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You are here: Home / Guest Appearance / #684 – Lee Felsenstein: The Computer Revolution & Counterculture

#684 – Lee Felsenstein: The Computer Revolution & Counterculture

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A full 3 hour discussion with the legendary Lee Felsenstein, designer of the Osborne 1, SOL computer, VDM-1, Pennywhistle modem, and the inventor of social media. Covering everything from the Berkeley free speech movement, the counterculture movement, his career, through to Obsorne and how he invented social media with Community Memory.

His book: https://www.amazon.com/Me-My-Big-Idea…

https://felsensigns.com/

00:00 – Full 3 hour talk with Lee Felsenstein
08:24 – University of California at Berkeley, and the Free Speech Movement.
29:04 – First Junior Engineer job at Ampex
36:20 – The first hackathons with Richard Greenblatt
37:33 – Hackers, Heros of the computer revolution
1:03:36 – Techical career at Ampex
1:12:52 – Atari Computers and Steve Jobs, Nolan Bushnall, and Allan Alcorn
1:15:00 – He tried to pitch social media to Steve Jobs
1:22:15 – Designing the Pennywhistle 103 modem +
1:25:36
 – Marty Spergel selling kits
1:31:53 – Steve Wozniak and how the Apple 1 is NOT a personal computer
1:43:42
 – Osborne Computers
1:53:22 – Osborne 1 physical design
1:57:57 – Osborne 1 development timeline
2:01:19 – The Osborne Effect wasn’t what killed the company

Comments

  1. Charlie says

    December 13, 2024 at 7:59 am

    Great interview! Thanks, Dave.

  2. Riley says

    December 16, 2024 at 3:07 am

    I’d love to read his book after listening to this! What’s the best way to buy his book in Australia? Seems like even the digital copy is restricted from Australian purchase

    • Riley says

      December 16, 2024 at 3:11 am

      Was too eager! Realised it’s easy to get from amazon au!

  3. Rich W. says

    January 12, 2025 at 5:22 pm

    This was fantastic.

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