorched his academic career. The hacker's hacker.

John Harris The young Atari 800 game hacker who became Sierra On-Line's star programmer, but yearned for female companions.h.i.+p.

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 cla.s.sified 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 G.o.dsend 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 s.e.xy registers.

Tom Pittman The religious Homebrew hacker who lost his wife but kept the faith with his Tiny Basic.

Ed Roberts Enigmatic founder of MITS company who shook the world with his Altair computer. He wanted to help people build mental pyramids.

Steve [Slug] Russell McCarthy's "coolie," who hacked the s.p.a.cewar program, first videogame, on the PDP-1. Never made a dime from it.