Memorial Brew

Before Nick became ornery again, I decided to quickly kick out a blog post. Things have been absolutely crazy the last few days -- finished building the two $8k Santa Cruz Tallboys, performed dozens of tune-ups, two Campagnolo shifter rebuilds (today), etc., etc. I worked 12 hours straight two days ago to get caught up -- I am actually having a blast! How can I complain when things are going this well? I can't!

Osbourne I computer

Why did I include the commercial for the original Apple Macintosh? Because I actually have one now (as well as a Macintosh SE and an Apple IIe) for the computer museum I will have at the shop. It all started with an idea. I have had a working Osbourne computer in storage for years -- it was the first "portable" computer. I knew that I wanted to do something cool with it, but I wasn't quite sure what. I started searching eBay for vintage computers and I was amazed at what I found! The very first computer I ever used (other than the terminals my father brought home from work) was a Timex Sinclair Z81. My friend had one which his family bought for him, but he really had no idea what to do with it -- that is where I came in. I taught myself how to program in BASIC on that computer. I found a Z81 on eBay for next to nothing which was in perfect condition, so I couldn't refuse.

Next I searched for an Apple IIe. I was lucky enough to be in a high school which had purchased several II Plus and IIe computers, as well as one Apple Macintosh. It was basically the first year my school had computers and a lab, so the teacher really didn't know much beyond the basics (no pun intended). When we had questions, we had to figure things out ourselves. I honestly don't know where we found our information in the days before the Internet! Soon I was basically teaching the class -- my teacher let me stay unattended in the lab after the school was closed. I remember riding back to the school on my bike in the snow (upstate NY) just so that I could spend more hours on the computers! I was such a geek (as they say about electrical engineering, "You can't spell 'geek' without double-E!"). Eventually I taught myself Pascal and other languages during high school (I am now messing around with C++ again). Those were some of my favorite times!

Think Mark Zuckerberg has an ego? Watch this...



Having read several biographies and autobiographies of Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Larry Ellison, and others, all of my memories of the early days of computers have been coming back. I wanted to have something from my past, so I decided to find all of those early computers which meant so much to me, as well as others which were just important for the time. I have found replica kits of the Altair and Apple I. It would be ridiculous to purchase the original versions, since they can cost thousands and tens of thousands of dollars now. I will be buying a DEC Rainbow, since that was the first personal computer my father bought  for us (with the powerful 8088 processor!). I have samples of an IBM XT and a Commodore 64 coming -- I never had them, but both were important in history. The XT is a slightly upgraded version of the hugely popular IBM PC, and the Commodore was the best-selling computer in history! Amazing, huh?

Am I insane? Absolutely!... I plan to have a multi-tiered display of all of these (working!) models upstairs at my shop in the near future. Amazingly, Ali is very supportive of my illness. Actually, she encourages me in all of my endeavors, even when she doesn't fully understand why I am doing it. There HAS to be something wrong with her! The other night we were watching the documentary Welcome to Macintosh, which basically the history of Apple Inc. I had seen it before, so I fell asleep. When I woke, I was startled to find that she was still watching it -- intently! HAHA!!! What a catch!

I worked Sunday, so we went to Memorial Meat after I closed the shop. It was my third time attending, so I mostly wanted to introduce Ali to my good friends I met during my days at GA Tech. The event is held every year at Josh's house, and it did not disappoint! Monday we went to Brad's house for, you guessed it, more brewing! I think we shall start a new tradition ourselves -- "Memorial Brew." Brad had purchased a lager, so we spent the morning brewing that. Using her bartending experience from her days at that OTHER school (UGA), she made us some amazing martinis -- very dirty with blue cheese olives! Wow!!! As usual, we feasted on amazing food Brad cooked us (meatball appetizers and bacon cheeseburgers!). Perfect day!

From our police correspondent in the field!

That's really about it for now. This is for Nick...