#Homebrew Computer Club

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 7: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar - Altair 8800🎄💾🗓️

The Altair 8800 was one of the first commercially successful personal computers, introduced in 1975 by MITS, and also one of the most memorable devices in computing history. Powered by the Intel 8080 CPU, an 8-bit processor running at 2 MHz, and initially came with 256 bytes of RAM, expandable via its S-100 bus architecture. Users would mainly interact with the Altair through its front panel-mounted toggle switches for input and LEDs for output.

The Altair 8800 was popularized through a Popular Electronics magazine article, as a kit for hobbyists to build.

It was inexpensive and could be expanded, creating a following of enthusiasts that launched the personal computer market. Specifically, it motivated software development, such as Microsoft's first product, Altair BASIC.

The Altair moved from hobbyist kits to consumer-ready personal computers because of its modular design, reliance on the S-100 bus that eventually became an industry standard, and the rise of user groups like the Homebrew Computer Club.

Many of ya'll out there mentioned the Altair 8800, be sure to share your stories! And check out more history of the Altair on its Wikipedia page -

along with the National Museum of American History - Behring center -

Have first computer memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #firstcomputer #retrocomputing – See you back here tomorrow!

[krjpalmer]

People's Computer Company March 1975

With no clear delineation between the halves of the "outside page," this issue reported on the March 5 meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club (32 enthusiastic people gathered in Gordon French's garage) and proposed the creation of a "Tiny BASIC" suitable for playing PCC's games on an Altair 8800 with limited memory. It also described UNIX in action at the Boston Children's Museum (Wumpus had been ported to it) and promoted "What To Do After You Hit Return," a compilation of PCC games (my family had a later printing of that book.)

[lboogie1906]

Gerald Anderson Lawson (December 1, 1940 – April 9, 2011) was an electronic engineer. He is known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console as well as leading the team that pioneered the commercial video game cartridge. He was thus dubbed the “father of the videogame cartridge” according to Black Enterprise magazine in 1982. He left Fairchild and founded the game company Video-Soft.

At the age of 13, he gained an amateur ham radio license and then built his station at home with parts from local electronic stores bought with his money. He attended both Queens College and City College of New York but did not complete a degree.

He joined Fairchild Semiconductor as an applications engineering consultant within their sales division. He created an early coin-operated arcade game called Demolition Derby in his garage. Completed in early 1975 using Fairchild’s new F8 microprocessors, Demolition Derby was among the earliest microprocessor-driven games.

He and Ron Jones were the sole African American members of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of early computer hobbyists. He left Fairchild and founded Videosoft, a video game development company that made software for the Atari 2600 in the early 1980s, as the 2600 had displaced Channel F as the top system in the market. Videosoft closed about five years later, and he started to take on consulting work. He collaborated with the Stanford mentor program and was preparing to write a book on his career.

He was honored as an industry pioneer for his work on the game cartridge concept by the International Game Developers Association. He was honored with the ID@Xbox Gaming Heroes award at the 21st Independent Games Festival for leading the development of the first cartridge-based game console.

There is a display of his contribution to the gaming industry on permanent display at The World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[commodorez]

How would one go about learning how to make something like the cactus?

Like prerequisites, older code, hardware stuff, etc.

The main prerequisites I can think of are being heavily interested in vintage computers, and having the drive to try and fail and then try again.

I started with building Grant Searle's design, borrowing from other working designs as I went. However, for the front panel? That's alot of time designing, learning, simulating in Logisim, and testing with physical logic gates to produce something 100% original and of my own design. I imagine most folks won't want to go to the trouble of designing an entire front panel state machine like I did.

The good news is that there are way more kits that can help teach the necessary skills than ever before! Most notably, Ben Eater's 6502 kit is a really great way to learn many of the things that I've put into practice here. He has a whole youtube video series associated with it, walking through concepts, construction, programming, etc. step by step. Even if you don't build one of his kits, watching them is an informative process. *I* learned alot, even after having built the Cactus.

If you're going the Z80 direction, the RC2014 series of kits can teach you plenty. There's also glitchworks kits in a few processor types, but those tend to be a bit more for the advanced user. There's the 1802 Membership Card but that's small and not really expandable. I could be here all day listing kits that can help teach and build up experience.

I should mention that I have a computer science degree in my back pocket, but learning logic gates or using assembly was only lightly touched on in the course of my studies. Most of the programming I do involved messing around in BASIC anyway.

I really didn't have a game plan for some of it, so alot of my learning process was trial and error. Alot of errors, in fact. Still making them, and learning from them. I also took the harder route to construction, since I didn't know how to use EDA tools for designing PCBs like KiCAD or Altium or Eagle (don't use Fritzing for the love of fuck).

Oh, one other thing I can recommend: reading through contemporary 1970s computing magazines like Byte (check the internet archive for back issues). There are all sorts of cool projects and ideas present that can really guide you. It doesn't hurt to have a copy of Don Lancaster's TTL Cookbook on hand (I think it's in PDF form online).

Finding a community to help you out is also a great idea. Even back in the 1970s, many folks who jump-started the home computer revolution had the Homebrew Computer Club to help them out. Community meetings to bounce ideas off of, and help one another through debugging are essential in my book -- you don't have to work in a vacuum. I've got a few places I've asked for help, most notably the Retrotech Crew discord server. I've had the benefit of friends who also have homebrewed designs like @techav, who have inspired me with their ideas, but helped me out with mine. In turn, as I've learned, I've been able to help out others.

Hopefully that answers your question. Keep 'em coming!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Object permanence

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

#20yrsago 1970s Homebrew Computer Club newsletter scans https://www.digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/

#15yrsago Corporate developers abandon “underwater” property — why not individuals? https://memex.craphound.com/2010/01/25/corporate-developers-abandon-underwater-property-why-not-individuals/

#10yrsago San Francisco ponders letting luxury property developers take away symbolic “public spaces” https://socketsite.com/archives/2015/01/little-known-public-open-spaces-soon-history.html

#5yrsago Cheating term-paper-for-pay businesses recruited customers through subsidized on-campus parties https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-01-23-how-the-contract-cheating-industry-has-gotten-more-aggressive-in-recruiting-students

#5yrsago The cum-ex scam stole $60b from European tax authorities: it’s monumentally boring, complicated, and very, very important https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/business/cum-ex.html

#5yrsago Chicago PD’s predictive policing tool has been shut down after 8 years of catastrophically bad results https://twitter.com/sh4keer/status/1220470166355468288

#5yrsago The answer to the Clearview AI scandal is better privacy laws, not anti-scraping laws https://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/25/the-answer-to-the-clearview-ai-scandal-is-better-privacy-laws-not-anti-scraping-laws/

#5yrsago I reviewed William Gibson’s novel “Agency” for today’s LA Times https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-01-24/agency-william-gibson

#5yrsago Warner claims ownership over the numbers 36 and 50, and demonetizes Youtube videos that incorporate them https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/annemunition-bizarre-copyright-strike-youtube-random-numbers-1317750/

#1yrago Tabs give me superpowers https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/25/today-in-tabs/#unfucked-rota

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

[clatterbane]

I think someone needs to drink more mead!

(Which sounds like sort of a dangerous thing to suggest, considering Mr. C's biodad actually drank himself to death while he was still a kid. Cirrhosis. But yeah, I don't think that is really a concern here.)

He just bottled up another bucketload yesterday, and it's now trying to take over the entire Homebrew Closet.

His bottles are the ones labeled with hanging tags. And mine are sadly huddling back in that one corner now. A lot of it is that kit wine that I am leaving to bottle age longer. (In the actual glass wine bottles.)

Yeah, I have been making MUCH smaller batches of my redneck wines and trash ciders--and also holding off on making more if supply is greatly outstripping demand. Other than when he offers me some, I've been sticking to my own mainly 2-4L batches. Meanwhile, he mostly does brew by the like 5 gallon bucket and then doesn't drink that much of the proceeds. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Everyone needs their hobbies, but hey.

Oh yeah, that prominent blue thing helping block the view in there is this old lab coat from his university computer club that he dug up, dating to the early '90s. He did actually wear it for some Zoom get-together they had a couple years back? It's a Swedish thing, I wouldn't understand. 😅 There are definitely a number of things where we really do have some different social context.

[ouran101]

hq!! ctt [log 2]

log one | you are here | three

Tools: a [p]hysical 3DS with homebrew/CFW = to get the game files (I have no idea if you can do this on emulator.) the game [p] = I have a physical game. Amazing. GodMode9 = to extract the game files off of the cartridge microSD card reader [p] = yeah my 3DS has a small card so i need one for my computer QuickBMS = to get rid of the "ustarc/ustcomp" prefix on the ARC files two decompression files = found on GBATemp, this actually lets me access the data in the ARC file Karameru (within Kuriimu) = reads and imports/extracts the (S)ARC file Kukkii (within Kuriimu) = reads and imports/extracts the BFLIM file

Step 5.5: oh god the "script" folder

romfs/test/script has DAT files... and more folders.

/companion has INCS files... and a TXT file at the end with a "file_list" of all the INCS files, so I assume that acts as a checker.

All of the folders have the same format of being all INCS files except for a singular TXT file.

The folders are (companion,) epilogue, event, last, normal, story, system, and test.

Judging by the folder names, this seems to be where the actual content is. Speaking of text...

Step 6: I can't use scans text for this can i

Okay, to preface this, I have a file from a long time ago. There are two important points to make. First, this game doesn't use their own in-game keyboard, it uses the 3DS system's keyboard.

Second, because the 3DS is region locked, you only get keyboards in your region. I have an NA 3DS because why wouldn't i living in NA

The first two search results really just said "get a Japanese 3DS," huh. You don't actually want to change the region of your 3DS--even with homebrew--because that has a lot of problems involved.

Thankfully, result three is the coolest option with "3DS-custom-keyboard." There is a warning to not uninstall CFW, but who would do that in this day and age

Although, all this might be unnecessary.

Going back to the "I have an old save file" point, the game does take English characters. My character's name is "Shujin," because that's close enough to the JPN word for protagonist lol

From what I know of the DS days of JPN>ENG fan translations, it's kinda stupid hard to use custom font in the text box. If you look at the TMGS3/Tenipuri translation by jjjewel, there's a section of text that's probably like two letters squished to make something like "Ki" and "Li." The size of the text needs to be able to fit in the box.

(Side note: Their website is down, and I think it's because Google Sites made some kind of change. I honestly don't know if they'll ever come back to restore it tbh)

Um. The point is, HQ!!CTT has English characters in it already, so it shouldn't be really necessary for a keyboard change. The real problem is you only have 6 letters to use for a name.

And the really real problem is I need to see how big the EN text is in relation to the JPN text.

Step 6.5: gaming

So, the intro of this game is that Momijihara High School was once a powerhouse like Karasuno. With the third years retiring, you are left all alone.

Your club advisor gets a call from Takeda--the Fukurodani Group is coming to Miyagi, so Karasuno is also inviting other nearby schools to practice match. You're only one person, but...

For now, you head to Karasuno.. Even if they say no, you can see how they play. Turns out, Nekoma's come early so they're doing a practice match.

Hinata, hearing your story, knows. Volleyball is played with 6 people on the court. They'll have to discuss with the other schools, and you won't be able to participate in every practice, but it's basically agreed that you can join in.

oh god they haven't said my name once, which is sad because i've decided to name him "Haikyu" this time around

So far with the name tag on the top screen text box, it looks like one hiragana = one letter. Which is... bad. It makes sense if "Hinata Shoyo" is equivalent to "Haikyu." lol

(3DS Screenshot tool is built into Luma, but there is a top/bottom screen merger tool. Originally made here, and improved here.)

Anyways, with Fukurodani's sudden arrival, it's decided that Karasuno will just have a practice match, with you joining their player mix.

BABYSITTER TANAKA I AM SO SORRY LOLOLOLOL

OH okay i get it

At the beginning of the match, you flip a coin to see if you serve first. If you get volleyball, that's heads and you serve. If you get the word "volleyball," that's tails and you receive.

[on defense] So you press X to see the current rotation. At the beginning of the rally, they will note a dangerous player. (In this case, Asahi because of his spikes duh)

When you receive the ball, you have to hit Y, B, or A to give it to the setter. The same thing happens when setting to the spiker. Oh my god, you have to choose a receiver to target? I'm so sorry ennoshita

[on offense] Okay, now I have to serve, great. Also, Daichi is the dangerous player now because of his receives ofc. In this case, you can choose a type of serve to do. Tanaka only has an Overhead Serve, but I assume Yamaguchi would have the Jump Floater. I type these with capitals like they're special moves.

damn i made suga receive so that he couldn't toss to asahi but kinoshita got it up

oh shit i got yamaguchi to block it, but I wasn't fast enough to make Tanaka react to the receive. The crosshair moves faster depending on the ball, which, okay, yeah, that makes sense (resets game)

oh i was on offense and then I made Suga receive it again, Narita set this time--OH NO ASAHI FREE--thanks for receiving kageyama but who will toss--ME ME I'LL DO IT--i fucked it up (turns power off)

listen, I said i'd take it, and then i fucked up the toss. like, kageyama's thing--my bias's thing. i made an absolute dogshit cake. do not come to the castle.

btw there isn't a soft reset like Pokemon in this game, so you're probably better off playing the whole match and learning reaction timing, then reloading the save and trying again.

this game is so inaccurate. hinata could never get a service ace on suga /hj

There is straight up "Bad/Fail" when you miss the button press, "Good" for... good, and then "Just" for perfect timing.

When you get perfect timing, you fill up the Tension meter. Then while the ball is being passed to the next person, you can then use X to use a skill by using Tension.

Skills are dependent on certain things. (e.g. Kageyama was in the front row, but Hinata was in the back, so I couldn't make them do the broad attack. But Kageyama could do the dump/two-attack.)

(e.g. obviously, Tsukishima cannot block if he's in the back row.)

Step 7: stop gaming. text.

(obligatory eating break)

Okay, so I've gotten to the point where you go out with a character to a location, so uh, I'll just assume they never say my name. RIP my protagonist Haikyu-kun

(I think it's because a lot of lines in this game are voiced. That's why I got this game in the first place)

(But if Oikawa comes over and calls me Haikyu-chan I will laugh and cry)

Okay, I'm going to go into the romfs/main/name_entry folder because it gives you a preview of your name on the top screen.

So theoretically, there should be some kind of file that has all the text somewhere. My second guess is the romfs/main/common folder because that has stuff like "chara_data" and the potential cash money file: "hiq2_text."

Side note, that abbreviation is so cute. hiq.

This time, I'm going to try using Karameru. First, I need to open it up in Notepad/++. It has a prefix of ustcomp.

Now I can use QuickBMS to get rid of the right prefix. With the new (S)ARC file, I can now use Karameru to see what's inside... and there's a font folder!

The font folder has a file ending of BFFNT though...

If I think about it, if we ignore the "BF" part of the file name, I've gotten "lyt" = layout, "lim" = ???, and now "fnt" = font.

the common folder also has just a plain BFFNT file too. I probably have to find something that'll open this file. I'll try it in Kukkii first.

wait why does this v1.0.15 release say upgrade to version 2

OH there's the GBATemp thread i was looking for!!!!!

(holds head in hands) why have a link to your new thing that just leads to github...

it's me. it's my problem because i don't code.

(holds head in hands) this one only doesn't work for 3DS...

Fine. Let's go. The literal first result. "3dsfont."

ugh none of these are working!!!!!!

okay maybe it was my fault because of my search of "3ds bffnt to ttf." You don't actually want it as a TTF file because it's like normal strokes VS vector lines in a drawing program. You'll want to convert one of the BFFNT tiles (that contains a letter) into a PNG or something, edit, and then put it back.

(but i will also have to replace text that's hard-baked into graphics which is why i wanted TTF in the first place)

There is also something that usually comes up alongside this search called a BCFNT file. It scares me.

i need a moment

Step 7.5: contemplate life but also think about the goal.

What do I need to do? Or rather, what in the game needs translation?

Tutorials. But thankfully, the tutorials are all graphics as a BFLIM file. This is exportable with Kukkii, and then I can edit it in (an old version of) Photoshop to keep transparency on them.

Locations. Not like, super important, but the names. Descriptions less so. I think these are also graphics.

Player Profiles. You have to make a team of +5 others to make a cool team at the end of the two week practice period. It would be good to know the strength/weaknesses of the players.

Skills. How else will you know when to use them? This is broken down into a lot of things, like name and description, so I suspect that this'll be some kind of text file.

Options. It's not major, but there are little things like "how many points do you want each set to end on?" And you can choose 6 (default) or 25 (irl). I think these are at least graphics, so it's not hard.

Story. lol yeah, you know, the main part of the game

Okay, then let's move onto another question. Why are we looking so hard for the font? Why not relax and edit some PNGs?

I'd like to keep things looking consistent with the graphics, because they're all this sharp, blocky text.

I could bullshit the general text because it looks like, you know, "generic Japanese video game text." But I'd still need to come back at some point.

Step 8: back to work.

It's time to finally download Python. I'm finally going to try out 3dskit by Tyulis.

OH I SEE they say Python 3.5+ because they probably coded it in 3.5, so that's the lowest version number you can use. ...what do you mean we're onto v3.12.4

python why didn't you tell me there was a packaged version on the Microsoft store before i installed the thing that looked like a command prompt

...microsoft store, your preview picture just looks like a command prompt.

Okay, never mind. Let's stick with the website. ...I think I'm doing something wrong--ohhhhh!!!

You can open up Python as-is, or you can open something called "IDLE Python" which is the version with the gui/the thing that makes it look like a program.

...oh god how do i feed the code (aka the instructions) into Python (aka the machine)

Okay on 3dskit, it also says I need NumPy and Pillow. But also to install these to... I guess, work with Python like how you give an internet browser add-ons... you need something called "pip"? oh god i don't code

Honestly, at this rate, I might try downloading Github Desktop...

I get tired of looking at this BFFNT file and open up all the other BFLIM files in Kukkii. And, yeah, they're what I thought they were.

very much a "These require you to extract the game font to replace the font in the box."

Out of desperation, I go to the romfs/main/common folder and open up hiq2_text.bffnt instead.

o-oh my god, there it is!!!!!!!!!

(Sorry the background is so hideous, I needed a better way to see the white font.)

Okay, so as I suspected, all of these characters are kinda sized to match each other. If 繋ぐ is technically "(to) connect," i can't fit all those letters

Important. In the bottom left corner, there are katakana that are half-sized.

Also in the common folder is a file called hiq2_name.bfflim, which is where that blocky font I wanted was. Yes!

...uh now what

Well, if you look at "Haikyu"'s name, the spacing between the letter i is actually close together rather than pixel separated.

If anything, I need to find a way to access the prologue text, so I can fuck around to find out.

Step 9: please be a hex editor, i know that shit more than python

I suspect the actual story and dialogues are is in romfs/test/script. But I have no clue what this INCS file is.

...Apparently, no one else does either.

In a perfect world, I could open something in Kuriimu and I could use it as a text editor. There is always the possibility, but first, I'll have to get rid of the ustcomp/ustarc prefix header at the beginning of all the files.

I think it's time I restored that FE11/12 hack documentation folder. Because I know there were files that could go in a hex editor... but I wanna know what tipped me off.

Step 9 continues tomorrow. Or on Friday. I'm eating dinner now, and then I have work. Hurray for irl responsibilities!!!

[pixelartkid]

Atari Expo 2023 Chile

Atari Expo 2023, was an event dedicated exclusively to the hardware of Atari like Atari 2600 (also known as VCS) and Atari 800 (micro-Computer), and Atari ST (hardware of 16 bits).

The place of the event was on a Saturday (July 22) (in a day very rainy winter) in Biblioteca de Santiago in Matucana 151.

Some Atari Hardware like 400, 600, 800, 800 XL

There are small stands that sell some Homebrew software & Atari Merch, for example, Lost Squadron for Atari 800 XL & XE was developed in 2020 by Janusz Chabowski (Code and sprite graphic) and Michal Szpilowski (Music and SFX), this game was the winner of the ABBUC competition (Atari Bit Byte User Club since 1985).

Shump top down for Atari XL/ XE

I knew some people of the Atari Community in Chile, they make Homebrew & created games for Atari.

1) Vladimir Zuñiga better known as VHZC is an enthusiastic indie game developer, he writes his games in Basic for Atari 2600, and he is a Graphic Designer, developer in Front End for Websites.

Game of the Bear 2 Much to Bear. (Atari 2600 & 7800 version)

You can play his game here: VCHZ Itch.io

2) Victor Parada, a Programmer with experience, and an indie Homebrew developer by hobby, like to create a game for Atari 800 in an optimized way and he write his games in Assembler with 10 lines only, he show me his recent project in an Atari 800 XL; Block Chaser.

You can play his game here: Vitoco Website

Block Chaser is still in its development!

3) Marcelo Waldbaum & Pedro Caraball , were the founders of Turbosoft in 1987 in Argentina with to Mauro Pieressa & Pedro Dominguez & In 1988 they founded TurboSoft in Chile and in with Coelsa company (official Atari hardware & software dealers) developed and they sold various products for Atari 800, maybe they are the first software and hardware developer in our country.

They developed:

- Loading Game with System and Error detector for Cassette (DCE) while loading a game you could play Tubo Tennis (before that Namco patented the mini-game in the loading screen for PlayStation games)

-Otari (a machine that copies cassettes)

-Cassette with 6 games for play in 1991

-Loading Software Injektor (reduce the time of load to 45 Seconds, before the cassettes, were take between 5-8 minutes to load the program

-Turbo Cartridge of 64K (between 9 to 25 games)

-Turbo VHS, you can play videogames in VHS (yes, read well in VHS)

-Revista Turbo News (1989-1991) a magazine about games and Hardwares of Atari with advertising of Coelsa.

I suggest watch the documental in Spanish of Frognum on his Youtube channel: Here

3) Robert Jaeger, the legendary indie game developer famous for making Montezuma Revenge published by the legendary Parker Brothers in 1983 for Atari 2600, 800, Commodore 64, etc, gave us a preview of his next new projects and answers us via live broadcast of our question.

Recently he launched the Version Montezuma Revenge for NES programmed by Felipe Renaud, who was written the game in Assembler (Felipe Renaud is a Chilean Programmer, who currently working at UbiSoft), Robert Jaeger has founded Normal Distribution LLC his new game company, and they made a Kickstarter for Montezuma NES in 2019, and the game packaging and Manual was designed by Alejandro Cobelli (Youtuber of "Juego del Recuerdo").

Recently Montezuma Revenge's has a new version was released on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Mobile devices.

Also, I met with José Bargas, who is working with Robert Jaeger on an update called Director Cut, he made Montezuma Maker, a Romhack of the original with more rooms of 16 K to 32 K (an expansion of the original in resume).

Montezuma Revenge for Atari 800 was released by Parker Brothers, but in our country, we received the unfinished version, a copy, when Robert Jaeger was looking for a publisher with the Demo and finally this was filtered from the CES 1982, which was the most popular version for the Chilean users of a Atari 800. During the day I met with old friend, how I met some youtubers of my country.

[teodoroguadalupi]

Apple I di Steve Wozniak (1976) Il primo personal computer di Apple è stato progettato e costruito da Steve Wozniak nel 1976. La sua presentazione ufficiale al Homebrew Computer Club, un club di appassionati di computer, avvenne il 11 aprile 1976. Questo computer, venduto a 666,66 dollari e per una produzione complessiva di circa 200 esemplari, rappresentò il punto di partenza per l'azienda Apple.

[carlallenmancao]

Lessons from the Garage: A Reflection on "Pirates of Silicon Valley".

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" isn't just a movie about tech giants; it's a treasure trove of insights for aspiring technopreneurs like ourselves. We may not be launching our ventures from a garage just yet, but the film offers a compelling roadmap for our journeys ahead. Let's dive into a few key aspects that resonate with our experiences as students of technopreneurship.

1. Vision vs. Execution: Finding the Sweet Spot

The film paints a vivid contrast between Steve Jobs, the visionary who obsessed over design and user experience, and Bill Gates, the pragmatist who focused on getting products out the door. While their approaches differed, their success stemmed from a crucial balance. This is a lesson that hits home for us as student technopreneurs. We're bombarded with amazing ideas, but translating those ideas into a product or service that people want takes more than just passion. We need to cultivate the ability to execute, to break down our visions into actionable steps, and adapt to market needs.

Here's where the magic happens: combining that initial spark with the know-how to make it real. This might involve taking business courses, attending workshops, or finding a mentor who can guide you on the practical side of things. Remember, there's a reason why many successful startups boast teams with diverse skillsets – the designer with the programmer, the dreamer with the doer.

2. Building Your Tribe: The Power of Collaboration

One of the most inspiring things about "Pirates of Silicon Valley" is the power of collaboration. Steve Wozniak's engineering genius was the backbone of Apple's hardware, while Steve Jobs' showmanship propelled the brand. Similarly, Bill Gates' strategic mind was complemented by Paul Allen's technical expertise at Microsoft. This dynamic highlights the importance of finding collaborators who complement your strengths.

As students, we're surrounded by a potential network of collaborators – classmates with different areas of expertise, professors with valuable insights, and industry professionals eager to mentor the next generation. Look for opportunities to connect with people who share your passion for technology and innovation. You might find your Wozniak to your Jobs, or your Allen to your Gates, right on campus.

3. Scene it? Believe it! The Importance of a Prototype

There's a scene in the movie where a young Steve Wozniak unveils his creation, the Apple I computer, to the Homebrew Computer Club. The reaction? A mixture of awe and confusion. While the bare-bones machine wasn't exactly user-friendly, it sparked the imagination of those who saw its potential. This scene perfectly embodies the importance of creating a prototype – a tangible representation of your idea.

As students, prototypes are our playgrounds. They allow us to test our ideas, get feedback from potential users, and iterate based on their needs. They don't have to be fancy or polished – a basic website, a cardboard model, or even a hand-drawn sketch can be enough to get the ball rolling. Remember, the goal is to get your idea out of your head and into the real world, where it can be shaped and refined.

4. Learning from the Giants (and their Mistakes): Avoiding the Blunders

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" doesn't shy away from portraying the flaws of these tech titans. Steve Jobs' controlling nature and Bill Gates' cutthroat tactics offer valuable lessons for aspiring technopreneurs. We can learn from their successes, but we should also strive to be ethical and collaborative leaders.

The film reminds us that the path of a technopreneur is paved with not just innovation but also integrity. Building a successful venture requires more than just a great idea; it requires a commitment to building trust with your team, your customers, and the community you serve.

5. The Dorm Room is Your Launchpad: Starting Small and Scaling Up

Perhaps the most inspiring takeaway from "Pirates of Silicon Valley" is the humble beginnings of these tech giants. Both Apple and Microsoft started in less-than-ideal environments – a garage and a dorm room, respectively. This highlights the fact that groundbreaking ideas can emerge from anywhere, with limited resources.

As students, we are surrounded by the perfect launchpad for our tech ventures – our dorm rooms, campus labs, and maker spaces. We have access to professors, mentors, and potentially even funding opportunities through university programs. The key is to leverage these resources, embrace the lean startup mentality, and focus on creating value for your target audience.

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" is a reminder that the journey of a technopreneur is an adventure filled with passion, innovation, and a healthy dose of calculated risk. The film serves as a source of inspiration for us to forge

[apple57645648]

apple

INTRODUCTION OF APPLE

The American company Apple creates and markets computer hardware, software, personal computers, and portable devices around the world. Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. It was incorporated in 1977. Over 30 years have passed since the founding of Apple, and the company's financial performance has gone through ups and downs during that time. It was following 2007. When Apple introduced the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, the company finally experienced global popularity.

The Organization Today

In fourteen nations as of August 2012, Apple had 393 retail locations. After Samsung and Nokia, Apple is the third-largest manufacturer of mobile devices. It recently unveiled a number of new devices, including the iPad 4, iPad mini, iPhone 5, and All-New iMac. The fourth quarter's reported net income increased by nearly 24% compared to the same period last year. Sales of iPhones increased by 58% in terms of units over the same quarter last year.

Stephen G. Wozniak had always wanted to build his own computer, and in 1975 the first commercially successful microcomputer, the Altair 8800, which came as a kit and used the newly developed microprocessor chip, made that dream suddenly attainable. Wozniak's proposal for his own microcomputer was sparked by his pals at the Homebrew Computer Club, a San Francisco Bay area organization centered around the Altair.

APPLE PRODUCTS

MAC

The Mac, also known as Macintosh (the brand's official name from 1984 to 1999), is a line of personal computers created and sold by Apple Inc. Along with the iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro desktop computers, the product line also includes the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops. The MacOS operating system comes preinstalled on Macs.

MACBOOK PRO

Apple Inc. produces a brand of Mac notebooks called the MacBook Pro. It was first introduced in January 2006 and sits above the MacBook Air, which is geared toward consumers. With Apple silicon M-series CPUs, it is currently available with screens that are 13 inches, 14 inches, and 16 inches.

MACBOOK AIR

Apple has been creating and producing the MacBook Air brand of laptops since 2008. It has a 13-inch (updated in 2022) and 15-inch (2023) screen and a thin, light structure in a machined aluminum case. Since the original MacBook series was discontinued in 2011, the MacBook Air has served as Apple's entry-level notebook due to its cheaper price compared to the larger, higher performing MacBook Pro.

IPHONE

Apple Inc. manufactures the iPhone range of handsets, which run on iOS, Apple's proprietary mobile operating system. On January 9, 2007, the first-generation iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, who was then the CEO of I brand. Since then, they has provided yearly updates to iOS and new iPhone models.

[anthonybialy]

Buffalo Bills Win Meet's Only Medal

Is this the Pro Bowl?  Both competitors played along with the track meet narrative for the sprint’s first segment.  The common suggestion regarding how the game would unfurl was limited in the best way by one team getting winded.  Miami really should quit smoking no matter how cool they think it makes them.

The gentlemen’s agreement to not defend was eventually disregarded by one racer.  Frenzy participants were at least correct that one team in this game would score incessantly.

The game the league wanted to feature scoring at will featured sort-of compliance.  Miami participated at least for a little while.

Surprise takes the form of a different style for setting up a barrage.  A commitment to rushing first allowed the Bills to show both aspect’s respective virtues in the same game.  An offense can be two things simultaneously just like I can be charmingly cranky.

October’s opening complied with the theme.  For one game per year, defense is illegal.  The Purge counts as a scary movie in honor of Halloween month.

Getting just enough touches for running backs doesn’t merely justify their salaries.  Freddy and Jason aligning means trouble for partying teens.  The flashier aspect functions best when accompanied by grinding.

Handing off is like blackjack where players have to expect frequent lack of gains.  Players just need to come ahead a little bit.  Play correctly, and royal cards will show up as if by magic.

The offense is certainly not leaving receivers out of it.  These are the Bills in the 2020s, after all.  Find ice and throw your hat on it to honor the Stefon Diggs hat trick.  The middle touchdown impressed the most as his uncommon strength paired with legendary speed allowed him to reach the best decathlon score.

Rushers gained more than ground.  The Bills only ran for 104 yards, which was actually fewer than the team they beat.  But providing a distraction is the top contribution.  The more workmanlike aspect sets up glamorous throws.  Backs and receivers complement each other like Wozniak and Jobs. I wonder if anything became of the Homebrew Computer Club.

Defensive coordinators have to worry about something unexpected with a team that throws touchdowns at will.  Opening the game with more runs than expected offers another dimension which future foes have to spend extra time in therapy addressing.  There’s no option to decline facing fears.

The City of Pushy Neighbors is a compliment.  The variation on Philadelphia’s Brotherly Shove showed a quarterback helping in any way he can.  Josh Allen doesn’t have a sack, yet.

It’s tough for Miami to cope with this weather.  Their players are not used to the football being this hot.  That burning feeling explains the turnovers.  After a week of hearing how Miami is unbeatable, it turns out they're not the Cobra H.I.S.S.

Miami helped the score almost get to 70.  Their foes contributed a significant majority.  Sunday’s blowout brought to mind tallying 58 points against Miami in their first matchup. Respect history by aspiring to match welcome precedents. 

Time’s flying like the football. We’re already slightly less than one-quarter through the season thanks to a prime schedule.  It’s not to get cocky, beating Miami feels like a crucial early item crossed off a divisional championship to-do list.  Early results affect the outcome just as surely as outcomes at season’s end.  Spike Spiegel copes with his past in the present, which is set in the future.

There will be a time soon when this result will weigh heavily without being able to affect what happened.  The regrettable opener was an outlier that counts equally.  This club must continue to make a particularly sad night in New Jersey as irrelevant as possible.

Empathy feels particularly acute when we watch the humans in question coping with hurting.  On the promising side, we’re thrilled about one potential legendary comeback.  London might be even luckier than anticipated if they get to see the 2023 premiere for a future Hall of Famer.  The Dolphins were so intimidated by the mere thought that Von Miller might practice this week that they couldn’t focus.  If you’ve correctly been impressed by Leonard Floyd, imagine him aiming at the quarterback with an all-time pro on the other end.

The thought of seeing one subject of admiration again is balanced with feeling sick for another who’s basically going to miss three years.  There are an innumerable number of ways to show concern for Tre White other than the present cruel one.  The only thing more unfair than one horrific leg injury is a second.

White is the prototypical adopted Buffalonian who shows up for a career and becomes beloved as a person.  We cheer for graduation from the Tre White Speedy Recovery Academy just for his well-being.  Every single fan offered an Achilles tendon.

An underwhelming teammate can take the unwanted opportunity offered by a devastating moment.  If Kaiir Elam wants to prove he can fit in this defense and/or the NFL, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would be the place to start.

We’ve already seen the Comeback Player of the Century claim his award.  There’s never been a more cherished appreciation of special teams participation than Damar Hamlin.  He won even before kickoff. A single play served as the biggest triumph.  Ultimately drubbing their rival is just a bonus, albeit a rather sweet one.

[johnjankovic1]

QWERTY

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Isaac Newton, 1675

A new Industrial Revolution signposted a divergence from sooty factory floors to the sterilized ateliers of semiconductors in the wake of the space program. The Rube Goldberg machines of bulky proportions from yesteryear diminished into relics in the face of digital infrastructure when such analogue computing fell into disrepute. As prices for microchips descended down the cost curve the technology’s omnipresence signalled the economy’s new currency would be data over tangible goods. Indeed Apollo’s industrial policy altered the value proposition of microchips triggering great disruption in traditional manufacturing which was later besieged by a flight of capital. An existential crisis would see the Midwest bear scars of decline as steel mills shuttered when computers supplanted manpower. Although a raft of fissures did predate the demise of steelworkers prior to the digital bonanza in virtue of global competition much of this quiet revolution made blue-collar workers redundant. Intangible assets like software and intellectual property were the new darlings of the knowledge economy as the steel heartland of America’s industrial belt haemorrhaged jobs. It was a fait accompli that bits and bytes would replace steel and coal upon Apollo’s adoption of microelectronics in its bid to land on the Moon.

Not only was the semiconductor industry’s growth intimately linked to the space program but so too was the computer empire that followed suit. By 1968 the average price of the most basic microchip nosedived to $2.33 whose cost efficiencies bootstrapped downstream firms like Apple and Microsoft. Government procurement subsidized the technology to the point where its affordability vaulted a proliferation in the commercial sector. In an atavism to when Washington dumped its surplus planes from WWI at bargain prices onto a market of hobbyists the computer industry’s chronology bears an uncanny resemblance. Early adopters of cheap microchips partook of a subculture where enthusiasts in garages soldered kits of disparate parts. When these electronic evangelists congregated in the Homebrew Computer Club whose alumni included Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs a whole marketplace of schematics and software came to fruition. This iconoclasm of open-source sharing in short order disrupted IBM’s corporate monopoly. The user-friendly Apple II and Tandy’s TRS-80 then democratized the industry for the layperson with grassroots computing. In a mere two years the sales of the former crested from $7.8m in 1978 to $117m in 1980 (Hynes 2021). Manifestly Apollo’s technology trickled down into personal computers.

Whilst Apple graduated into a household name Microsoft was not too far behind. A software boom occurred in lockstep with the groundswell of computers just as hardware prices plummeted. In a clone of Apple’s duo the fountainheads Bill Gates and Paul Allen collaborated to author the MS-Dos operating system that was standardized across the industry. What differentiated Microsoft was the longer time horizon of its business model. Licensing software to multiple buyers rather than one lucrative payout from a single source ended the operating system war even before it began. Whereas exclusivity begot great value it was ubiquity that monopolized marketshare. As more manufactures signed on to host MS-Dos the greater was the number of software developers who gravitated towards tailoring their programs to this specific platform. A self-perpetuating cycle emerged. Third-party developers elected to target the market’s largest segment populated by MS-Dos computers whereby its growing utility saw Microsoft boast increasing returns to scale as more consumers fancied the product. Much like moths to a flame the herd behaviour of users generated rapid adoption when popularity equated with the endorsement of the software. In retrospect the philosophy of ubiquity over exclusivity proved correct.

As markets reacted to Apollo’s demand for integrated circuits with lower prices per unit over time the seeds of industrial policy germinated into another organic outgrowth. Not only were computers mass produced but the network they plied to interface with each other derived from this wellspring as well. The creation of the Internet vindicates just how much space exploration was not at all a sunk cost but rather the paragon of shrewd investment. The cascading effect was aplenty. As more institutions and households adopted computers in a positive feedback loop the greater was the need for a decentralized method of communication between these monuments to reason. Crowdsourcing information would be a fillip to research whereby the Internet’s prototype first liaised the Universities of California, Stanford, Santa Barbara and Utah with each other. Under the government’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and its eponymous network the ARPANET computers were interlinked in the first of its kind by 1969 at the cost of $1m in R&D (Lukasik 2010). As chip designs and manufacturing techniques catered to NASA the knock-on effects gave prominence to cyberspace. The Internet’s genealogy thus can be traced to the law of unintended consequences wherein Apollo was the chief protagonist.

The very essence of industrial policy is to plant seeds. Create a market where none existed and once it has matured no longer is it needed for government to cosplay a gatekeeper. Being this silent benefactor was how the Internet evolved into the lingua franca of the knowledge economy. The seed money from NASA’s procurement that subsidized the semiconductor industry was what staged the advent of the Digital Age. It is not reductionist to posit how the moonshot ushered in a whole new paradigm from manufacturing to curating information whose progenitor was the Saturn V rocket. The true genius of public funds into this program was not to so much a footprint on the lunar surface as much as it was the boom in technology. Once microelectronics diffused into a constellation of industries they quickly became household mainstays in a virtuous cycle where early adopters mainstreamed their use. Were it not for Apollo it is reasonable to assume the trajectory of microprocessors would have been abjectly impaired. The technology might have been buried in the graveyard next to inventor Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower whose wireless power found no demand nor immediate application for its use. Once the viability of microprocessors was proven courtesy of public dollars the buccaneers like Intel summarily refined these tiny slivers of silicon for profit.

[thewestern]

Chapter 3

More than a Brewer, Hank considered himself to be a Publican. About beer, he really only knew enough to be dangerous, were his words. It’s true he had been a homebrewer since before indoor plumbing. Or electric light, as he’d alternatively self-deprecate. That was how he and Russ first made friends. Back then homebrewing was still technically illegal at the federal level, dating all the way to the Volstead Act, which as you know was enacted to carry out the intent of the Eighteenth Amendment, that prohibited the production, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages, much to the consternation of a great many thirsty Americans. The Twenty-First Amendment, which subsequently repealed Prohibition, spelled out provisions for the legalisation of home winemaking but left out any mention of home beermaking. (The Nineteenth and Twentieth Amendments granted a woman’s right to vote, and reduced the lame duck period by moving up the start date of Presidential, Vice Presidential and Congressional terms, respectively.) An omission made either mistakenly, or more likely out of ignorance to the fact that any citizen would desire to do a thing as foolish as brew their own beer. In any case, for a time they were Outlaw Hobbyists, as Russ used to josh. About the only useful thing that hillbilly ever did was legalize our hooch, by Hank’s measure of things. He was referring of course to our Thirty-Ninth President, James Earl Carter, Jr., whose pen stroke amended the land of the law to allow for the private individual making of beer in one’s own garage, kitchen or wherever else they so pleased for the purpose of personal consumption. Funny story actually, about how it was that came to be. Some homebrew club with entirely too much time on their hands had lobbied their Senator, this guy Alan Cranston of California (the Senator’s other enduring contribution to the culture-at-large was to unwittingly precipitate the breakup of the seventies rock band, The Eagles, which followed a bitter bought of onstage bickering between founding members Glen Frey and Don Felder that occurred at a fundraising concert benefiting the Cranston reelection campaign committee), and he got it earmarked onto a considerably broader-scoped, omnibus-type transportation bill. Something or other having to do with excise taxes on commercial trucks. God Bless America.

For a homebrewer though Hank wasn’t worth a hoot, and he’d have happily told you so. He couldn’t see how they were very compatible skill sets anyway — brewing five gallons on your gas cooktop versus fifteen hectoliters with intent to distribute. That being said, a lot of amateurs had gone pro in those days — the first and second waves of the Craft Beer Revolution, such as it was. Wasn’t just Russ and him. (There was gold in them ales.) Some still do today, although homebrewing isn’t the popular craze it was once, what with so much else to do. On the computer and elsewhere.

Anyways at least to Hank the beer was always a means to an end. Even if the ends didn’t always quite seem to meet. That was the money though, and he wasn’t in it for that either. Only a damned fool would set his mind to brewing beer if all he really wanted was to hit paydirt. Go buy yourself a portfolio of condos or office buildings off Larry or one of his cronies. Then do absolutely nothing. That’ll return on your investment a fair sight faster than busting your ass to sell warm, flat beer to the yuppies that live and work in those condos or office buildings. 

Hank made beer because he was an engineer and that’s what engineers are inclined to do. Make things. Things that solve problems. Now, one doesn’t just start making things out of thin air from scratch. No, how you get good at making things is by taking other things apart. These are practice problems. Just find something. Could be anything. A thingamajig or a doohickey. Doesn’t even need to be broken. Better that it works perfect. Bought right off the rack, no assembly required. Now disassemble it entirely and then put it back together again. Or if you can’t get back to what it was, turn it into something else. Just mess with it. From when he was but a small lad to the day he presumably died, Hank was always messing with stuff. Household appliances, classic cars, air-to-surface missiles, vintage arcade games. That was engineering. One would engineer. Things that solved problems for some, and in the process quite often created them for others, as it were. Problems like carbon emissions, forever wars, you spending too much time on your dumb phone and so on. As a guilt-rid Catholic, his specific problem was he didn’t like drinking alone. Sure he’d do it, in a pinch, but he’d prefer the alternative of company. Therefore he Engineered beer quite simply so that he’d have people around with which to drink it. (The way he had it figured, when someone offers you a drink, it’s considerably harder to refuse when the offerer personally made the refreshment in question over a period of several weeks, months, or even years, as was sometimes the case at the Newfy. An engineer the likes of Hank would do well to think along those lines. Non-linearly.) 

Therein laid the Duality of Hank. Reclusive though he could often be in work and play, he loved people. In particular all the other loners out there. His fellow weary travelers, as he referred to them explicitly. Folks who Hank knew damn well would all drift away from themselves and others in such manners that caused great pains to all parties. Not that anybody had a choice in the matter. Because the most you can do is the best you can. That was an old Irish proverb he professed to liking. And also the other thing about being Irish was knowing the world was going to break your heart. Everyone he ever hung around had heard him say that a time or two. On the other hand, being Irish and a defeatist as he understood meant using your noggin to get your own relief ... let the world do its own spinning. Go down the pub and lift a pint with some company, you miserable cunt, you. 

So then it stands to reason, even if Russell were cooking up protestant beer for the Grace of Her Majesty the Queen, he wanted the space itself to have the genuine atmosphere of a proper Irish alehouse. Now to be clear, insofar as there was an appreciable difference between an Irish Inn and its English counterpart, Hank was not aware. For him it usually came down to more of a feel thing anyway. The room was of sufficient size, yes, but never at the expense of its snugness. Low ceilings, you know. Likewise, the lighting was dim, but also warm. Absorbed by dark stained wood paneling, exposed brick interiors. There was even an honest-to-goodness fireplace on the far corner from the front door, one of the handful which remained within the city limits for a commercially-zoned property. (Phase I woodburning stoves or fireplaces were expressly prohibited from being sold, resold or installed within CIty City and County limits, but this one had been grandfathered in for all perpetuity. Try as they might, the bloodsuckers at the Department of Excises and Licenses couldn’t do a damned thing about it.) 

The bartop itself was bespoke, built basically at-cost by a carpenter buddy of Russ’s. Another of his eternally outstanding debts. Also pro-bono, that same pal had painstakingly hand-carved the tap handles in the unapologetically phallic likenesses of famous spacecraft — the X-15, the Apollo 11 Command Module, the Space Shuttle Discovery, even the Soyuz rocket. (Worthy fucking adversary, Hank would grant them that.) All the ones that didn’t infamously explode or disintegrate, killing everyone on board. Then above there on the wall Hank had meticulously plotted an X-Y plane of bric-a-brac from his Private Collection. Just souvenirs and various other junk he’d taken home from his worldly travels, mostly gone undeclared. A string of Chinese lanterns, a parallel string of Tibetan prayer flags from Everest base camp. Some Mexican sugar skulls, an African fertility mask. That sort of thing … It’s a Small World, After All. Colonizing the global kitsch, regulars had hung their own private mugs, personalized each with nickname tags (Hello My Name Is: Skinny Guinea, Tooka, Wooski, Squeaky, Blue, Chocolate George, That’s Mister Diamond To You, Fetchin’ Gretchen a.k.a Her Majesty the Mucus Queen, etc.), other assorted decals advertising local businesses (e.g. Fort Bliss BBQ, Chavez Chavez y Cheeseburger) or advocating outdoor recreational nudity (i.e. SKI NAKED), and sometimes glitter. Also, lest we forget, hung as a warning to those who wished him ill, Hank displayed his private collection of exotic weapons — the aforementioned thunder bow, a machete (a word he made a point of pronouncing ma•sheh•tay, rather than the more Americanized muh•sheh•teh, which always drove the Mick up a separate wall), a mace (not to be confused with Mace, the brand of pepper spray … a mace, the club with a spiked head, swung on a chain to penetrate enemy armour), some ninja throwing stars, a fucking katana and a six iron, inarguably the most deadly of all golf clubs. All this, decorative chaos, orbited about a taxidermied bison head they all called Bertha; recall that all inanimate objects of worthy size or significance around the brewery were personified as such, with human names. Hank claimed he stole the beast right off its mount in a trophy room. It was at a dude ranch type-a place, owned by some big swinging dick or other, around or about the mid-to-late-seventies. Only thing I ever stole in my life, he testified to, perjuriously. (Notably, he had stolen away with Mary Ellen Moffet’s heart.) It’s a small man who hunts big game, only for the sport of the thing, as Hank had told the Mick. 

As brewpubs and breweries proliferated in the decades-plural following the New Frontier’s opening, it became architecturally fashionable to maintain an open floorplan, wherein the barroom or dining area occupied the same contiguous space as the brewery or the kitchen itself. The Newfy bucked this trend before it even began, secluding its brewhouse from view by the paying customer. Hank couldn’t understand for the life of him this fascination for seeing your beer get brewed or your supper get cooked. As a food service professional, he preferred to maintain the suspension of disbelief. Or to keep the element of surprise. 

###

COMIN’ OUT. 

Kitty and Mick passed through the swinging saloon door threshold, from the brewery into the bar proper. The place was utterly fucking packed, as was to be expected. There amid the fray was a local news cameraman setting up a tripod. Hank for his part had instituted a strict No Photography in the Bar policy, and even if he wouldn’t be there to enforce it, the Mick still felt compelled to see what all the fuss was. Surely you needed a permit or at the very least permission to film on the premises of a private business. He flipped up the bridge and delicately sidestepped his way through the maze of jutting elbows and hips on his way to the back corner booth. There was Grace, situated in the very same seat where he’d seen her some hours ago, albeit currently making out with a separate romantic partner. And now in the cold light of day no less. The Mick recognized the owner of the mouth that was vacuum-sealed onto his assistant brewer’s to be the sales rep from Trouble Brewing Inc., although her name eluded him. Last spring she sold him a keg of their Murderhorn Chocolate Stout for their guest tap. TBI was the sort of heavy metal-themed brewery in town, although they’d steadfastly denied as much to the Mick. We don’t have a theme … we’re not a fucking Bar Mitzvah, man. Whatever, was what the Mick thought, with emphasis, when he made that apparent faux pas in the course of this transaction. O rly? Then how come the only music you play is thrash. And all the beers are called, like, Mineshaft Collapse to Hell Hefeweizen. What about that all the fucking walls are painted vanta fucking black. Not because you’re the heavy metal-themed brewery, right? Fucking who gives a shit anyways.

The beer wasn’t halfway fucking bad though. 

The news camera pointed almost directly at Grace and her companera, making this out to be an especially public display of affection. Even moreso after the news cameraman turned on the accompanying flood light, no doubt ruining, or at the very least altering the mood. Registering her disapproval with this development, as well the presence of others for the first time in some minutes, Grace looked up with an perturbed expression. 

Sheepishly now she acknowledged the Mick, perhaps embarrassed to be caught in this intimate moment at her place of business for the second time in as many business days. For his part, having spent his career working in, or at least adjacent to a bar, the Mick had seen worse from worse. So it’s not as if Grace was in any danger of offending her boss’s delicate sensibilities. On the contrary, he was equally if not more so embarrassed, and wanted only for this interaction to end. Hoping to head off a conversation, Mick waved a tepid hand in the sales girl’s direction. The sales girl, whose name was Margot, by the way, smiled politely in return, and then without saying a word re-placed her tongue directly back onto Grace’s. Margot’s dark lipstick and eyeshadow — another coincidence, to be sure — contrasted quite sharply against her fair complexion and shoulder-length platinum hair, but not at all in a clashing way. By contrast, in a manner that complemented her au natural aesthetic, Grace was close-cropped brunette. Closer cropped than the Mick even, and he wasn’t shaggy by any stretch. That he could tell, Grace didn’t typically wear makeup, but you can bet she was wearing some of Margot’s now. 

Here Zeke materialized out of the melee. The Mick could see that he was perspiring through his shirt and his undershirt. Zeke had been mistaken to think he’d got it made in the shade, now that he’d gotten out of the keg-washing business. Event coordination was proving to be no walk in the park. No one in the over-capacity crowd could get a beer — to pick up the slack behind the bar, Kitty had instinctively started pouring — and now here was the local news to broadcast his failure across the Metro Area. It was all he could do to catch his breath and keep from crying. Now Zeke saw the Mick and without a word he embraced him. 

Bewildered to be held so closely by a colleague, the Mick did not reciprocate in kind. No matter, because Zeke had love to spare and then some. And also sweat. The Mick could feel the hot damp permeating through the four-some layers that separated their dermises. Zeke was the taller of the two by a good five inches, and with the much wider base to match. He had all the physical tools to be a blue-chip assistant brewer, the Mick thought wistfully. (Except for maybe lateral agility, that on which the Mick was willing to compromise.) He looked and felt like a small child there in his arms, embarrassed to be hugged by his mother in front of his classmates. In this moment of stillness, it occurred to the Mick how Zeke never had the pleasure with Hank, having arrived to the New Frontier shortly after his permanent departure. Since Grace replaced Zeke, obviously neither had she, met Hank. So then could it be that the void left by his absence had affected them in ways unknown? Surely Hank would have been pleased to see his spiritual presence linger on to inspire such emotional warmth, as well as the exchange of bodily fluid. Had Russ somehow survived to meet Zeke and Grace, meanwhile, there at the Newfy with the Mick and Kitty, he would have broke his neck all over again, tripping over another in a long queue of bad punch lines: A Jew, a Mexican gal, a Lesbian and a big Black guy walk into a bar ... well, fuck all … and then what happens? 

Ah, who gives a hoot.

Reinvigorated by the kindness of his friend and mentor the Mick, Zeke resolved to make the best of a difficult situation and do whatever he could to help. For a start, he set to bussing the minefield of partway empty pint glasses, stacking them from waist to shoulder-high, balanced delicately between his pronated palm and the crook of his neck. 

 Look at him go, the Mick marveled. As confounding as he found their behavior to be at times, he felt a trickling of pride reflecting on his first two full-time hires as acting chief of Newfy, Inc. — Zeke and Grace. Granted, the former had to be completely reassigned into an entirely made-up position within a summer, and now the latter was establishing a troubling pattern of using what was ostensibly her workplace for casual hookups. But then nobody’s perfect. 

Distracted by these meditations, everso brief which they were, the Mick had managed to forget what he was doing completely, standing as he was shoulder-to-shoulder amidst his apparent peers. Scanning the faces, many of whom should have been instantly familiar, they remained somehow just beyond the pale reaches of his cognitive grasp, as if he was in a dream state that was still buffering. It should have helped that most of those gathered to pay their respects did so representing their respective breweries’ merch — hats, t-shirts, hoodies … often all three at once … as if they were race car drivers in the criminally fan-underappreciated station wagon series — as was customary for Feist Week. If in case they got lost, they could easily be identified and returned to from whence they came. Some adhered to an unspoken dress code of craft beer-formal; after all a great man was presumed to be dead. In so doing that they wore long pants and closed-toe shoes, or their good sandals at a minimum. 

Due credit to the boys in the bluegrass band, who dressed like they were attending a funeral, albeit one in a different century altogether. Bowler hats, pocket watches, all wool everything. The standup bassist wore sleeve garters. Where in the world did he buy those? They all four harmonized around an old-timey microphone. Not the one you’re thinking of, that looks like a cheese grater. (A chrome chode, if you please.) Even older than that. This was shaped circular, like the back of a fan boat kind of. The model they’d have used for the news bulletins, simulcast before the picture show. 

News on the march! Krauts invade Polaks!   

Ongoing still, their more than ten-minute jam on MD — dudes, let’s really explore the space on this one … for Hank — was medleyed with a sepia-toned, instrumental waltz. They played their rearrangement slowed way down, on the line to where it wouldn’t even have been considered bluegrass. Not in the traditional sense. Because then at a certain tempo it just goes back to being folk music. To the Mick it sounded akin to the theme song for that Civil War documentary he’d watched all fifteenish hours of consecutively, one weekend when Kitty was away on a different bachelorette party. 

Boy this was song was a fucking bummer, thought the Mick. Like what you would play on the deck of a sinking ship. Mercifully, they offered a musical reprieve, returning to terra firma — the well-trod land of the Grateful Dead — from where they launched into a spirited rendition of Shakedown Street. Yet another of Hank’s all-timers; he even claimed to have witnessed its debut performance, at an area outdoor amphitheater. The Mick called most all of his many unsubstantiated claims into question and here was no exception.

All of a sudden, as the band rounded the last pre-chorus a commotion sounded about the opposite end of the bar from the Mick, by the front door. Did a cold draft just blow in? 

Nay.

The Mayor was making his entrance. 

[luvetlux]

Die Mitglieder des Homebrew Computer Club, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak und Ron Wayne, gründeten am 01. April 1976 das Unternehmen Apple und stellen ihren ersten Computer vor, den ersten Einplatinencomputer Apple I.