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Birth
Lee Felsenstein was born to Jewish immigrant parents in the "Strawberry Mansion" neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were a bohemian pair: His mother an inventor's daughter, and his father an artist/designer. Both parents shared social circles with other artists and leftist radicals, granting Felsenstein a childhood of curiosity and exploration. -
Big Dreams
In 3rd grade, Felsenstein was caught by his teacher while drafting machinery such as air compressors and exhaust systems and reprimanded for "doodling." Young Felsenstein responded, "I'm not daydreaming. I'm inventing," and even "My grandfather was an inventor, as I will be." -
First Business Venture
At the age of 17, Lee began offering repair services to his neighbors by utilizing the technical knowledge taught to him from a supply of radio/TV lesson booklets and test equipment gifted to him at the age of 12. -
Start of Undergrad
Lee graduates from Central High School, a liberal academically elite school in Philidelphia, and the same one his father attended. He then applied to and was accepted by the University of California Berkley for Engineering. -
NASA Flight Research Center
Felsenstein attends a work-study program to fund his degree at UC Berkley but is investigated and removed because of his parent's affiliation with the Communist Party -
Free Speech Movement Protests
Protests in response to Berkley's newly imposed ban on on-campus political activity following the establishment of student groups for Civil Rights, Anti-War, and the New Left aimed to restore students' freedom of speech. Felsenstein creates a DIY intercom/police radio to assist efforts and runs printing machines for political documents. -
Political Arrest
Felsenstein is arrested for his participation in the Sproul Hall Sit-In https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU7BfeXaeuE -
Withdrawal from Berkley
While helping to plan the Stop the Draft Week antiwar protest, Felsenstein experiences a bout of depression that causes him to stop attending classes and submitting assignments. Felsenstein fails almost all of his courses, so decides to withdraw. -
The Berkeley Barb
Felsenstein joins Berkeley's underground civil rights newspaper, the Berkeley Barb writing articles providing an engineering analysis of the movement's political demonstrations. -
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Work at Ampex
Felsenstein applies to work for the Ampex Corporation and is assigned to the Special Products Division as a junior engineer. Here, he had the opportunity to work on engineering projects such as designing analog electrics for high-speed tape duplicators. -
Resource One & the XDS-940 Computer
Felsenstein began working for Resouce One as a hacker. As part of the "Project One" objective, Resource One aimed to help foster community activism and allow unemployed professionals to work by using technology to implement social change. -
Return to Berkley
Lee Felsenstein returns to the University of California Berkley and finishes his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Computer Science, graduating in 1972 -
Desire for the Hacker Ethic & Efrem Lipkin
While still working at Resource One, Felsenstein voices criticisms of the bureaucracy taking place and wishes for a more hands-on, visceral approach. Fortunately in the spring of this year, Efrem Lipkin a hacker who Lee befriended in 1971, arrived at Resource One with plans to utilize community databases. -
The Community Memory Project
With visions of a computerized bulletin board, Felsenstein, Lipkin, and other Resource One hackers begin working on the first terminal of the Community Memory project -- a communication system away from third-party judgment. The first manifestation of this idea wound up being a Teletype Model 33 inside a cardboard box hooked up to SDS-940 (successor to the XDS-940) via telephone wire placed right next to a conventional bulletin board in front of Leopold's Records on the Berkeley campus. -
The Pennywhistle Modem
Designed and built by Felsenstein for the Community Memory System, the Pennywhistle Modem was an acoustic coupler modem meant to operate at up to 300 bits per second and change its speed to match fluctuating conditions. Later commercialized and sold in 1976. -
Felsenstein's Homebrew Leadership
When Gordon French is called to Baltimore for work, the club turns to Lee Felsenstein to begin moderating meetings for his skills in computer hacking and political activism. This provides an opportunity for Felsenstein to inspire the true hacker spirit in his fellow members. -
First Meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club
Felsenstein attends the Homebrew Computer Club, a local meeting founded by Gordon French and Fred Moore for computer hobbyists to share technological ideas, questions, and discoveries. This first meeting was to review the MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer that had been sent to the People's Computer Company. -
The Sol-20 Microcomputer
Les Solomon asks Robert Marsh of Processor Technology in Berkeley, California if he can create a working personal computer using the famous Altair 8800. Once granted a given thirty-day time frame, Solomon seeks the advice of Lee Felsenstein. Together, working off designs Lee had previously designed but not built, they assemble the first-ever complete personal microcomputer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trkMdatQ5hg -
The Osborne 1 Computer
Felsenstein is hired at the Osborne Computer Corp. and begins designing the Osborne 1, the first commercially successful personal computer with the help of Aam Osborne. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6PUWZ0FOZM -
Pioneer of the Electric Frontier
Lee Felsenstein is awarded the Pioneer Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for his contributions to empowerment through computers.