Feels a good day for a thread. So I would like to introduce you to a mostly forgotten, but actually rather pivotal figure in PC history.
Meet Dr Portia Isaacson Bass.
If it wasn't for something she did in 1981, we'd all still be forced to use IBM (or IBM-licensed) PCs right now. /1
Meet Dr Portia Isaacson Bass.
If it wasn't for something she did in 1981, we'd all still be forced to use IBM (or IBM-licensed) PCs right now. /1
Comments
Then TI decided that they'd make their own calculators,
Nearly bankrupt, MITS owner Ed Roberts YOLOed and created the first micro-computer. The Altair 8080 /2 https://every.to/the-crazy-ones/the-secret-father-of-modern-computing
It also inspired lots of women too. They tend to get overlooked. e.g. I've written about Lore Harp of Vector. /3 https://every.to/the-crazy-ones/the-woman-that-tech-history-forgot
After leaving the US Army in 1962, Isaacson had worked as a programmer for Bell Helicopter, Lockheed, Xerox and taught computing at UNT.
So OF COURSE she buys and builds her own Altair 8080 /4
And she wants in. In 1976 with then husband David Wilson she sets up The Micro Store. The first computer store in Dallas Texas (one of the first 20 in the US). /5
Future specialize in tech forecasting, based out of Dallas. (she eventually sells it to McGraw Hill in 1984 for a LOT of money) /6
Which is how a guy called Rod Canion meets her. /7