EEVblog 1654 - Lee Felsenstein: The Computer Revolution & Counterculture

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.

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

Or with crypto:
BTC: 33BsprBQNBtHuVzVwDmqWkpDjYnCouwASM
ETH: 0x68114e40ff4dcdd384750500501e20acf3875f8c
BCH: 35n9KBPw9T7M3NGzpS3t4nUYEf9HbRmkm4
USDC: 0x68114e40ff4dcdd384750500501e20acf3875f8c
LTC: MJfK57ujxy55su4XicVGQc9wcEJf6mAoXF

Other channels:

#ElectronicsCreators #leefelsenstein #computerhistory

[EEVblog]

This is the full 3 hour edit of our talk. I might split this into several shorter topics. There are also small interesting short snippets on the EEVblog2 channel. Because there is so much covered in this video, if you have any interesting timestamps then please leave them in a reply to this comment and I can add them. I've added some timestamps already, but not many. Thanks.
Also, sorry for the audio quality on this, I really had to do a lot to clean it up, there was bad echo of me on his mic we could not get rid of, plus a lot of background noise.

[GharacDurac]

When Lee played with 100 MB in 1972, I had just started secondary school. He and many others of his generation have influenced my life and brought me into the computer industry and electronics. Thanks for the great talk.

[OzRetrocomp]

I have a 3 hour drive this weekend. Thanks for giving me something to listen to, Dave. 👍

[azza-in_this_day_and_age]

highly enjoyed hearing this mans story, and highly appreciate you allowing him to tell it! youre a dandy of an interviewer sir!
cheers from southern cali, silicon valleys arse, if you will.

[MatthewSuffidy]

I had an uncle that was a Harvard business graduate that had an Osborne at his home in 1986. I never saw it do anything but I did see one.

[jakestimson]

Just in time for my Santa Barbara to San Francisco drive. This is a life saver!

[notsonominal]

Probably the best three hours spent on youtube in all of 2024! Thanks!

[rolfdieterklein]

the osborn computer - long time ago I used one for tv production (NDR) in germany, tv series educational program, the OSborn was a really great inovation at that time, portable and all you need.

[belstar]

this guy was doing things in the 60s and early 70s that most people didn't even know was possible until the 80s or 90s .

[alanroche]

Back when I was in High School ~1976. There was a couple of occasions, I got to ride with Lee Felsenstien, along with Bob Marsh of Processor Technology, and Marvin Winzenread to the Homebrew Computer Club at SLAC. 😊

[notgiven]

"Vacuum Tube Valley" was the name of a cool magazine that I subscribed to at one time.

[captmulch]

Everyone should read the book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy. Lee is in it.

[henrydavidson]

Y'all hear at what he said at 15:32 ?

[mmaranta]

I live in San Bruno right next to You Tube. I would like to meet Lee sometime.

[jonathanreedpike]

I'm a realname guy myself, however no anonymity means many people will not participate because if they do they will be made unalive.

[Verault]

Id really love to hear this interview with Lee, but my hearing and his microphone. I cant really hear anything he is saying unfortunately. :(

[LawpickingLocksmith]

Must have been the inspiration for Dick Smith to open a store in Redwood?