I tried looking for SJSU events and found the earlier Vintage Computing Fair talks, but at least I can trade this time capsule link from that era even if it doesn't quote me toon the Byte Shop specifically: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/04/04/bytes-and-chip...
( ;^^)b
For example, I found this one of a younger Lee: https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/still-i...
Prototype for the Automatic Photoelectric Keratometer, (US 4,345,437 - 1966, to Westheimer and Felsenstein). Taken by myself in the lab of Gerald Westheimer in 1965.
Vacuum tube electronics of my design controlling an oscilloscope pattern focused on a sumulated eyeball with two photomultiplier tubes catching the glint (specular) reflection and reversing the sweep direction.
A poor idea which went nowhere but it got a patent for the professor who generously included me as co-inventor and coauthor of a paper.
UC Berkeley School of Optometry — I was a Lab Helper at $2.03/hour. Prof. Westheimer later moved to Physiology. He was 99 in 2023 when we last met.
Looked like a neat little machine but (just a little) before my time, I’d have been in nursery when it released.
"You're going to do all that for the computer? What are you going to do for the people?"
He's reissued the classic Homebrew Computer Club t-shirts he sold at the final meeting, and also posters!
https://felsensigns.com/engineers-and-programmers-with-attit...
>The cartoon shows a caricature of Chares Proteus Steinmetz – a hero of mine, posing for a photograph at the inauguration of one of his big generators (he taught American engineers how to calculate with alternating current starting around 1890). He was a German immigrant hunchback dwarf and was never admitted to “polite society” of the day, but he changed to world.
>The front of the shirt shows him in front of the massive, throbbing machine – hand on the switch, dressed in formal wear. The rear of the shirt shows the rear view, with Steinmetz’ fingers crossed as the photographer takes his shot.
In my mid 20s, I ran the SF Hardware Meetup, and Lee came and just told me something like: "Oh yea, I've been into hardware for a long time.", and only later did I realize who he was haha.
Like others here, I was concerned seeing his name trending here, and I'm so glad he's still alive.
Lee represents the best of mentalities of the tech scene, and I hope we can get back to a more pro-social place and away from this profit-first bubble shit.
