New York Times technology reporter John Markoff discusses how a political counterculture converged with the microprocessor during the 1960's and early 1970's to create personal computing at a lecture set for noon on April 24 in Darwin 102.
His presentation comes from his book entitled "What The Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry." The lecture is part of the Computer Science Colloquium.
Based from interviews conducted with surviving members,"What The Dormouse Said" captures the lives and times of those who laid the groundwork for the PC revolution, such as Fred Moore, a teenage antiwar protester who went on to ignite the computer industry, and "Cap'n Crunch", who wrote the first word processing software for the IBM PC (EZ Writer) in prison, became a millionaire, and ended up homeless. The book also discusses the early split between the idea of commercial and free-supply computing.
For more information, contact George Ledin, Professor of Computer Science, (707) 664-2810.
