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Delighted Every commissioned me to write this.
More Ron Swanson than Elon Musk, Altair inventor Ed Roberts created the PC industry. Then, at the height of his wealth and influence, decided to walk away.
This is his story.
If you enjoy it, share it and let Every know!
https://every.to/p/the-secret-father-of-modern-computing #computing #history #technology #retrocomputing
@garius And for the avoidance of doubt, he means share the link, not copy-paste the entire article into your own posts, peeps ;)
@garius Great story! Cannot recommend highly enough.
@garius
"The most important thing is to be honorable, and kind of work from there. If you have integrity, that makes up for a lot of things. A lot of inadequacies. I never lied to anyone. I always told them exactly what the situation was and what we could do to get out of it. That’s true for life in general as well. Don’t lie to yourself.”
- Ed Roberts, inventor of the Altair and creator of the personal computer
@garius Nice job. Thanks for writing - and sharing!
@garius Great story, thanks for writing and sharing it.
@garius Very interesting and readable story. I was amazed right from the beginning what role trust and integrity played.
@garius thank you. Very nice to remember Ed 
@garius The first personal 'puter I built with a friend was based on the z80 microprocessor, but I did not know the story of Ed Roberts. Thank you.
@garius completely fascinating. Thank you for making the effort to do the research and write such a great article.
@garius fascinating - thanks!
@garius 1/5 of 360$ is more than 70$. Management accounting states you do not sell for less than variable cost. So either Intel did not do management accounting, or did not know how to distinguish real variable from fixed costs (on the face of it, a doubful assumption, but who knows?) - or the figure was something else.
@dvodvo it's slightly more complex, relating to initial production cost vs production cost over time as failure rates drop.
One of the annoying things about writing about this period of history - there's so much you reeeeeallly want to explain but have to leave out and hope it still makes sense!
@dvodvo i could probably do a whole article on how badly that price actually fucked IBM's sales department in the long run. As they realised they'd effed up and refused to give anyone else the same price after. Which went down like a lead balloon with other customers once they discovered what MITS were paying.
Even led to Roberts having to threaten to sue IBM as their sales staff were spreading a rumour MITS were getting inferior chips. They weren't.
@mikedimmick @dvodvo intel. typo.
@garius Well some things maintain their fascination no matter what. And there can be a surprisingly high level of subjectivity to what one calls variable (or fixed) ... which is why there is the semi-variable (i.e. cost increments like staircases) category. I am also certain that counters might have little inkling as to what the technology & production process really means.
Also: the reason for high prices might also be to avert all those potential evaluation errors in the first place by shooting for the stars (finance dep't talking here)!
@garius great article. Thank you!
@garius the tech world badly needs some Ed Roberts these days.
@Thebratdragon one reason i wanted to write it.
I think there are some serious lessons for tech bros to take from Ed Roberts and his approach to business.
When the chips are down, you need to be someone people trust. It can be the difference between your business surviving or going to the wall.
@garius Wonderful piece. Thanks for writing it.