MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Jul 03, 09 - 12:26 pm Comment from: db

If he hadn't developed such a love for electronics at a young age, he never would have made the Apple I. I'm guessing we should send his parents flowers (if they're still alive).

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Jul 03, 09 - 12:35 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

It doesn't say if it was a Radio Shack or other electronics kit. I'm curious on that one.
A transistor radio is a transistor radio. Although it would be funny if it were a Sony.

Jul 03, 09 - 12:36 pm Comment from: qka

I'd say cue the Woz haters in 5 .... 4 .... 3 .... 2 .... 1 .... But Rr. Wow of Microsoft was already here.

Jul 03, 09 - 12:38 pm Comment from: qka

@ The Other Steve

It may have been a HeathKit, if you remember them.

Woz has a couple of years on me, and I had a HeathKit electronics learning kit when I was a kid.

Some HeathKit history at http://www.heathkit-museum.com/

Jul 03, 09 - 12:48 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

Clicking on the story was worth it just to see that watch. Now THAT is a timepiece!!!

when is this bozo going to go away?

Jul 03, 09 - 12:53 pm Comment from: The Other Steve

Thanks qka.

@ the Woz haters.
I don't click on every story here, just the ones that interest me.
That said, I WAS expecting a little more from the story.

Jul 03, 09 - 01:10 pm Comment from: JRoy

@ qka

Followed the Heathkit link for a trip down memory lane. I first got a Heathkit educational kit in the early 1960s, then built the least expensive Heath tube shortwave radio. Even with a 30 foot antenna strung between house and garage, I could only reliably pick up Voice of America, Radio Moscow, Radio South Africa, and a Dutch station with a DJ who loved American jazz. Oh, and of course, WWV, which I used every few weeks to set the clocks in the house. In the 70s I built a Heath automotive test meter.

As a youth, I used to drool over the hi-fi systems in the Heath catalogs (believe there was an AR-15 model), and was astounded to see a color TV kit complete with radio remote. My family never had enough disposable income to actually buy these.

Kits made sense when the labor to assemble devices was a large percentage of the total cost. With massive integration of everything onto small circuit boards with robot assembly, plus moving production overseas where the remaining labor costs are small, doomed kits. Probably separately packaging the parts and supplying assembly manuals would now cost much more than going ahead and assembling devices in factories. Anyway, how could I actually assemble an iPod at home?

Jul 03, 09 - 02:29 pm Comment from: Not Bill

Thanks Woz. I remember the first transistor radios. They were a very amazing bit of technology at the time. In a world of vacuum tube electronics here was a little cigarette pack sized box you could carry around with you. It was truly amazing. Their quality was measured in the number of transistors. A six transistor radio was a really good one! Sony made the coolest ones. They were starting on their "roll" as technology and style leader as early as 1963. It did not end until the mid- 1980s; maybe even the early 1990s. It was a good run.

Jul 03, 09 - 02:33 pm Comment from: Not Bill

Those first transistor radios needed the nine volt batteries like we put in smoke detectors today. They did not last all that long either. As we gripe about the life of an iPhone battery between charges it is interesting to look back on where we were a relatively short time ago.

Jul 03, 09 - 04:11 pm Comment from: KingMel

My dad learned about electronics in the Air Force (radar systems) and I recall him building a HeathKit metal detector in the early 1970s. We had a lot of fun looking for things, and occasionally found a few coins, or even a ring, mixed in with the bottle caps and pull tabs.

Jul 03, 09 - 07:14 pm Comment from: silverhawk

I bought one of the 101 projects electronics kits for my nephew in about 1970. He's now a electrical engineer with Medtronic. I hope the kit was of some benefit.

Jul 03, 09 - 08:01 pm Comment from: Brulek

@JIM

I was thinking the same thing about you...You have no class whatsover. You're probably a windoze user...

Jul 04, 09 - 04:14 am Comment from: Yours Smugly

When are the Woz haters going to go away?

Nobody's holding a gun to your head to make you click the link of a Woz story.

Jul 04, 09 - 10:09 am Comment from: Jimbo von Winskinheimer

Good call Brulek. Jim may need to understand that he'd not have the option of using a Mac, or any of his Apple products, were it not for Woz. Yes, he is eccentric. But he is one of the most important people in the history of Apple. For many years, even while he was at Apple, he was in the other Steve's shadow. Give him his few minutes in the spotlight to have fun.