It’s not often that the world is changed by a single magazine cover, but that’s exactly what happened when subscribers to Popular Mechanics magazine received their January 1975 issue, its cover aglow with the Altair 8800, the world’s first personal computer.
Within three months, four thousand Altairs were sold and the PC revolution was underway. With no keyboard and no display, users entered data one bit at a time through toggle switches on the Altair’s front panel. Needless to say, all four thousand units were sold to that brainy crowd known as PC hobbyists. Think about it. At one point, every single PC in existence was assembled from the ground up by the person who owned it. That ratio has gone down quite a bit since then. Today, depending on which survey you trust, somewhere between 85 and 95 percent of computer owners buy their machines fully built rather than putting it together themselves.
That puts you and me in rather elite company. We’ve deliberately taken time out of our busy lives to research the market, buy the components, and assemble our own custom PCs. Our reasons for doing so are wide and varied. Some of us are scientific types who can never have enough silicon, jumpers, and ribbon cables in our lives. Some are just tired of dealing with the cheap plastic micro ATX systems that the mega-makers churn out by the thousands. And at least one of us decided to stop reveling in his own ignorance and wanted to do something of import to keep his whole life from being an absolute and total senseless waste. (Sorry about that. I’ve got to remember to keep the Crown Royal out of reach when I write these columns.)
Elite company, indeed. Maybe community is the better word. Since I’ve become a PC hobbyist, I’ve received more advice about new components and technologies than I ever thought existed – some of it even solicited. One thing is clear, PC hobbyists are friendly, opinionated, and use poor punctuation. At least in chat groups. But whether it’s in an online forum or in the hallway at work, PC hobbyists always seem willing to take the time to share their knowledge about such matters as which chip set to use, where to get the best deal on RAM, and how to brew a terrific cappuccino. When I entered the world of PC builders, I knew I’d come out of it with a new computer. The community was an unexpected bonus.
There’s an old saying: technology breeds technology. If that’s true, the community of PC hobbyists is only going to grow. From regional groups in the 1970s to online bulletin boards in the 1980s to Internet chat rooms in the 1990s, PC hobbyists have faithfully used state-of-the-art technology to share knowledge and ideas. Today, a single online conversation can circle the globe in a few nanoseconds, drawing in hobbyists from several countries and cultures, with their only common thread being the desire to help a likeminded hobbyist get his or her PC running. Not bad.
I wasn’t a Popular Mechanics subscriber back in 1975 or at any other time. But after considering the impact of that single magazine issue, I thought it might be kind of neat to own one, just to have a part of history. After all, I’m part of the community now. Poking around eBay, I found dozens of old Popular Mechanics issues, most of them going for $2.00 to $4.00 each. I scrolled through the listings, hoping to find a January 1975 issue and wondering if the sellers would know of its significance. After a couple of pages, I found it – listed for $82.00.
Yeah. They know.
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