do-not-blog-my-view

Right HERE in Albuquerque, New Mexico!

1. From: http://www.computermuseum.20m.com/popelectronics.htm

The Popular Electronics January 1975 issue.
The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics Magazine is probably the most important publication in the history of the Microcomputer. The Altair 8800 was the first commercially successful microcomputer. In the Editorial of this issue the Altair is announced as a "Home computer". We scanned the pages related to the Altair 8800 for the interested collector. "The World's First Minicomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models."
The Term Microcomputer was not invented, yet and "Commercial Models" like the Data General Nova cost a fortune.
Note that the computer shown on the cover looks different then the actual machine. The computer shown was a non working dummy. The first prototype was lost while shipping.




2. From: http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Gates.html

"Gates graduated from Lakeside in 1973 and enrolled in Harvard University to study mathematics or law. He really did not have much interest in computer science. He felt he was computer literate and thought the computer science crowd was uninteresting. While walking through Harvard Square one day, Allen and Gates noticed something that would change their lives forever. The two saw a copy of Popular Electronics magazine. On the cover of the magazine was a picture of the Altair, a computer kit which you could assemble yourself.
When Gates and Allen were still in Lakeside, they dreamed of starting a computer company that would use the same Intel microprocessor as the Altair. Gates, Allen and their friend, Paul Gilbert, a wiring wizard, built their own machine at Lakeside, using Intel's 8008 1k microprocessor chips. The group had an opportunity to demonstrate their machine but they could not get it working and abandoned the idea. After seeing this magazine and not wanting to be excluded, Gates contacted Ed Roberts of the MITS company and proposed to write some BASIC software for the Altair."

"The two started on their new project immediately. Allen worked on the assembler and Gates started the coding. A third person, Monte Davidoff, joined the team and wrote several math packages. None of the team members had ever seen the Altair machine or the Intel processor. One mistake would cause the software not to run. Gates contacted MITS to inform it of their progress. MITS personnel were impressed with what they were hearing and decided to meet Paul Allen and test the team's code."

"At MITS corporate locale in Albuquerque, Paul Allen loaded the team's code onto the Altair. On the second try, the system booted and worked as planned. Gates and Allen moved to Albuquerque to help MITS with the Altair. In April, 1975, Gates and Allen founded the Microsoft Corporation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Microsoft would sell its BASIC system to MITS, NCR and Intel. It was much cheaper for these companies to buy Microsoft's software than to write their own. Gates and Allen hired Marc McDonald and Ric Weiland, both high school friends, to help with Microsoft's expansion."

"On January 1, 1979, Bill Gates moved Microsoft and its sixteen employees from Albuquerque to Seattle, Washington. Gates thought that recruiting programmers would be easier from this site. Microsoft developed a standard for hiring new employees. Only the most gifted and intelligent new college graduates would be hired. Little job experience was considered positive from Microsoft's point of view. An employee with little experience would have no bias'."

3. From: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/gatescrash1.html

"At the time, Albuquerque's Geraldine Evans surely had no idea who she was plowing into with her 1971 Chevy. Those two nerds in the green Porsche were Microsoft founders Bill Gates (at the wheel) and Paul Allen, according to this [4 May] 1977 New Mexico accident report. Thankfully, though both cars suffered "heavy damage," the occupants were not seriously injured (and the history of the world was not altered by a messy automotive fatality)."

4. From: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=500807

Question:Why did Bill Gates choose Albuquerque as the first location for Microsoft?
Answer: The choice was made because Microsoft's cofounder, Paul Allen, was
offered a job in Albuquerque with MITS (Micro Instrumentation
Telemetry Systems), the manufacturer of the Altair computer. Bill
Gates followed Allen to Albuquerque, and soon Allen was splitting his
time between MITS and the newly-born "Micro Soft".
"Remember that Bill [Gates] wasn't always Microsoft's CEO. That job
originally went to Paul Allen. It was Allen, not Gates, who made that
fateful flight to Albuquerque to sell Microsoft BASIC to MITs. It was
Allen, not Gates, who pulled Bill away from that dorm room poker game
to read the issue of Popular Electronics introducing the Altair."
"Allen and Gates write the first microcomputer BASIC for the Altair, a
computer kit based on Intel's new 8080 chip. They move to Albuquerque,
N.M., where Altair's producer MITS makes Allen its associate director
of software. Allen divides his time between MITS and a new company he
and Gates have started to develop and market microcomputer languages:
Micro Soft."
"Bill Gates was a student at Harvard at the time, and the development
of their BASIC was done on borrowed time on the large PDP-10 computer
system in the school's Aiken Computer Lab, late at night. Not many
weeks later, Paul Allen took a paper tape to Albuquerque and loaded
into an Altair at MITS and demonstrated the first version of what
would come to be known as Altair BASIC, and later Microsoft BASIC.
Gates and Allen made a deal for MITS to distribute their BASIC, Allen
went to work for MITS and Gates soon moved to Albuquerque, where
Microsoft was born. Originally they spelled it Micro-Soft, but
probably changed the spelling because it sounded like they sold small
ice cream cones."
"When first starting out Microsoft, he [Bill Gates] moved the
operation to Albuquerque. This was where the company that was making
the Altair personal computer was based. This place was the center of
creativity for personal computer software at the time because that was
the company making them. However, after the company was bought out, he
relocated the business to Seattle."
"Finally there was usable software to make this computer really
useful, and to change the world. Paul Allen quit his job and went to
work at MITS. Bill Gates soon dropped out of Harvard and moved to
Albuquerque too. They authorized MITS to sell their Basic as part of
the Altair kit. They also retained the rights to market it
themselves.
Gates and Allen eventually formed their own company, Micro Soft -
originally spelled as two words - there in Albuquerque. Within months,
they were modifying their Basic to run on other early microcomputers."

5. From: http://www.postcardsforyou.com/shiralbuquerque2.html

"Such cheap hotels near the university keep company with legends that go beyond pulp Hollywood. One of these places is said to be where Bill Gates and Paul Allen brainstormed the software system that would become Microsoft."

6. From: http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:ESyS_DUHJiIJ:www.microsoft.com/msft/download/keyevents.doc+%22paul+allen%22+albuquerque+office&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3

Key Events in Microsoft History:

1975
January 1. The MITS Altair 8800 appears on the cover of Popular Electronics, inspiring Paul Allen and Bill Gates to develop a BASIC language for the Altair.
February 1. Bill Gates and Paul Allen sell BASIC, the first computer language program for a personal computer, to Microsoft's first customer, MITS of Albuquerque, NM.
March 1. Paul Allen joins MITS as director of software.
April 7. "Altair BASIC-Up and Running," declares the headline of the first edition of MITS Computer Notes.
July 1. BASIC officially ships as version 2.0 in both 4K and 8K editions.

1976
February 3. Bill Gates is one of the first programmers to raise the issue of software piracy. In "An Open Letter to Hobbyists," first published in MITS Computer Notes, Gates accuses hobbyists of stealing software and thus preventing "...good software from being written." He prophetically concludes with the line, "...Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software."
March 27. Bill Gates gives the opening address at the First Annual World Altair Computer Convention, held in Albuquerque.
November 1. Paul Allen resigns from MITS to join Microsoft full time.
November 26. The trade name Microsoft is registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.

1977
February 3. Paul Allen and Bill Gates execute an official partnership agreement.
July 1. FORTRAN-80, Microsoft's second language product, is available.

1978
November 1. Microsoft establishes its first international sales office in Japan, ASCII Microsoft.
December 31. Microsoft's year-end sales exceed $1 million.

Top row: Steve Wood (left), Bob Wallace, Jim Lane. Middle row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin. Bottom row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, Paul Allen. December 7, 1978.

1979
January 1. Microsoft moves its offices to Bellevue, WA, from Albuquerque.

8. From: http://www.thocp.net/companies/microsoft/microsoft_company.htm

Microsoft Company

1975

Hobbyists became entrepreneurs - some more successfully than others. Personal computers proliferated, with no standards and no preconceived notions of what these new machines could be or could do. It was an adventure shared by a virtual handful of enthusiasts.
World's First Minicomputer to Rival Commercial Models
While Hobbyists around the USA were trying to figure out how to piece together systems from parts found in electronics shops, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) of Albuquerque, New Mexico, announced the MITS Altair 8800 on the cover of the 1st January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics.
The MITS Altair inspired a new generation of technology enthusiasts, including Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who were among the first of these early hobbyists to realize that the key to the future of personal computing lay in the unlimited potential of software.
"This is it!" says Paul Allen, waving a copy of Popular Electronics in his hand. "it's about to begin!" On the cover is a mockup of the MITS Altair, the first personal computer.
Dr. John G. Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz developed the BASIC language at Dartmouth in 1964. BASIC stood for "Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". Their objective: to create a simplified computer language for teaching students how to program. Gates and Allen recognized that the compact design of BASIC made it ideal for the limitations of the first personal computers, which had extremely restricted memory and processing power.
Allen, employed by Honeywell and his friend Bill Gates, a sophomore at Harvard, immediately set out to adapt BASIC for the machine, working in marathon 24-hour sessions.
Using the Altair's published specifications, Gates and Allen created a simulator on a DEC PDP-10 computer that allowed it to emulate the MITS machine. Working day and night, they created the first version of MICROSOFT BASIC for the Altair
Jan 2, Bill Gates and Paul Allen complete BASIC
Allen is going to deliver it to MITS president Ed Roberts in Albuquerque. Realizing he didn't have a way to load it into the computer, Paul Allen hand assembled a loader program for BASIC at 30,000 feet in the air, on the flight to New Mexico. Even though it had never been tested on an actual machine, it ran perfectly on the very first try.
They license BASIC to their first customer, MITS of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the manufacturer of the Altair 8800 personal computer. This is the first computer language program written for a personal computer.
Jan 3, Paul Allen joins MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) as Director of Software. , and Gates follows him later that year to form an informal partnership called Micro-soft, complete with hyphen.
The "MITS Mobile" travels through the western United States demonstrating the Altair and "Micro-soft" BASIC. It also unwittingly distributes copies of not-quite-ready-for-prime-time (i.e., pirated) BASIC.
March 7, The MITS Altair newsletter, Computer Notes, declares, "Altair BASIC -- Up and Running."
July 1, Bill Gates' and Paul Allen's BASIC officially ships as version 2.0 in both 4K and 8K editions.
July 22, Paul Allen and Bill Gates sign a licensing agreement with MITS regarding the BASIC Interpreter. Microsoft is not yet an official partnership. In fact, the name has not even been chosen.
Nov 29, In a letter to Paul Allen, Bill Gates uses the name "Micro-soft" to refer to their (60/40)(3) Partnership. This is the earliest known written reference.
Homebrew Computer Club meets for the first time (in Gordon French's garage) in Menlo Park, California.
The Computer Mart opens on Madison Avenue in New York. Zilog Z-80 chip is introduced.
Stats
Revenues: $16,005Employees: 3 (Allen, Gates, and Ric Weiland)MITS promotes Altair BASIC, the computer language developed by Gates and Allen for the Altair computer. Hobbyists are ecstatic, despite the fact that, even with BASIC, there is little you can actually do with the Altair. The "MITS Mobile" travels through the western United States demonstrating the Altair and "Micro-soft" BASIC. It also unwittingly distributes copies of not-quite-ready-for-prime-time (i.e., pirated) BASIC.

1976
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak announce the Apple I personal computer, for only $666.66! (2) A price high but affordable for someone really wanting to buy his own computer.
Shugart introduces the 5.25-inch floppy disk drive at $390. Three computer magazines arrive: BYTE, Computer Graphics & Art, and Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics and Orthodontia.
April Fools! Apple Computer is formed with the introduction of the Apple I on April Fool's day 1976. Out of the garage and into the history books, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak build the first single circuit board PC complete with video interface and 8K of RAM and a keyboard. The system incorporated some cost saving components including the MOS Technologies 6502 processor and dynamic RAM. Various potential investors were shown the prototype Apple I which was mounted on a piece of plywood with all components visible. A computer hobbyist group; the Homebrew Computer Club based in Palo Alto, California previewed one of the prototypes and its innovative features. A local computer dealer owner who agreed to sell the units required that they were assembled which was not the norm for customers buying computers at the time. Once displayed in his store, almost all the Apple I systems sold in the next ten months. 200 Apple I systems were built before the introduction of the Apple II. Jobs and Wozniak continued building systems out of their garage for two years before the move to the current Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.
March 27, Twenty-year old Bill Gates gives the opening address at the First Annual World Altair Computer Convention (WACC) held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
July 1, Microsoft refines and enhances BASIC to sell to other customers including DTC, General Electric, NCR, and Citibank.
November 1, Paul Allen resigns from MITS to join Microsoft full time.
November 26, The tradename "Microsoft" is registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico "to identify computer programs for use in automatic data processing systems; pre-programming processing systems; and data processing services including computer programming services." The application says that the name has been in continuous use since November 12, 1975.
Microsoft develops its first ad campaign, called "The Legend of Micro-Kid."
Although still an informal partnership, Microsoft moves to its first real offices in One Park Central Tower in Albuquerque. Gates returns to Harvard for the spring term, but finds time to direct Microsoft in its efforts to license BASIC to General Electric, NCR, Citibank, and others.

February 3, Bill Gates is one of the first programmers to raise the issue of software piracy. In his "An Open Letter to Hobbyists," first published in MITS newsletter "Computer Notes" and later in several other newsletters and magazines), Gates accuses hobbyists of stealing software and thus preventing "...good software from being written." "If you are STILL using Altair BASIC 1.1, you have a copy that was stolen in March 1975!"He prophetically concludes with the line, "...Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software."
Stats
Revenues: $22,496Employees: 7MITS sponsors the World Altair Computer Convention (WACC) in Albuquerque, for Altair owners, dealers, programmers, and anyone interested in microcomputers. The convention features a 20-year-old as the keynote speaker: Bill Gates.
Microsoft develops its first ad campaign, called "The Legend of Micro-Kid."

1977
Digital Research markets CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) operating system, seeks to set standard.
Tandy Corporation announces TRS-80 Model 1 microcomputer.
Commodore Business Machines introduces Personal Electronic Transactor (PET) computer.
Apple Computer introduces Apple II.
Branching Beyond BASIC, Microsoft develops FORTRAN, COBOL, and Assembler, extending the capabilities of the PC into scientific and business realms.
July 1, The company ships its second language, FORTRAN, and begins offering BASIC on a single-copy basis.
Other First-generation machines that ran Microsoft BASIC included computers from Atari, Cromemco, and Texas Instruments, built around a mind-numbing range of processors that included the Z-80, 8080, 6800, 6809, 6502, and 68000. Because most machines had unique designs with proprietary (and usually primitive) operating systems, the Microsoft development team had to create a specialized version of each language for each computer.
With the introduction of inexpensive microprocessors such as the Intel 8080 and the MOS 6502, a few people began to dream of actually having their own computers.
With BASIC in demand, Microsoft branches out
February 3, A partnership agreement between Paul Allen and Bill Gates is officially executed. Their main product is still BASIC, but it's tied up with MITS, which has agreed to make a "best effort" to license it to other companies. In Bill and Paul's view, however, MITS is making less effort than it should.
The picture shows:Starting from the top, left: Steve Wood, Bob Wallace & Jim LaneNext row: Bob O'Rear, Bob Greenburg, Marc McDonald & Gordon LetwinNext row: Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood & Paul Allen
November 18, Arbitration decides the matter in Microsoft's favor, setting the company free to market BASIC to others. Within months, Microsoft licenses BASIC for the Commodore PET and TRS-80 computers, and begins negotiating with other companies. BASIC product. BASIC has been the subject of an extended legal dispute between the two companies.
Presidents
Bill Gates and Paul Allen shared the title of general partner until 1977, when Bill Gates became president and Paul Allen vice president of Microsoft Corp.
Stats
The BASIC Foundation for a companyRevenues: $381,715Employees: 9Microsoft's flat fee of $21,000 for what becomes Applesoft BASIC seems like a good idea at the time, until Apple sells more than a million machines with BASIC built in. Put your calculators away; it works out to 2 cents per copy.

1978
5.25-inch disk drives arrive for Tandy and Apple computer systems. 16-bit microprocessors are here. Intel introduces the 8086 chip. Al Gore coins the phrase "information highway." First COMDEX computer show in Las Vegas
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wrote Integer BASIC, the first language available for the machine. But it was quickly supplanted in popularity by Microsoft Applesoft BASIC.
The Personal Electronic Transactor -better known as the Commodore PET- had an integrated, self-contained design and was aggressively priced at less than $800. Microsoft developed its first 6502-based BASIC for the Commodore and sold the source code to Apple. The machine used a cassette recorder for loading and storing data.
Introduced in 1977 and licensed to Apple, Applesoft BASIC offered a richer set of programming commands as well as floating-point arithmetic, allowing for the development of the first generation of business-oriented applications. Applesoft BASIC was first made available on tape and disk, then provided in ROM on the popular Apple II Plus. In addition, the company offered the Applesoft Compiler for customers who wanted the faster performance possible with compiled code.
April 11, Microsoft announces its third language product, Microsoft COBOL-80.
November 1, Microsoft establishes its first international sales office in Japan. Microsoft appoints ASCII Microsoft, located in Tokyo, as its exclusive sales agent for the Far East. Organizing the new operation is Kazuhiko Nishi, founder and publisher of Japan's popular ASCII magazine
December 31, Microsoft's year end sales exceed $1 million dollars
Seattle natives Gates and Allen announce plans to return home and set up offices in Bellevue, Washington, becoming the first microcomputer software company in the Northwest. A meeting between Japanese computer magazine publisher Kay Nishi and Bill Gates prompts the establishment of ASCII Microsoft, a Japanese company that markets Microsoft products to original equipment manufacturers, dealers, and end users. Interestingly enough, although the products are in English, they sell well. Microsoft is still exclusively in the business of developing languages, and Microsoft BASIC is the language of choice for the entire burgeoning industry.
Beyond the BASICs: Microsoft introduces COBOL-80.
Stats
Revenues: $1,355,655Employees: 13Anticipating the success of the 16-bit processor, Microsoft begins development of simulators in order to speed and simplify code development.
International
The first international office is established when Microsoft forms a strategic partnership with Kazuhiko Nishi, founder of ASCII Corporation in Japan.

1979
January 1, Microsoft moves its offices to Bellevue, Washington from Albuquerque, New Mexico. After moving to Bellevue, Microsoft continues to grow in employees, sales, and vision. Microsoft has a BASIC compiler for virtually every microcomputer on the market. However, the company recognizes that languages are only a part of the picture, which is why Microsoft makes its first foray into the mass-market possibilities of personal computers by forming the Consumer Products Division, created to develop and market retail products and to provide support for individual users.

9. From: http://www.blinkenlights.com/classiccmp/gateswhine.html

AN OPEN LETTER TO HOBBYISTS By William Henry Gates III
February 3, 1976
An Open Letter to Hobbyists
To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market?
Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC. The value of the computer time we have used exceeds $40,000.
The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour.
Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?
Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing software is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft.
What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.
I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or comment. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software.
Bill Gates
General Partner, Micro-Soft

10. From: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/bunnell/easyprint.html

At the time, MITS employed about 50 people and was located in a tiny shopping center that took up half a block on Linn Avenue just off Route 66 (also called Central Avenue) in a seedy section of Albuquerque. The offices weren't much to look at. Its glory days long past, the shopping center had become home to second-tier businesses like the massage parlor next door and the wholesale office-supply company on the corner. The other half of the block housed a branch office of the Bank of Albuquerque, which was robbed about once every six weeks, a discount paint store, and a Dairy Queen, the lunch spot of choice for MITS employees.
Just across the street was the rundown Sundowner Motel, future home to Microsoft cofounders Bill Gates and Paul Allen. During the day, the whole neighborhood was drab and polluted from all the traffic on Central Avenue, but at night it livened up as a major hangout for drug dealers, prostitutes and their clients.

The letter that convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard, move to Albuquerque and become the richest man in the world.
MITS 2485 Lynn Ave. Albuquerque, N.M. 87106
Bill Gates Harvard University Cambridge, Mass. 02138
February 15, 1975
Dear Bill,
You don't know me yet, but your friend Paul Allen tells me you are a hell of a poker player and also very smart at programming computers. Believe it or not, you might just be the dude I'm looking for.
My name's David Bunnell and I'm the vice president of business development at MITS here in Albuquerque. Paul says you saw the Altair on the cover of Popular Electronics and you flipped out. Paul also told me you're interesting in writing software for the Altair computer.
My friend and boss Ed Roberts and I like to tinker around with electronic stuff, and we built the Altair around this hot new microcomputer chip, the Intel 8080.
You see, the Altair is a fully functional, 8-bit programmable computer that has the potential to do just about anything you can imagine. And electronics hobbyists are lusting for our machines. We're so backlogged that some will do almost anything to get their hands on one: They send us cash in envelopes, and right now there's a guy camped out in his van awaiting delivery of his Altair.
Our biggest impediment to really big growth is the sad reality that right now you can program the Altair only through these front-panel toggle switches in machine language, which is a real pain. Unfortunately, all anyone can do is make these little red LEDs blink in psychedelic patterns. My hobbyist friends dig it, but I want to sell lots of these things and become a billionaire.
Ordinary people will never buy an Altair just to see its lights blink, Bill, and this is where I think you fit into the picture.
I'm not really into coding, even though I totally understand it. Paul tells me you know how to generate tight, tight code, which is really radical because the Altair has only 256 bytes of memory. Once memory-chip prices come down, it will have 65K bytes, but right now it is a bit skimpy in this department.
Ed and I have some pretty good ideas about how we can make this plan work, but of course the big question is whether you're willing to drop out of Harvard University and move to Albuquerque.
As I discussed with Paul, if you can copy Dartmouth Basic and make it work on the 8080 processor, then we can bundle it with the Altair and jointly license it to other personal computer makers. Your software and our hardware will sell like hotcakes to all the electronics buffs, who will in turn write programs that will make personal computers useful for ordinary people. We'll sell millions of these machines, all with your software.
Our goal should be to have a computer that runs your software on every office desktop and in every home--first in America and then the world. I'll make you filthy rich, Bill Gates, and that's a promise!!
All you've got to do is quit wasting your time playing poker, drop out of college and head on out to New Mexico. I know that Albuquerque isn't exactly glamorous, but the Mexican food is fantastic, and there are these flat desert areas where you can race cars and do wheelies, which I understand you like to do.
Please say YES, Bill. Paul will smooth things over with your folks up in Seattle. If you'd like, I'll even write a letter to your Dad explaining the whole situation and why you'll do well here.
Let me know soon, though--there's this Navy guy named Gary Kildall who also wants to write software for the Altair, and he's always calling Ed from San Diego or Honolulu. Ed favors military guys, so please get back to us as soon as you can.
Sincerely,
David Bunnell
Vice President of Advertising, Marketing, Technical Publications & New Product Development

11. From: http://www.sas.org/E-Bulletin/2003-09-19/mimsfeatures/body.html

19 September 2003
Looking back on nearly three decades of personal computing
by Forrest M. Mims, IIIGeronimo Creek ObservatorySeguin, Texas
Last week I wrote about MITS, Inc., the little company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that began the personal computer era. MITS was on the verge of bankruptcy in the fall of 1974 when MITS president Ed Roberts called. Roberts and I were good friends. He and I had co-founded MITS along with Stan Cagle and Bob Zaller in 1969. But Cagle, Zaller and I eventually grew weary of the long hours, which we put in on top of our Air Force research jobs. We eventually sold our shares back to Roberts for $100 each. When I left the Air Force to become a freelance writer, I continued working with Roberts to develop kits and write manuals.
By 1973 Roberts was on the way to becoming a major manufacturer of electronic calculators. MITS introduced the first kit calculators, and I wrote their assembly manuals. But Texas Instruments entered the calculator business, and in late 1974 MITS was facing bankruptcy.
One evening an excited Ed called to say he had something important to show me. "Can you swing by now?" he asked. I hopped on my bicycle and was at MITS within a few minutes. I found Ed in the workshop area. He could barely contain his enthusiasm when he showed me a blue and gray box lined with switches and flickering red lights. It was a real digital computer. Data and programs had to be entered in binary using the panel switches since the machine had no keyboard. And instead of a monitor screen, data were read out from the row of red lights. But it was a real computer that MITS would sell in kit form for an unbelievable bargain price of only $399. Ed asked me to write the instruction manual in exchange for a computer, and I instantly accepted.
MITS got its start when Popular Electronics magazine published articles I wrote about kits that MITS sold by mail order. When Popular Electronics magazine named the new kit computer the Altair 8800 and featured it on the cover of its January 1975 issue, they forever changed the world of hobby electronics. MITS was flooded with orders.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen were among the many thousands who were dazzled by the Popular Electronics cover story. Being skilled programmers, they instinctively knew that the arrival of the Altair had opened the world of computing to everyday people. Before they even had an Altair to work with, they began writing software for it. Within a few months they left Harvard and moved to Albuquerque to work with MITS. Ed gave them office space, and they established a tiny company called Microsoft.
Within two years Roberts had sold 5,000 Altairs and rescued MITS from bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Roberts began fulfilling his ambitions by learning to fly. I'll never forget the view the crystal clear night we flew over downtown Albuquerque in MITS's new two-engine aircraft. In 1980, Roberts sold MITS and fulfilled his remaining ambitions by becoming a millionaire, buying a 900-acre farm in Georgia and becoming a medical doctor.
Meanwhile, the software Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed for the Altair blossomed into an industry of its own. The Altair had spawned many competitors, all of whom wanted to use Altair software. Microsoft was happy to sell them the rights. Even IBM, which had bought some early Altairs, came knocking. With a giant head start over the competition, Microsoft guaranteed its place in the personal computer software business, eventually making Bill Gates the world's wealthiest person.
In 1985, Dr. Uta Merzbach, then the mathematics curator from the Smithsonian Institution, called. She was intrigued by the early history of personal computing and asked to visit my home. She wanted everything I had connected with MITS. After two visits, I gave her my Altair and a complete set of MITS documents. She even took the language translating computer I built for a high school science fair project.
My Altair has been on display at the Smithsonian for more than a decade now. Occasionally I receive calls from historians writing books about the early history of the PC. They all agree that Ed Roberts paved the way for personal computing years ahead of Apple, IBM, Tandy and all the other late comers. Long before any of these companies had a PC, there were MITS personal computer stores, a MITS newsletter, and an annual Altair computer convention. Personal computers would have eventually arrived on our desktops without MITS. But Ed Roberts speeded up their arrival by at least several years. He also understood the vital importance of the Altair software developed by the two-man company called Microsoft. Ed Roberts' Altair and Bill Gates' software made Ed a millionaire and Bill a billionaire.
Forrest M. Mims III is an independent scientist, writer and photographer.
This feature was originally published in Forrest Mims's weekly science column in the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, Seguin, Texas. The column is written for a general audience.

12. From: http://webpages.charter.net/dperr/mits.htm

Ed Roberts and MITS
Excerpted from an Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper article, 04/27/97.Written by Bo Emerson.
Ed Roberts, founder of MITS (Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems), designed the first personal computer before there was a demand for a single unit. MITS had sold thousands of handheld electronic calculators and in 1974 there was no real purpose for a desktop computer. Ed Roberts surveyed the market to see who might buy their own computer and he couldn't find a single person who wanted one. He built one anyway. Says Roberts, " I was bullheaded, my assumption was that there were a bunch of nuts out there like me that would like to have a computer." "To engineers and electronics people, it's the ultimate gadget."
The first machine, a kit for hobbyists, included an Intel 8080 microprocessor, a 256 byte RAM card and a panel of switches. The price: $395. Like the electronic calculator, his creation made the cover of Popular Electronics magazine in January 1975.
The name Altair was taken from a "Star Trek" episode. Says a MITS colleague, Roberts and company were workaholics but "they'd stop everything to watch 'Star Trek.' "
They planned on selling 400 units the first year but sold 800 in the first month. The company doubled their sales each year, reaching $20M in sales in 1977. MITS sold thousands of units long before Apple shipped a single computer!
Among those intrigued by this computer were Harvard students Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In the spring of 1975 Allen arrived at MITS headquarters in Albuquerque carrying a version of a computer language called BASIC, on a roll of paper tape. It worked, sort of, and Roberts hired Allen as manager of software. Gates, 19 years old, came on board later that summer at $10 an hour.
MITS eventually sold about 50,000 units, most of them pre-assembled, along with keyboards and monitors from another supplier. Roberts saw the competition springing up around him and was ready to sell when Pertec Computer offered to buy MITS in mid 1977. "They had a lot of money and I didn't," he explains.
Gates and Allen went on to build the multibillion-dollar Microsoft empire partly from operating software they wrote for the Altair.
Roberts took his share of the MITS sale and moved his family back to southern Georgia, his mother's native land. He planned to grow corn and soybeans but farming lost it's appeal "after about 10 or 15 seconds." In 1984, at age 42, he entered Mercer University's first class of medical students. It wasn't a new idea: As a teenager growing up in Miami he had worked as a scrub technician for heart surgeons at Jackson Memorial hospital.
Ed Roberts, creator of the first personal computer, left the "fast track" pace of the computer business for the challenges of being a small-town physician. At 55, he now practices medicine in a small south Georgia town, (pop. 4390) living with his wife, two Great Danes and a raft of IBM clones.
Typically, he's still inventing, working on "tele-radiology" software that will improve the transmission of medical records, and researching medical literature on the Internet.

13. The photographs below were taken on Thursday, 30 March 2006. Most of the building is unoccupied at this time.

Above two photos: view of mostly the east side of the MITS building. Top photo is of the MITS building facade from NE of it.

Above: oblique view of the facade and west side of the huge MITS building. The building is much of a city block long. This building is located off San Pedro NE. Turn right at Linn Ave and there it is on the south side of the street.

Street sign near the East end of the MITS building. The street sign at the West end of the MITS building read: Linn Ave NE and San Pedro NE.

East wing of the Sundowner Motel. I was told that Bill Gate's room number 155 was roughly above the white truck and on the second floor.

Two photographs [above] of the wide facade of the Sundowner Motel where Bill Gates and Paul Allen stayed. The end view of the East wing is on the right and is decorated with the four red squares. This building is located on the north side of Central Avenue NE and west of San Pedro right past the Walgreens.

13. From: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/photos/microsoft.html

This photo of what looks like a bunch of long-haired hippies has been circulating through email accompanied by the caption "Microsoft, 1978: Would you have invested?"Is the photo real? Is this really what the management of Microsoft looked like in 1978? Yes, on both counts. The photo was taken December 7, 1978 in Albuquerque, New Mexico before the company moved its offices to Washington. The people in the photo are (from left to right, starting at the top) Steve Wood, Bob Wallace, Jim Lane, Bob O' Rear, Bob Greenberg, Marc McDonald, Gordon Letwin, Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood, and Paul Allen.The photo is posted on Microsoft's website on Bill Gates's biography page.If you had chosen to invest your money with this bunch of scruffy looking characters back in 1978, you'd be quite rich now. But how rich did the people in the photo become? Here's their estimated wealth, listed in descending order:Bill Gates: Still with Microsoft as it's chairman and chief software architect. His fortune is somewhere in the range of $50 billion.Paul Allen: Left Microsoft in 1983 but remains a senior strategy advisor to the company. Worth around $25 billion.Bob O'Rear: Left Microsoft in 1983. Is now a cattle rancher and is worth around $100 million.Bob Greenberg: Left Microsoft in 1981 and then helped launch those Cabbage Patch Dolls that were so popular in the 1980s. Last time anyone checked, he was worth around $20 million.Jim Lane: Left Microsoft in 1985. Now has his own software company and is worth around $20 million.Gordon Letwin: Left Microsoft in 1993 and now devotes himself to environmental causes. Is worth around $20 million.Steve and Marla Wood: They both left Microsoft in 1980 and Marla then sued the company for sex discrimination. They're worth around $15 million.Bob Wallace: Left Microsoft in 1983. Worth around $5 million.Andrea Lewis: Was Microsoft's first technical writer. Left the company in 1983. Worth around $2 million.Marc McDonald: Was Microsoft's first employee. Left the company in 1984, but recently rejoined the company when Microsoft bought Design Intelligence, the company he was working for. Has the honor of getting to wear badge number 00001. Probably worth at least $1 million.
References/Further Reading:
Albuquerque Tribune, When Microsoft was local -- how its first 11 employees fared
Main Page
Comments
Search Site
Hoax Forum
Text copyright © 2002 Alex Boese

14. From: http://www.edge.org/documents/digerati/Bunnell.html

THE SEER David BunnellTHE SCRIBE (John Markoff): David was present at the creation of the personal computer industry, and he had this wonderful insight. He essentially helped create the personal computer magazine industry.David Bunnell is founder of PC Magazine, PC World, MacWorld, Personal Computing, and New Media, and is president and CEO of Content.Com, Inc., a digital publishing company.
You wouldn't expect that the personal computer would have been invented and commercialized in 1974 by a company of twenty employees called MITS in Albuquerque. You would expect that the personal computer would have come out of the labs at IBM or Xerox PARC. But that's not what happened, and David Bunnell was present at the creation, having left his job as a sixth-grade teacher in the Chicago public schools to find his place in what he perceived to be a new and important industry. "One of the more interesting things that happened," he recalls, "was that two fellows in Cambridge, Massachusetts, noticed the Altair on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics and got very excited about working at MITS to develop software for this first personal computer. Their names were Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They created a basic language program for the Altair and called us up and said, 'Gee, wouldn't you like to have Basic for the Altair?' The company president, Ed Roberts, who is regarded by many as the father of the personal computer, replied, 'Well, if you can show us that it works, we'd love to have it.'
"Paul Allen hopped on an airplane and flew to Albuquerque and demonstrated that Basic worked, even though Paul and Bill hadn't seen an Altair. They created the Basic language interpreter on a mainframe computer at Harvard University using an emulator for the 8080 Intel chip that was the brains of the Altair. The entire personal computer industry sprung out of MITS, and the Altair, and Paul Allen and Bill Gates."
That David happened to be at the right place at the right time and was able to take advantage of it was probably no accident. And that circumstance has been a hallmark of his career in the personal computer industry. He was not a technical person like everybody else; it was his job as a writer and an editor to interpret the personal computer for people who wanted to use it, to explain what you could do with it, and to help market it. That became his role not just at MITS but in the industry at large. At MITS, David and his colleagues created the first retail computer stores, the first computer conventions, the first publications. David is "The Seer," a player from the very beginning.
David is best known among his peers not for his stunning successes in promoting the personal-computer magazine industry but for his idealistic and deeply humanistic vision. (Perhaps this just means that he's not quite as greedy as his counterparts in the computer revolution.) He devotes his considerable energies and resources to this end. One of his favorite projects is Computers and You, a program he founded at San Francisco's Glide Memorial Church to give hundreds of underprivileged kids and homeless adults computer training every day.
I met David in 1983. Together we made the front page of the Wall Street Journal when I, representing his magazine PC World, sold a line of computer books for a newsworthy sum to Simon & Schuster. This publishing deal was a prime example of the dictum that the people who make money in a gold rush are the ones selling eggs at $10 apiece.
I ran into him in March 1995 at the Intermedia show in San Francisco. Over a drink at the Clift Hotel, we decided to join forces and form a digital publishing company, Content.Com, Inc. As president and CEO, David would run the company out of San Francisco. As chairman, I would be in New York spending half my time on this new venture. Allen & Company, Incorporated, the New York media investment banking firm, became the third partner.
We recruited a board of advisors, many of whom are in this book, including: John Perry Barlow, Stewart Brand, Doug Carlston, John C. Dvorak, Esther Dyson, Danny Hillis, David R. Johnson, Jaron Lanier, Howard Rheingold, Paul Saffo, Cliff Stoll, and Sherry Turkle. Content.Com's opening announcement included its motto‹The default site for intelligent people on the Internet‹and stated the following:
Content.Com, Inc., founded in September 1995, is a digital publishing company that will launch an Internet site envisioned as a virtual community, a "place" in cyberspace built around contemporary thinkers, writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, technologists, and scientists, who represent their creative work, their lives, and the questions they are asking themselves. This will not be journalism or any other kind of mediated experience. This will be what sets Content.Com, Inc. apart from the pack.
In the Internet revolution, David sees the possibility of an optimistic future that can rescue us from the materialistic and misguided conceptions of a personal computer revolution gone wrong.David and I have been talking several times a day for a year. He wears well. He's the real thing.

15. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque,_New_Mexico

When Bill Gates and Paul Allen were hammering out a BASIC operating system for the MITS Altair 8800, they lived at the Sundowner Motel, at 6101 Central Avenue N.E. The building has since been converted into a veterans' rehabilitation home. Their success at this venture led to the founding of Microsoft in Albuquerque in 1975. Microsoft's first official address was the One Park Central Tower on the northeast corner of San Mateo and Central Avenue (across the parking lot from the Bank of the West Tower building), where the company shared office space.

16. From: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/193283_allenmuseum01.html

Paul Allen to open microcomputer history gallery at museum
By TODD BISHOPSEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Twenty-five years after he and Bill Gates moved their small software company from Albuquerque, N.M., to the Seattle region, Paul Allen is returning his attention to the city that ended up on the short end of one of the most famous corporate relocations in history.
The Microsoft Corp. co-founder today is expected to unveil plans for a $5 million microcomputer history gallery within the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque. It will be funded primarily by Allen. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has also committed $1 million toward the project.
The permanent gallery, to open in 2006, is meant in part as a gesture of appreciation to the city where Gates and Allen started their company, wrote much of its early software, and liked to blow off steam racing their cars through the streets in the early-morning hours.
"Paul's wanted to do something for years and years to give back to the community of Albuquerque," said Allen spokesman Jason Hunke, noting that Allen "spent some really formative years" in the city. "He's always wanted to recognize those early roots both in a way that was meaningful to his story ... but also that really recognized what was happening in Albuquerque at the time, which was bigger than just Microsoft."
The gallery will tell an overarching story "about the history of the computer and its role in culture and society," Hunke said.
Allen and Gates started Microsoft in 1975 in a commercial building about nine miles from the museum that will house the gallery. Allen, in fact, bought that original Microsoft site through a holding company three years ago, and he contemplated putting a stand-alone museum there before ultimately deciding instead to build the gallery within the existing state museum.
The original Microsoft site, in a somewhat rough part of town, was put back up for sale by Allen a few months ago.
Microsoft's decision to move in 1979 to the Seattle region, where Gates and Allen grew up, is a subject of some lament in Albuquerque -- considering the transformative effect that Microsoft ultimately had on the Seattle area, said Gary Tonjes, president of Albuquerque Economic Development Inc.
At the same time, Tonjes said, "There's also a real appreciation and an affinity for the company because of its origins here."
Plans for the microcomputer museum gallery are to be announced at an event today by Allen and executives from the Museum of Natural History and Science, part of New Mexico's Department of Cultural Affairs.
The gallery is not meant to be a Microsoft Museum, said Allen spokesman Hunke. (One of those already exists on the company's Redmond campus.) Yet it will naturally include exhibits relating to Microsoft. Historical events to be covered include such pivotal moments as Gates and Allen writing the first programming language for the Altair computer, the machine credited with starting the personal-computer revolution.
The Altair, in fact, is another of Albuquerque's claims to computer fame. The machine was created by an Albuquerque-based company called MITS, which drew Allen and Gates to the city in the first place.
Other events to be covered in the museum gallery are expected to include key developments by such companies as IBM, Apple and Osborne Computer Corp. among others. Broader themes in the exhibit will range from advances in user interfaces to the evolution of the microprocessor.
Allen, who left Microsoft in 1983, is making a habit of turning his areas of personal interest into museums and exhibits, most notably the $240 million Experience Music Project in Seattle, which opened in 2000. More recently, this summer, he opened the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in a wing of EMP.
At 3,000 square feet, the microcomputer history gallery in the New Mexico museum will be considerably smaller than Allen's previous museum endeavors. The EMP building is about 140,000 square feet by comparison, including the 13,000-square-foot Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.
The planned gallery in Albuquerque should benefit from the existing traffic drawn by the museum, already one of the state's biggest tourist attractions. In addition to the primary funding from Allen and the Gates Foundation, the museum's foundation is seeking private donations from the community.
P-I reporter Todd Bishop can be reached at 206-448-8221 or toddbishop@seattlepi.com

17. From: http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Gates.Mirick.html

The Birth of Microsoft In December of 1974, Allen was on his way to visit Gates when along the way he stopped to browse the current magazines. What he saw changed his and Bill Gates's lives forever. On the cover of Popular Electronics was a picture of the Altair 8080 and the headline "World's First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models." He bought the issue and rushed over to Gates's dorm room. They both recognized this as their big opportunity. The two knew that the home computer market was about to explode and that someone would need to make software for the new machines. Within a few days, Gates had called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the makers of the Altair. He told the company that he and Allen had developed a BASIC that could be used on the Altair [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. This was a lie. They had not even written a line of code. They had neither an Altair nor the chip that ran the computer. The MITS company did not know this and was very interested in seeing their BASIC. So, Gates and Allen began working feverishly on the BASIC they had promised. The code for the program was left mostly up to Bill Gates while Paul Allen began working on a way to simulate the Altair with the schools PDP-10. Eight weeks later, the two felt their program was ready. Allen was to fly to MITS and show off their creation. The day after Allen arrived at MITS, it was time to test their BASIC. Entering the program into the company's Altair was the first time Allen had ever touched one. If the Altair simulation he designed or any of Gates's code was faulty, the demonstration would most likely have ended in failure. This was not the case, and the program worked perfectly the first time [Wallace, 1992, p. 80]. MITS arranged a deal with Gates and Allen to buy the rights to their BASIC.[Teamgates.com, 9/29/96] Gates was convinced that the software market had been born. Within a year, Bill Gates had dropped out of Harvard and Microsoft was formed.

18. From: http://www.jmusheneaux.com/39cc.htm#QDOS

1976 (Age 21) Bill Gates speaking at Altair World Fair The First World Altair Computer Convention is held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bill Gates gives opening address.

19. From: http://www.crn.com/sections/special/hof/hof00.jhtml;jsessionid=23BHH1AQQROVIQSNDBECKH0CJUMEKJVN?articleId=18812196&_requestid=9164

By Jerry RosaCRNCRN, 4:08 PM EST Wed. Nov. 08, 2000

From the November 08, 2000 CRN

ost days, when not busy with patients in his office, Dr. H. Edward Roberts makes the rounds visiting homebound patients in Cochran, Ga., a city with less than 5,000 residents.
But Roberts' life as a country doctor seems a lifetime away from the small building in downtown Albuquerque, N.M., where his inventive streak produced a menagerie of radio-controlled devices, calculators and hobbyist electronics gear,not to mention one of the ignition switches for the computer industry.
In mid-1974, Roberts,a former U.S. Air Force officer,built the Altair, a computer kit that augured the age of the PC. The first model, the Altair 8800, and Robert's company, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), were showcased on the January 1975 cover of Popular Electronics, sparking a firestorm of interest from hobbyists nationwide.
"It was a craze," says Forrest Mims III, a co-founder of MITS and an author of more than 70 science books. "That began the whole PC revolution. People felt they had to have one. The personal computer would not have been without Ed."
Roberts never thought he'd be regarded as a founding father of the personal computer, a term that he says he coined. His Altair 8800 now sits in the Smithsonian Institution.
INVENTOR OF THE ALTAIRNow a country doctor, Roberts sparked a wave of innovation in 1974 with the Altair 8800, one of the first personal computers built with an Intel microprocessor. The Altair's life was brief, but Roberts' contribution started a revolution in hardware design and was the first system to run software written by Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
Though brief, the Altair's existence was seminal. Not only did it fuel a drive to create computers for the average person, but it also ran the first software from Microsoft founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates. In addition, it spawned another industry geared toward computer support and third-party products.
The basic Altair had an Intel 8080 microprocessor, 256 bytes of RAM, standard binary switches, and LEDs on the front panel and power supply. It sold for $297 without a case and $395 with a case. The "Altair bus" used a connector with 100 pins and was later known as the S-100 bus.
"The Altair was trying to bring the minicomputer to the hobbyist. It was a catalyst. It spawned the idea of clones and third-party support," says Doug Salot, who runs Blinkenlights Archeological Institute, an educational computer industry Web site.
Those who know Roberts, a pre-med major who eventually switched to electrical engineering, describe him as inventive and driven,an "eternal optimist," says Mims, who met Roberts in 1968 when they were stationed at Kirtland Air Force base in New Mexico. While assigned to the base's laser laboratory, Roberts showed interest in computers and medicine, Mims says. Roberts talked about building a digital computer and spent hours talking to a superior officer about medicine.
The idea to start a company emerged when Roberts became interested in selling kits for radio-controlled devices. He teamed up with Mims and two other friends, Stan Cagle and Bob Zaller, to launch MITS in 1968.
The hobbyist market, however, proved to be tough, and Zaller, Cagle and Mims eventually sold their shares to Roberts. They each got $100. By 1971, MITS built a programmable calculator, but that business ended up being sidelined when Texas Instruments bulldozed the market. So in 1972, MITS designed a terminal system to interface with time-shared computers.
At that time, Roberts began to envision the concept of a personal computer, an affordable computing device with a keyboard, CRT, operating system, mass storage and memory. He considered Digital Equipment's PDP-8 a good prototype but was most impressed by the Hewlett-Packard 9100, which came out in 1968 at a price of $6,000.
When Intel introduced the 8080 processor in late 1973, Roberts felt the horsepower was finally available to help him realize his vision. He teamed up with MITS colleague Bill Yates and began designing the Altair, completing the work by mid-1974, Mims says. The Altair, named after a star system in the "Star Trek" TV series, in part represented a last-ditch effort to save MITS from going under. After all, Roberts had a wife and six children to support.
"We had a meeting with our bankers in September of 1974. We needed $65,000 to keep the company going. We were bankrupt," Roberts says. "I told them we had a chance to sell 800 to 900 [Altairs] the next year. I was accused of being a wild-eyed, crazy optimist." By early January 1975, MITS was receiving orders for 250 Altairs a day. It generated 5,000 orders in the first year.
Despite its early glory, the Altair still needed something: software. Roberts put out a call that he would offer a contract to anyone with a working version of BASIC, a language invented at Dartmouth and already in the public domain.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Now a country doctor, former U.S. Air Force officer Roberts took a major career detour that put the personal computer on the map.Founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1968 with Stan Cagle, Bob Zaller and Forrest Mims III.Built a programmable calculator but MITS sidelined the business when Texas Instruments entered the market. Cagle, Zaller and Mims sold their shares back to Roberts.Completed first Altair in mid-1974 with MITS colleague Bill Yates. The system is now showcased in the Smithsonian Institution.
That's where Microsoft's Gates and Allen entered the Altair picture,and clouded it, Roberts says.
History generally characterizes the Altair as the first computer that ran Microsoft software. Roberts sees it differently, noting there are "distortions" about the role Gates and Allen played in the Altair story. "Bill Gates and Paul Allen worked for me at MITS. They started Microsoft with the software they developed at MITS," he says.
Roberts was approached by Allen and Gates in February 1975, when they sent him a letter to offer an operating version of BASIC. MITS signed them on. But Allen and Gates ran into some problems, Roberts says. "They got into so much trouble, they never could get the whole thing done on their own. We just hired them and developed the operation internally at MITS. All that software was developed by people on the MITS payroll."
By 1977, things were really percolating. The Altair, even with its limitations, was becoming popular with electronics hobbyists, and microcomputer clubs began popping up. Roberts and MITS employees toured the country promoting the Altair. Amid the Altair's success, other microcomputer companies surfaced, some of which developed Altair accessories.
For Roberts, though, the Altair's success proved too taxing. By 1977, he says, he became "burned out" and decided to sell MITS for $6 million to a company called Pertec. He worked in Pertec's R&D unit for a short time but left, citing what he saw as the company's lack of vision.
Pertec discontinued the Altair in 1978. Roberts bought a farm in Georgia and turned to his true passion, entering medical school in 1982 at the age of 39.
During the Altair's brief life, roughly 60,000 machines were rolled out, Roberts says. The number of units built and sold, however, didn't matter as much as what the Altair created: a doorway for the fledgling PC industry. Historians continue to debate about the machine that paved the way for the PC industry to rise. Some point to the Apple II, with its color graphics and built-in keyboard, as the first viable PC.
Roberts says he doesn't regret leaving the computer industry. He says he's had a "good career" as a doctor and believes he has "done some good."
Roberts says his time in the technology arena was primarily about invention. And the country doctor, who says he still signs autographs for admirers, will always be known as the inventor of the Altair,a machine that helped start a revolution. "The motivating force was coming up with a design of a product and thinking it through," he says. "That is one of the most exciting things you can do."

I can't get the following comment to post here properly: All the best to You! wrote me the following comment. With his advertising removed, and a little editing, it reads:

"Hi Blogger! I like your blog! Keep up the good work. You are providing a great resource on the Internet here! Best regards!"

Clancy ancestors on our mother's side

Frank Willey Clancy (15 January 1852 - 01 September 1928). He was Attorney General of New Mexico (1909-1916), as well as Mayor of Albuquerque (1898).
1852: Born 15 January 1852 at Dover, New Hampshire. Son of Michael Albert Clancy and Lydia Ardilla Willey. Brother of Harry Smith Clancy.
1873: LL. B from law school at Columbian Ubiversity, now George Washington University, in Washington, DC.
1874-1877: Lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1874: Admitted to bar in New Mexico.
1875-1876: Clerk of District court Second District in Albuquerque.
1877-1879: Lived in East.
1877: Secretary to Assistant Secretary of Treasury, R.C. McCormick.
1877-1879: Secretary to same as U.S. Commissioner-General to Paris Exposition.
1879-1891: Lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1879: Married Charlotte Jane Cawthorne Swallow on 30 October 1878. She was daughter of Reverend Benjamin Swallow, and was born in London, England.
1879-1883: Clerk of District and Supreme Courts in New Mexico.
1889: Member of New Mexico Constutuional Convention.
1891: President of New Mexico Bar Association.
1892: Moved back to Albuquerque.
1892-1909: Regent at University of New Mexico.
1896: Attorney; lived at 314 N. 6th Street.
1898-1899: Mayor of Albuquerque from April 1898 to April 1899.
1901-1909: District Attorney for Bernalillo County.
1906: Delegate to New Mexico Constitutional Convention.
1909-1916: Attorney General of New Mexico. Lived at 911 W. Copper.
1912: Governor McDonald requested Clancy to determine the boundary between New Mexico and Texas.
????-????: Special Counsel for New Mexico in suits against Colorado and Texas.
1913-1914: President of Territorial Board of Education. Lived in Santa Fe.
1923-1924: President of New Mexico Historical Society.
1928: Died 01 September 1928 in Santa Fe.

Bibliography, and Further Reading:
Agnew, Vesta. "Mayors of Albuquerque", New Mexico Genealogist, Volume VII, Number 1 (March 1968), pp. 7.
"Attorney General Clancy Passes Away at Home Here", Santa Fe Mew Mexican, 1 September 1928, p. 4.
Coan, Charles F. A History of New Mexico. Volume III. Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1925.
"Frank W. Clancy: Last of Old Lawyers Who Were Here in 1877". Santa Fe New Mexican, 4 September 1928, pp. 4.
History of New Mexico: Its Resources and People. Volume I. New York: Pacific States Publishing, 1907.
Keleher, William A. Memoirs, 1892-1969: A New Mexico Item. Santa Fe: Rydal, 1969.
"Monument for Glorieta Battle Field". El Palacio, Volume. XV, Number 8 (13 October 1923), pp. 135-136.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. The Leading Facts of New Mexican History. Volume II and Volume V. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Torch Press, 1912, 1917.
W, P.A.F. "Necrology: Frank W. Clancy", New Mexico Historical Review, Volume 3, pp. 421-425.
Who Was Who in America: A Companion Volume to Who's Who in America. Volume I, 1897-1942: Biographies of the Non-living with Dates of Deaths Appended. Chicago: A.N. Marques, 1943.

Clancy ancestors on our mother's side

Irish and German Mercenary Soldiers' Revolt, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1828:

The Cisplatine War (1825-1828) between Brazil and Argentina over Cisplatina (now Uruguay), was not going well for either side. An Argentine land victory on the plains of Cisplatina was offset by Brazil's effective Rio de la Plata naval blockade.

Dom Pedro I, the Brazilian emperor, sent Colonel William Cotter back to Cotter's native South of Ireland to recruit Irish mercenary soldiers. Cotter arrived in early January 1827.

The Irish soldiers were to join the German mercenary soldiers already in training in Rio de Janeiro to fight alongside the Brazilian Army.

Mainly in County Cork and in County Waterford, advertisements were run in local newspapers, and notices were posted on numerous church doors. The Colonel promised free passage, free land, six shillings per day, and military training as local militia only.

Almost 3,000 mostly poor and illiterate people quickly volunteered to make the long and dangerous sea voyage. Some sold what little they owned to buy farm implements for their new life in Brazil.

Most apparently did not realize that they had been recruited to fight as mercenary soldiers.

The John Clancy family. They were from near Waterford in Ireland. John Clancy, and his wife Mary (or was it Elizabeth) Clancy, nee Ahearn, along with their two daughters, Nancy and Ellen, and a son, name unknown, were among the 2,700 souls who actually showed up on sailing day, and boarded one of the nine ships anchored in Cork Harbor.

The first ship sailed for Rio de Janeiro in August of 1827, and the rest of the fleet soon followed.

It was from newspaper interviews with Nancy Clancy on her birthdays in her latter years (she lived to be 95), that the hardships of their voyage came to light.

While at sea, the young Clancy son died of yellow fever. His body was used as bait to catch the shark that had been following the ship. The boy was removed from the shark's stomach and given a proper Christian burial. Afterwards the shark was divided up among the hungry passengers.

Then their ship was wrecked off Tenerife with the loss of more than half of the passengers. The replacement ship had to make an emergency stop on an island off the coast of South America, where only the hospitality of the local natives saved them from starvation.

The replacement ship reached Rio de Janeiro in late January 1828, when most of the other ships arrived.

Once ashore in Rio de Janeiro, the Irish were assigned to several barracks buildings. They complained of poor food, and of no replacement clothing for the sea voyage rags that had largely rotted off of them.

Some of the Irish simply refused to join the Brazilian Army, saying that they had been falsely recruited. Several hundred of these stubborn holdouts and their families were finally sent in March of 1828 to provincial Taperoa to farm.

Those who did join the Brazilian Army were subject to drilling under unpopular officers offset by endless hours of idleness. Relief, and trouble, were readily available to all the mercenaries at the local grog shops in the form of a cheap and powerful rumcalled cataxes.

Rio de Janeiro's black slaves and the Irish did not get along. Taunts of 'white slaves' when the Irish first landed esculated into individual fights, then large scale brawls, and finally, into murders by roving bands on both sides in the dark streets.

Unrest among both the Irish and the German mercenaries due to rough treatment, non-payment of wages, general misery, and rumors of going into battle soon, grew.

The similarly recruited German mercenary soldiers started the Great Mercenary Revolt on 9 June 1828. When one of their number received many lashes for a minor infraction, the Germans freed their comrade, and attacked the hated officer, who fled for his life.

Word of the German revolt quickly reached the Irish, and about 200 Irish joined. Weapons and liquor were seized.

Irish sources state that the homes of a few hated officers were looted and burned by maurading bands. Brazilian sources record that whole blocks of downtown Rio de Janeiro were razed.

By the second day it was realised that the available Brazilian troops in Rio de Janeiro were insufficent to quell the armed and drunk mobs. Black slaves, who needed no coaxing, and other citizens, were given arms and sent against the Irish.

The Irish and Germans were slowly pushed from the streets and back into their barracks, their best defensive positions.

The emperor requested and received help from the marines aboard British and French ships in the harbor. Not wanting to fight against them, many of the rebel barracks surrendered on the third day.

The final barrack was only taken by storm on the fourth morning with very heavy casualties on both sides.

The surviving mercenaries were rounded up. The Germans were sent to outlying provinces in the South.

At Brazil's expense, 1,400 of the 2,400 Irish who had arrived in January 1828 were sent back to Ireland in July 1828. They arrived home even poorer than when they had left.

The John Clancy family. The Clancy's sailed directly from Rio de Janeiro to Portland, Maine, in America. On the way they were shipwrecked and lost a child.

Another ship from Rio de Janeiro landed more than 200 Irish passengers at St. John in New Brunswich, Canada, and 32 of them made their way to St. Andrews in New Brunswick, Canada.
Some arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs, while others had money to spend.

The mutiny virtually destroyed two of Don Pedro's supposed best units, and ended his hopes for a land victory to augment his naval successful blockade. Brazil and Argentina both agreed to give up their stalemated war.

Dom Pedro ratified the peace treaty on 28 August 1828, and Uruguay became an independent buffer state between the two South American giants.

Bibliography, and Further Reading:
Armitage, John. The History of Brazil: From the Period of the Arrival of the Braganza Family in 1808 to the Abdication of Don Pedro the First in 1831. 2 Volumes. London: Smith, Elder, 1836.
Baldwin, C.J. "To the Editor of the New York Ev. Post" in New York Evening Post, 6 August 1828.
Basto, Fernando L.B. Ex-Combatentes Irlandeses em Taperoa. Rio de Janeiro: Editorial Vozes, 1971.
Bruce, Donald Roger. "Irish Mercenary Soldiers in Brazil, 1827-1828" in The Irish Link, Issue 3 (1998), pp. 30. Calogeras. Joāo Pandiá. A History of Brazil. Translated and edited by Percy Alvin Martin. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963.
"Dover Loses Oldest Resident: Mrs. Nancy Burns Had Passed 95th Milestone and Was Especially Active for Her Advanced Age". Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H. (12 December 1917).
Galogebas, Joao Pandia. A History of Brazil. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963.
Koebel, W.H. British Exploits in South America: A History of British Activities in Exploration, Military Adventure, Diplomacy, Science, and Trade in Latin America. New York: Century, 1917.
Macaulay, Neill. Dom Pedro: The Struggle for Liberty in Brazil and Portugal, 1798-1834. Durham, Duke University Press, 1986.
"Mrs. Burns 93 Years Old". Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H. (4 February 1915), pp. 1.
O'Maidin, Padraig. "An Irish Mutiny in Brazil and a Betrayal" in The Cork Examiner, 21 May 1981.
Rees, Ronald. Some Other Place than Here: St. Andrews and the Irish Emigrant. No location: New Ireland Press, 2000.
Von Allendorfer, Frederic. "An Irish Regiment in Brazil, 1826-1828" in The Irish Sword, Vol. III, No. 10 (Summer 1957), pp. 18-31.
Walsh, Robert. Notices of Brazil: in 1828 and 1829. 2 Volumes. Boston: Richardson, Lord & Holbrook, 1831.
Worcester, Donald E. Brazil: From Colony to World Power. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.
.

Right HERE in Albuquerque, New Mexico!

First Italian, and then German, POWs were housed in Camp Albuquerque, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. From this branch camp, they did mostly farm labor, from 1943 to 1946. Most of these POWs were transferred from Camp Roswell, which was a base or main POW camp for New Mexico. Camp Lordsburg, New Mexico, and Camp El Paso, Texas, were also base camps.

From all these base camps POW laborers were sent out to branch camps closer to their actual work sites. These main and branch camps were part of a huge POW camp system spread across much of the United States. At its World War II peak, almost 426,000 German (371,683), Italian (50,273), and Japanese (3,915) POWs were held in the United States. What began as a trickle with 1,881 POWs in the United States at the end of 1942, shot up to 172,879 by the end of 1943, and peaked at 425,871 on V-E Day.

From October 1943 Italian POWs were housed in Rio Grande Park in former in former Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) barracks that had been built in the 1930s. The site was located north of the present dayRio Grande Zoo, founded in 1927. The Italian POWs all left six months later and as suddenly and inexplicably as they had arrived.

Shifting prisoner populations and sudden transfers were the norm. This was done to weed out pro-Nazi troublemakers, and to help break up escape attempts and their all important tunnel digging teams. In general, it kept the prisoners off balance. Still, three Germans did escape from Camp Albuquerque, but two were soon recaptured.

From 25 July 1944 until March 1946 German POWs, most of them captured in the North Africa campaigns, were housed in these same barracks buildings. The barracks had been hastily moved to South 2nd Street and onto eight acres at the north end of the Schwartman property, and made ready for their arrival. Nervous Albuquerque citizens wanted them housed outside of the then city limits.

At peak occupancy, sometime in 1945, there were 171 German POWs in branch Camp Albuquerque. They worked on the various farms from Los Lunas to Corrales, helping in particular with the harvest in the Fall. Presumably they also helped with the planting in the Spring.

Bibliography, and Further Reading:
Billinger, Robert D. Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State: German POWs in Florida. 2000.
Cowley, Betty. Stalag Wisconsin: Inside WWII Prisoner of War Camps. 2002.
Fiedler, David Winston. The Enemy Among Us: POWs in Missouri During World War II. 2003
Gaertner, Georg. Hitler's Last Soldier in America. 1985.
Kiefer, Louis E. Italian Prisoners of War in America, 1942-1946: Captives or Allies? 1992.
Koop, Allen V. Stark Decency: German Prisoners of War in a New England Village. 1988.
Krammer, Arnold. Nazi Prisoners of War in America. 1996.
Lewis, George C. and John Mewha. History of Prisoner of War Utilization by the United States Army, 1776-1945. 1955.
Moore, John Hammond. The Faustball Tunnel: German POWs in America and Their Great Escape. 1978.
Spidle, Jake W., Jr. "Axis Invasion of the American West: POWs in New Mexico, 1942-1946". New Mexico Historical Review (April 1974).
Waters, Michael R. Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne. 2004.

1950 Oct 02?, Monday - 1956 Jul 16, Monday:


1950 Oct 02?, Mon?: Rest of family (Mom, brother, and I) joined Pop at 46 West Park Rd (Grandyle Village), Grand Island, New York
1950 Oct early? - 1951 Jun?: Rest of 4th grade, Charlotte Sidway School, Grand Island, New York; teacher: Mrs. DiVizio
1950 Dec 25, Mon: Christmas

1951 Jan 13, Sat: Emery Park
1951 Jan 16, Tue: Pop got NY driver's license
1951 Jan 27, Sat: Emery Park
1951 Winter: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "West Niagara River"
1951 Winter: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "Niagara Falls (Winter)"
1951 Feb 01, Thr: 10 years old
1951 Feb 03, Sat: Emery Park
1951 Feb 04, Sun: NFS
1951 Feb 10, Sat: Glenwood
1951 Feb 11, Sun ? Hall
1951 Feb 17-18, Sat-Sun: Cabin
1951 Feb 17-18, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel2: "1951 ski weekend at cabin"
1951 Mar - 1953 Apr: Erie County Savings Bank: $5.00 in my savings account
1951 May 18-20, Fri-Sun: Canada fishing trip
1951 May 18-20, Fri-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel2: "Restoule Lake, Ontario, Canada May 17"
1951 Jul 28, Sat - Aug 05, Sun: Family vacation: Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
1951 Jul 28, Sat - Aug 05, Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel2: "Algonquin Park July 1951"
1951 Aug 20: move to 281 Warner Dr in Sandy Beach, Grand Island, New York
1951 Aug 25, Sat - Sep 03, Mon: Pop's vacation
1951 Aug 27-31, Mon-Fri: Pop built attic rooms
1951 Aug 27-31, Mon-Fri: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "house abuilding 1951"
1951 Sep? - 1952 Jun?: 5th grade, Charlotte Sidway School, Grand Island, New York; teacher: Mrs. Kennelly
1951 sometime: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "road breaker"
1951 sometime: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "cable car"
1951 Nov 04, Sun: Snow
1951 Nov 04, Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "Snowstorm Nov. 4 1951"
1951 Nov 19, Mon: Mom's hysterectomy
1951 Nov 28, Wed: Mom home from hospital
1951 Dec 25, Tue: Christmas
1951 Dec 26, Wed: Pop took Mom to doctor

1952 Jan 15, Tue: T general
1952 Feb 01, Fri: 11 years old
1952 Feb 10, Sun: Glenwood SC
1952 Feb 24, Sun: Allegheny St. Park
1952 Mar 02, Sun: Swain
1952 Mar 09, Sun: Swain
1952 Mar 16, Sun: Glenwood & Emory
1952 May 29, Thr - Jun 01, Sun: Trip to Towson
1952 Aug 02, Sat - Aug 17, Sun: Vacation with kids: White Mts and Zealand Camp; Albany, New York
1952 Aug 02, Sat - Aug 17, Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel4: "vacation 1952 in White Mts with Don & Bobby"
1952 Aug 02, Sat - Aug 17, Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel4: "Mom & Dad at Albany 1952"
1952 Aug 02, Sat - Aug 17, Sun: dug garage footings
1952 sometime: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "[Uncle] Bob & [Aunt] Min[nie]"
1952 Aug: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "garage abuilding"
1952 Aug: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "Gr[and] Island races"
1952 Sep? - 1953 Jun: 6th grade, Charlotte Sidway School, Grand Island, New York; teacher was Mrs. Joyce Yuhas
1952 Sep 11, Thr: ordered garage wood, etc.
1952 Fall: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel3: "garden"
1952 Dec 25, Thr: Christmas

1953 Jan 22, Thr: P.B.
1953 Feb 01, Sun: 12 years old
1953 Feb 01, 03, Sun, Tue: Niagara Ski Club Hill[?]
1953 Feb 28, Sat - Mar 01, Sun: NSC
1953 Mar 07, Sat: Eliottsville, New York
1953 Mar 16, Mon: notorize land papers
1953 Apr 03, Fri: P.B. license bureau
1953 Apr 27, Mon: mailed land papers
1953 May 01, Fri: Bell Dance
1953 Jun 08, Mon Vm
1953 Jun 24, Wed: Donny to dentist; met C at train
1953 Jul 01, Wed: big storm on G.I., etc.
1953 Jul 27, Sun: [Korean War ends]
1953 Aug 01-16, Sat-Sun: Vacation with kids: Parry Sound & Marten River, Ontario, Canada
1953 Aug 01-16, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel5: "Camp Kenan"
1953 Aug 01-16, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel5: "Oustler Lake, Ontario"
1953 Aug 01-16, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel5: "Martin R. Lake, Ontario"
1953 Aug 01-16, Sat-Sun: painted house
1953 Aug 01-16, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel5: "driveway, Grand Island"
1953 Sep ?? [Labor Day]: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel5: "fishing on Niagara River with _ and _; deer on Navy Island"
1953 Sep? - 1954 Jun?: 7th grade, Charlotte Sidway School, Grand Island, New York; teacher: Mrs. Johnson?
1953 Sep 18-20, Fri-Sun: Trip to Albany
1953 Sep: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel5: "Delmar Game Farm, NY; Mom and Dad in front of 4 Leonard Pl."
1953 Oct 27-29, Tue-Thr: Pop sick
1953 Nov 1-3, Sun-Tue: Albany, New York
1953 Nov 14, Sat: Allegheny St. Park [bow hunting]
1953 Nov 19-26, Thr-Thr: trip to CA & NM
1953 Nov 19-26, Thr-Thr: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel5: "California trip to California"
1953 Nov 19-26, Thr-Thr: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel5: "California: Antelope Valley; Leona Valley; Angels Cliffs; Greater L.A. Tour; Pacific Ocean; Plabe trip L.A. to Phoenix"
1953 Nov 20-21, Fri-Sat: Edwards AFB
1953 Nov 23, Mon: vacation
1953 Dec 05-06, Sat-Sun: Albany, New York
1953 Dec: Pop's home movies: Box?, Reel?: "Theiss's"
1953 Dec 25, Fri: Christmas

1954 Jan 02, Sat: Emery Park
1954 Jan 10, Sun: NSC Hill
1954 Jan 16-17, Sat-Sun: Albany
1954 Jan 24: Car stolen from garage. Found in Canada? Recovered within days!
1954 Feb 01, Mon: 13 years old
1954 Feb 06, Sat: Thow? sealed basement
1954 Feb 07, Sun: Glenwood
1954 Feb 14, Sun: Godfather
1954 Feb 20-21, Sat-Sun: Albany
1954 Mar 2-3. Tue-Wed: To Albany to see Dad
1954 Mar 21, Sun: NSC Hill
1954 Mar 26, Fri: sick: bad cold
1954 Mar 30, Tue: sick: bad cold
1954 Apr 04, Sun NSC & Tue:
1954 Apr 10-11, Sat-Sun: To Albany
1954 May 11, Tue: C to airport (Uncle B--)
1954 May 14, Fri: C from airport
1954 May 19, Wed: new car
1954 May 22-23, Sat-Sun: To Albany
1954 May 28-31, Fri-Mon: To Baltimore
1954 Jun 07: Our address renumbered 3330 Warner Drive
1954 Jun 29, Tue: PE exam
1954 Jul 05, Mon: quit smoking
1954 Jul 10-11, Sat-Sun: Albany
1954 Jul 10-11, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel6: "folks at Albany July"
1954 Jul 31, Sat - Aug 15, Sun: vacation
1954 Aug 01-07, Sat-Sun: To Katahdin with kids
1954 Aug 01-07, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel6: "Camping at Katahdin August"
1954 Aug 08, Sun: Burlington, New Hampshire
1954 Aug 09, Mon: Fort Ticonderoga, New York
1954 Aug 09, Mon: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel6: "Fort Ticonderoga August"
1954 Aug 10-11: Albany, New York
1954 Aug 11-14, Wed-Sat: Gr. Island
1954 Sep? - 1955 Jun?: 8th grade, Charlotte Sidway School, Grand Island, New York; teacher: Mrs. Mary Wellen
1954 Sep 18-19, Sat-Sun: Albany
1954 Sep 18-19, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel6: "Thruway to Albany September"
1954 Sep 30 Thr: P.B. to Buffalo Savings Bank, etc.
1954 Oct 16-17, Sat-Sun: To Albany
1954 Oct 25, Mon: 1st day of pheasant season
1954 Nov 6-7, Sat-Sun: Albany
1954 Nov 13-14, Sat-Sun: Allegheny St. Park (bow)
1954 Nov 20-21, Sat-Sun: Allegheny St. Park (bow)
1954 Nov 25, Thr: Allegheny St. Park (gun)
1954 Dec 20. Mon: Vm
1954 Dec 25, Sat: Christmas

1955 Jan 30, Sun: Glenwood Acres
1955 Feb 01, Tue: 14 years old
1955 Mar 08, Tue - Apr 12, Tue: PE course CE
1955 Mar 27, Sun: NSC
1955 May 09, Mon: N.F.
1955 May 10, Tue -Jun 21, Tue: PE course ME
1955 May 13, Fri: Bell dance
1955 May 16, Mon: N.F.
1955 Jun 04-05, Sat-Sun: Albany
1955 Jun 06, Mon: Um
1955 Jun 08, Wed: Sleepy
1955 Jun 18, Sat: studied for PE exam
1955 Jun 23, Thr: PE study
1955 Jun 25, Sat: studied for PE exam
1955 Jun 23, Thr: Regents exam certificate. I passed!
1955 Jun 28, Tue: PE Exam as Co. Business
1955 Jul, Sat: no work Sat
1955 Jul 09, Sat: no work Sat
1955 Jul 09-10, Sat-Sun: Albany
1955 Jul 11, Mon: N.F. (tent)
1955 Jul 16-24, Sat-Sun: Vacation with kids: Adirondacks, New York
1955 Jul 16-24, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel7: "Meadowbrook in Adirondacks July 1955"
1955 Jul 30, Sat: free Sat
1955 Aug, Sat: Rg & Hld
1955 Aug 13-14, Sat-Sun: Albany
1955 Sep 03, Sat: no work Sat
1955 Sep? - 1956 Jun?: 9th grade (Freshman), Charlottle Sidway School, Grand Island, New York; teacher: Mrs. Reva Kohn. College prep cirriculum. Elective: Latin
1955 Sep 10-11, Sat-Sun: Albany
1955 Sep 14, Wed: C to plane
1955 Sep: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel7: "Garden 1955"
1955 Oct 01, Sat: no work Sat
1955 Oct 04, Tue: C home Tue night
1955 Oct 08, Sat: no work Sat
1955 Oct 10, Mon: N.F.
1955 Oct 15-16, Sat-Sun: Albany
1955 Oct 15-16, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel7: "Thruway floods Oct 1955"
1955 Nov 05-13, Sat-Sun: vacation: Allegheny State Park
1955 Nov 05-13, Sat-Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel7: "Allegheny State Park Nov 1955"
1955 Nov 19-20, Sat-Sun: Allegheny State Park
1955 Nov 29-30, Tue-Wed: Washington, DC
1955 Dec 05, Mon: Vm
1955 Dec 12, Mon: Zg
1955 Dec 23-26, Fri-Mon: Christmas vacation
1955 Dec 25, Sun: Christmas
1955 Dec 30-31, Fri-Sat: New Years vacation

1956 Jan 07-11, Sat-Wed: D.I.F.
1956 Jan 07-11, Sat-Wed: St. Cloud, Fla.
1956 Jan 07-11, Sat-Wed: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel7: "Florida trip to St. Cloud Jan. 1956"
1956 Jan 09, Mon: Tm
1956 Jan 19, Tue: St. Louis, Mo. (McDonnell)
1956 Jan 22, Sun: Glenwood Acres with C and kids
1956 Jan 29, Sun: Glenwood Acres with C and kids
1956 Jan 31, Tue: new car money
1956 Feb 01, Wed: 15 years old
1956 Feb 01, Wed: new car
1956 Feb 04, Sat: NSC & D; NSC & C
1956 Feb 05, Sun: Glenwood: D & A Rush
1956 Feb 12, Sun: NSC & C
1956 Feb 13 Mon: eye exam
1956 Feb 19, Sun: Glenwood: C & kids
1956 Feb 19, Sun: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel7: "Glenwood Ski Club & Carnival Feb. 1956"
1956 Feb 26, Sun: Glenwood: C & B
1956 Feb 27, Mon: B.T.C.
1956 Feb 29, Wed: C x-ray arm
1956 Mar 18, Sun: NSC
1956 Mar 25, Sun: NSC
1956 Mar 27-28: Washington, DC
1956 Apr 13, Fri: Cornell Labs on BDM
1956 Apr 21-24, Sat-Tue: interview trip to NM
1956 Apr 21-24, Sat-Tue: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel8: "Albuquerque, New Mexico: April 21,22,23,24, 1956"
1956 May 04-07, Fri-Mon: D.I.F.
1956 May 04-07, Fri-Mon: Albany funeral
1956 May 18, Fri: blood exam at St. Mary's
1956 May 22-27, Tue-Sun: L.A. CA
1956 May 22-28, Tue-Mon: Pop's home movies, Box2, Reel8: "Los Angeles trip: Knott's Berry Farm, Mel Espy, Palm Springs, Indio, Jishua Tree National Park, L.A. Airport: May 22 to 28, 1956"
1956 Jun?, ??: Junior HS graduation ceremony
1956 Jun 4, Mon: MMerit; Zcl
1956 Jun 11, Mon: Cornell Lab on ?
1956 Jun 16-17, Sat-Sun: Albany
1956 Jun 17-19, Sun-Tue: Griffiss AFB
1956 Jun 21, Thr: gave notice of termination
1956 Jun 30, Sat - Jul 01, Sun: Albany with family
1956 Jul 06, Fri: banks
1956 Jul 10, Tue: banks
1956 Jul 13: Father's last day, BA, Niagara Falls, New York
1956 Jul 16-21: Drive from Grand Island, New York to Albuquerque, New Mexico


[This post begun on Sunday, 19 March 2006, 8:18 AM MST]