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From the Archives...

G.I.S.H.W.H.E.S.

At the beginning of August, LCM received around 40 requests to use the CDC 6500 as part of the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen (G.I.S.H.W.H.E.S.) where teams are sent creative or impossible tasks to complete in just one week. The teams were told, "Houston, we have a problem... a math problem! We're planning our Gishwhes winners’ trip and need to calculate the travel time from NYC to Reykjavik (the capital of Iceland) if our average speed is 400 miles/hour. Oh, one more thing, this needs to be calculated on a working pre-1970 supercomputer." LCM Principal Engineer Bruce Sherry helped teams run this equation on our CDC 6500 by writing a program that the contestants could use to complete the task. Teams from all over the world contacted LCM to participate and one contestant, Paul, even flew in from Winnipeg, Canada!

New Employee Q&A

Amelia Roberts obtained her Master’s degree in Library Science in 2014. In addition to a BFA in Visual Communication she has had a varied career in graphic design, retail and insurance. Her family has been her inspiration and support in pursuing the field of archive management/collection care. She enjoys exploring the Pacific Northwest and watching movies with her husband and son in her spare time.

What is your job at Living Computers: Museum + Labs? My position at LCM +L will be to support the Collections team as an Archivist.

What has brought you (back!) to LCM+L? Last year I was lucky enough to have a temporary Processing Archivist position at LCM. It was wonderful to be able to accept a full time position as Archivist and continue the mission of the museum.

What impresses you most about LCM+L and/or or your fellow coworkers? What drew me in to apply for the temporary position was the mission of maintaining a “touch” environment with historic machines. I was, and continue to be, impressed by the drive and passion of the Collections team, Engineers and Management of the museum.

What computers, platforms or games hold the fondest memories for you? The Commodore 64 was the first computer that I remember my family owning. But I also have memories of going to where my dad worked, as he was a computer engineer at Purdue University, and experiencing the room full of mainframes.

Tech Store

The Living Computers: Museum + Labs Tech Store has you covered from last-minute gifts to the bits and pieces to make your electronics projects possible. Whether it's Modular Robotics Cubelets to help understand how programing works or a littleBits synthesizer, our Tech Store offerings are designed to make the world of electronics more accessible. Featuring a wide variety of books spanning all generations of computing—from the vintage computing collection on our second floor, to the current technology featured on the first floor.

Need a geeky gift for someone? Check out our assortment of unique tech inspired products like a Xerox Alto Mouse bar of soap or find your next IoT project. Living Computers Museum + Labs is a 501c3 non-profit foundation committed to supporting our local community. We offer access to the museum and labs as well as provide outreach and event sponsorship in the greater Seattle metro area. All gift shop revenue supports LCM+L’s efforts in the local community as well as member programs. Our new Tech Store is expertly curated with the best in geeky apparel, souvenirs, games, and books that will always have something new each time you visit.

The Debut of the ContrAlto

Home computing was spreading quickly in the early 1980s. Such historic computers as the Apple ][, Commodore 64, and IBM PC had already been released. However, with the debut of the Macintosh in 1984, things took another leap towards ubiquity as the vast majority of users were introduced to features like the graphical user interface (GUI) and “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) document editing. Microsoft released Windows 1.0 shortly after and later versions would eventually become the dominant home/office GUI. Computing history buffs know that these features started well before Apple and Microsoft were involved, though. It really entered the personal computing space with the creation of the Xerox Alto, the machine that inspired the creation of the Mac and Windows. The Alto was not sold commercially, but a who’s who of computing history names like Charles P. Thacker, Alan Kay, Adele Goldberg, Charles Simonyi and many more, worked on the Alto or its software at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Living Computers: Museum + Labs has maintained a working (barring a few occasional repair periods) Xerox Alto for guest use. The purpose is to show off a computer that used features that shaped later machines- GUI, WYSIWYG, the mouse, object-oriented programming- yet was created over a decade prior to the Mac and even before the less sophisticated home machines of the ‘70s and early ‘80s. That didn’t satisfy our team fully, as there was another huge innovation that took place during Alto development- Ethernet networking. Since we had another Alto, our collection held the first key to displaying that innovation in our museum. After the second Alto was restored by LCM+L’s Engineers, the machines were hooked up, allowing visitors to communicate and (more importantly!) play Maze War against one another. However, our Engineering Team wasn’t done there. We wanted to do something in line with the original purpose of the museum (originating in the PDP Planet era) make this system accessible online. Unlike most of our other online systems, we wanted to make something different. Senior Vintage Software Developer Josh Dersch created an emulator for the Alto, and LCM+L founder Paul Allen introduced it to the world on August 2, 2016. ContrAlto allows you to not only emulate an Alto, but network with Altos and ContrAlto emulators via a 3mb Ethernet bridge created and housed here at LCM+L. We released ContrAlto and the source code on our GitHub account, and encourage users to make it better. We also took ContrAlto to the Vintage Computer Festival West to show it off to the kinds of people who would appreciate it the most. As LCM+L grows into a hub for all types of computing technology, guests are sure to look to history for inspiration like Allen, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs did with the Alto. There are many examples in this museum of concepts that were ahead of their time, or close to ready but missing an element, only to reemerge later as something commercially successful. It is with the perspective that computing builds upon itself that we highlight working examples of historic machines. Enabling visitors to interact with networked Xerox Altos within our walls, and with ContrAlto emulators from a distance, is one way to keep the past as a living inspiration.

Welcome to the LCM+L Labs

To me, computer science is the awkward stepchild of the STEM family. Not quite science but not quite engineering, CS tends to circle the perimeter of many different disciplines. It has the potential to do great things, but seems to struggle with a constant growth spurt and talks to itself in a language no one understands. Maybe this is why I keep CS education in the same place in my heart as I keep middle schoolers—there’s a lot going on in there, but if you just manage to crack the surface, you might be on to some pretty wonderful things.

I come from a biology and art background. Hardware and programming were not subjects that I gravitated toward in school. Only after I started working in research, I began to see how much of an asset having a CS skillset was. It goes completely beyond hard coding skills. CS education creates students with grit and perseverance. They can dissect problems with the knowledge that good solutions require research, teamwork, and communication. And despite what the stereotypes might suggest, CS students are compassionate, people-oriented thinkers. These are students who want to change the world.

When I heard about the plans for the museum’s expansion, I knew LCM+L was poised to be something really special to educators. The new floor is now home to a range of interactive, real-life applications of computer science, all carefully curated to illustrate the full power of computational thinking. On top of this, the addition of three state-of-the-art learning Labs represents an amazing opportunity to broaden the museum’s role in the community as a resource and public space for CS education and professional development.

Having the Labs dramatically changes what we can offer as far as educational programming at LCM+L. In addition to continuing the tradition of guided tours of the vintage collection, education opportunities at the museum in our first year will now expand to include—

live demos of vintage computing systems, as well as other facilitated experiences with new digital technologies and software;

a robust early learners program for preschool and early elementary-aged children;

weekend workshops on computer hardware and higher level programming for kids and adults that build skillsets for the twenty-first century workplace; and most excitingly,

specialty programs for school groups that marry elements from both the first and second floor into hands-on lessons that support both the new K-12 CS Framework and the Common Core. Taught by LCM+L staff, these programs are designed not only for students, but for teachers and parents seeking examples of accessible and high-quality lessons for home and the classroom.

My hope for the Labs, as they continue to grow and incorporate the needs and interests of the Seattle community, that are they are used as a playground, a testbed—and most importantly—a resource, for all those interested in new and vintage technology. LCM+L will be a home for Hack-a-Thons, movie nights, game making, community building, geeky parties, and so many other events that celebrate all the ways computation continues influence our lives.

Computer science is not something that’s limited to robotics and video games: it’s pervasive across the life sciences and the arts, politics and business. And it’s here to stay. As educators, it’s up to us to empower students to see that technology—and themselves—are powerful carriers of new ideas and change.

Nina Arens, Education Coordinator Living Computers: Museum + Labs

The PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) System

In 1960, the University of Illinois set out to design a computerized education system, intended to provide a system with which students could participate in automated coursework. This design evolved into the original PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) system, which provided a television set for the display of graphical content, along with a special keyboard. In 1960 (when the ASR-33 Teletype at 10 printed characters per second was standard) the provision for a graphical display was quite extraordinary! The original PLATO system supported only a single user on a single terminal, but subsequent redesigns and revisions provided support for a multi-user, multi-terminal environment. The Plato V terminal on display at the LCM+L was introduced in 1978 and features a plasma display invented at the University of Illinois in 1964 -- the first of its kind. It provided a 512x512 pixel display which allowed for vector and bitmap text and graphics. A touchscreen with a 16x16 sensor resolution was standard, which made it possible to provide a more interactive experience. By the mid-1970s, there were hundreds of PLATO terminals at schools, colleges and universities with many hundreds of courses to choose from. It was possible for users of the system to design and distribute their own courses, which included the standard educational fare as well as a wide variety of games. PLATO is notable for introducing to the world (amongst many other things):

one of the first online message boards, PLATO Notes

Empire, one of the first multiplayer online games

Talkomatic, the first multi-user online chat system

pedit5, the first example of a “dungeon crawl” style game (in the vein of Rogue or NetHack)

Control Data Corporation (CDC) became involved with PLATO in the early 1970s and in 1976 purchased the commercial rights and continued to promote the system through the mid-1980s. Micro-PLATO was provided for microcomputer systems of the time, including the Atari 400/800, the TI-99/4A and the IBM PC. Despite its efforts and optimism about the project, CDC never found commercial success with it but its legacy lives on. The last PLATO system was retired in 2006, but modern incarnations survive today thanks to the hard work of PLATO enthusiasts. Check out Cyber1.org to sign up for an account and get started! The LCM+L’s PLATO terminals The LCM+L was fortunate enough to acquire a set of PLATO terminals from a very devoted collector who spent a great deal of time preserving and restoring them. The Plato V terminal currently on display is connected to Cyber1.org through a custom built “ethernet modem” which allow this 1970s technology to communicate with the modern Internet. Thanks to Cyber1, a large variety of original PLATO coursework and software is available on these terminals. Jump into a game of Empire, explore the world of Avatar, send a message to another user, or brush up on your Latin grammar, all from the orange glow of a 40-year-old plasma screen!

Additional Resources: PLATO History PLATO Wikipedia

Letter From the Director

Living Computers: Museum + Labs is the expression of two critical insights by our founder.

In 1998, Paul G. Allen realized little was being done to preserve historic computing systems. The few machines being saved were put behind glass in museums or residing in basement collections. This inspired him to begin acquiring old computers, starting with systems he had worked on himself. Knowing that the real power of computers is what you can DO with them, he became committed to bringing these old machines back into service, and making them available to the public. Via PDPPlanet.org, they were hooked up to the internet for anyone to access. Soon, enthusiasts wanted to see these machines- not just log in remotely. From those humble beginnings the Living Computer Museum was born.

Our founder’s second key insight came more recently. It occurred to him that few experiences like he and Bill Gates had at Lakeside School in the 1970’s are available for young people today. They had access to a timeshare computer system via a Teletype terminal at the school’s computer club, and teachers that encouraged them to come in and geek out. That experience led to them becoming ace programmers and founding Microsoft.

The new Living Computers: Museum + Labs is designed to fill this void. It is filled with exhibits demonstrating how technology is being used to solve big problems. We believe by putting technology in the context of what you can DO with it, a more diverse population will be attracted to computer science.

Lāth Carlson, Executive Director Living Computers: Museum + Labs

From the Archives…

Micro-Puzzles (Van Nuys, California)

From the Archive

Donated by David Stahl

LCM Welcomes Summer Employees

Binx Brown Collections

Where do you go to school, and what are you studying? I’m a graduate student at the University of Washington, in the Museology program. My focus is on collections care and management.

What LCM team will you be joining, and what will you be working on? I’ve joined the Collections team here at LCM and I’m working on creating preservation copies of video games for our vintage computers that can be put on the museum floor for guests to play.

What drew you to LCM? I loved the idea of having historical electronics on display that were fully functioning and usable by guests, rather than just shown behind glass. I’m very interested in the challenge for museum collections when it comes to access and preservation and how different museums handle those issues, so I was intrigued and excited by the LCM’s philosophy.

What are you most excited to work on, learn about, or experience during your time here?

Getting to work hands-on with old electronics and retro video games! I’ve already learned a lot about video game history that I didn’t know before and it’s been both challenging and nostalgic to work with floppy disks and older GUIs. I’m sure I’ll learn and re-learn a lot about vintage computers and how to work with/care for them while I’m here.

Tell us something unique about yourself.

I had never played a text adventure game before I started working with the collection here. I started reading up about them in my free time, and now I’m learning how to write them myself.

Blair Martin Collections

Where do you go to school, and what are you studying? I go to school at the University of Washington and I am studying to get my Masters in Museology.

What LCM team will you be joining, and what will you be working on? I am joining the Collections team as the Wikipedian-in-residence and will be working to add information to the LCM Wikipedia page as well as circulating information about the machines we have here at the LCM.

What drew you to LCM? The ability to do an internship in something new that hasn’t been around for very long. I’m excited to be able to get the information out there to the general public.

What are you most excited to work on, learn about, or experience during your time here?

I am most excited to work with the collections and learn more about the technology in general, I have always been interested in technology but can’t wait to learn more about the history of computing.

Tell us something unique about yourself. I lived in England for a year to go to the University of Sheffield where I earned a Master’s degree in Archaeology. While I was there I was on excavation at Thornton Abbey and lived in a sheep field for a month!

Grace Rotwein Exhibits

Where do you go to school, and what are you studying? I am a student at University of Washington. I am studying Museology, with an emphasis in evaluation and non-profit management.

What LCM team will you be joining, and what will you be working on? I am joining the Exhibits team as the interactive exhibits coordinator. I will be working on testing the new interactive components for the first floor exhibit space.

What drew you to LCM? I am very interested in the cultural history of modern technology, so when LCM had an open house for students in UW’s Museology program where they gave us some information about ways to get involved, I jumped at the opportunity.

What are you most excited to work on, learn about, or experience during your time here? I am really excited to be testing out and researching the interactive components of what will be in the first floor exhibit, there are a lot of neat things coming! I am also thrilled to be working in such a collaborative environment, and to learn about many modern and emerging technologies.

Tell us something unique about yourself. When I get stressed or nervous, I cook. The week before finals, I made seven dozen bagels.

Now what? The Creation of a Temporary Exhibit Out of Cards

By Amelia Roberts Processing Archivist

It started out simple; a request to assemble a decoration for the Christmas pot luck. The Librarian/Archivist liked the idea of a wreath made out of punched cards, a project from the booklet Make-it with Punched Cards. Within two hours, with a selection of fifty punched and non-punched cards and some holiday embellishments provided by the Event Coordinator, the wreath was ready to hang in the employee galley. The booklet was from the Clapper Publishing Company as part of their Pack-o-Fun line and published in 1971. It was a hidden gem in the Living Computer Museum collection. It contained sixteen other projects for anyone who wondered what to do with those pesky punched cards.

Punched cards, once a very utilitarian object, a vehicle for communication with computers like the IBM 360, have become a viable craft material. At the Living Computer Museum, visitors can use an IBM 029 card punch machine to get the feel of how programmers used the simple buff-colored 3.5 x 7.5 inch cards. The museum provides a stock of blank cards emblazoned with the museum logo for visitor use and collects any punched cards that visitors leave behind. Some punched with simple sayings like "Hello how is your day going on here at the Living Computer Museum" to more thought-provoking "Imagine this being your whole lifelong career.” So it was from this gathering of cards that the Wreath was created.

Soon after, a little idea was born out of the experience of creating this object from these cards and exploring the booklet. What if we made more items from Make-it with Punched Cards and a temporary exhibit out of those projects for the museum? It was a go. The planning started with a vote from the Collections Department on the projects they would most like to see completed. The Pleated Lampshade was project number one. Six projects in all, including the wreath, were selected to be fashioned for the temporary exhibit.

The exhibit ran from January through April and included a Christmas Tree and a Wall Sunburst along with the booklet of inspiration Make-it with Punched Cards. There was a highlight announcement in the LCM newsletter which can be seen here.

The post on Facebook received many likes and shares.

There were some challenges and successes to the overall exhibit. The Pleated Lampshade, the favorite of the exhibit, took a full day longer to make than hoped as the instructions were lacking and improvisations necessary. Take-home kits, suggested almost last minute by the Media Archivist, were wildly popular and needed to be restocked more than anticipated. Two different kits were packaged for the visitors, one of the Skyline Night Light and one of the Sewing Caddy. They were chosen for their simplicity and the limited amount of cards required. Over one hundred take-home kits were given away.

Now that the exhibit is over the question remains: What to do with these specifically created items? Other exhibits, permanent and temporary, certainly have had their share of added props or created items. The Punched Card Art exhibit was completely created with just one artifact and a stack of ephemera. Small props were purchased to finish out the projects; a lamp and a night light.

There have been suggestions on the future of the exhibit items. They could find their way to outreach events, like mascots on tabletops. It is possible that one or more could be part of a future auction or giveaway. Or they could just become another temporary exhibit.

For now the Punched Card Art items are to be boxed up, catalogued and tagged with the collection’s "Legacy" barcodes. The Legacy Collection is designated as any items tied to the history of the Living Computer Museum or any items related to the workings of the museum. Each piece has been signed and dated to assist with provenance. There is a challenge once again with the Pleated Lampshade - a preservation one. A custom support and enclosure will be its new home. Custom-sized boxes will house the Wreath and the Wall Sunburst.

The Living Computer Museum would love to hear thoughts on the future of the Punched Card Art or any examples of temporary exhibit afterlife from other institutions. Please email us at [email protected].

The History of Network Mail on PDP-10 and Unix Systems

By Rich Alderson Senior Systems Engineer

Recently a question came in asking, "When did PDP-10 and Unix systems get real e-mail?" We're going to assume for the purpose of this article that "real e-mail" means network mail between computers.

PDP-10 systems

Tops-10 doesn't appear to have had a local mail application before the advent of network mail; TOPS‑20 had a pair of programs MAIL (for sending) and RDMAIL (for reading) in version 1 (1975).

Prior to TOPS-20, there was the SNDMSG program on TENEX, which originated as a port of the program of the same name on the SDS 940 at BBN. This TENEX program was originally local mail only; it is the program which Ray Tomlinson modified to use an early FTP protocol to transport messages between computers on the ARPANET in 1971. Shortly afterwards the hackers at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory added network capabilities to their mail program written in their extended TECO for their ITS operating system.[i]

At some time before January 1979, Michael McMahon of SRI created MM on TENEX as an improvement on/replacement for SNDMSG. This was ported to TOPS-20 by the late Mark Crispin c. 1980, who continued to develop and maintain the MM suite of programs until the turn of the century. MM always had network mail capabilities, which changed and improved over time.

In 1979, DEC ported an early version of McMahon's MM to TOPS-20 and DECNET and renamed it MS. The oldest dated comments in the earliest source for MS.MAC read:

;<LCAMPBELL.DECNET>MS.MAC.2, 9-Mar-79 15:00:12, Edit by LCAMPBELL ; Change name to MS, align comments, space after opcode, etc. ;<LCAMPBELL.DECNET>MM.MAC.26, 8-Mar-79 16:04:20, Edit by LCAMPBELL ;<LCAMPBELL.DECNET>MM.MAC.2, 6-Mar-79 18:50:31, Edit by LCAMPBELL ; Cosmetic changes - adhere to TOPS20 coding conventions ;<HESS.1>MM.MAC.300, 11-Jan-79 15:17:43, Edit by HESS ;This software is furnished under a license and may only be used ; or copied in accordance with the terms of such license. ; ;Copyright (C) 1979 by Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, Mass.

TITLE MS

SEARCH MONSYM,MACSYM,CMD

.REQUIRE DSK:CMD,SYS:MACREL

.DIRECTIVE FLBLST

SALL

;Much of the credit for the origin of this program goes to Michael McMahon ;at MIT-AI (formerly at SRI). It has been converted from FAIL and ULTCMD to ;MACRO and COMND for more wider acceptance and use. I feel that this has ;greatly improved its useability. /Ted Hess [HESS@DEC]

Tops-10 did not get e-mail until 1982, some time between March and December. For this port, MS was made part of the GALAXY[ii] system (the common spooling system for batch jobs, disk and tape mounts, and line printer output), since this was the only part of Tops-10 with features similar to TOPS-20's programming model. The date stamps on the last TOPS-20 only version and the first Tops-10/TOPS‑20 version of MS.MAC are

1982-03-22 /BB-M836A-BM/01/tools/ms/ms.mac 1982-12-20 /T10_T20_MS_V10_SRCS_830128/01/ms.mac

Unix systems

Unix first got a local mail program in version 1 for the PDP-11 (1971)[iii]. Mail between computers was possible via uucp, a store-and-forward phone-based system, beginning in 1978, but this was not network mail as we understand it: The sender had to know the explicit path that mail would take to get to the recipient, instead of the network model in which routing is handled by the network itself.

Network mail came to Unix first at Berkeley around 1982, in BSD4.1a, which used a BBN-style TCP/IP model (similar to that on TENEX and TOPS-20). BSD4.2 (1983) introduced the socket interface, and real network mail came to Unix. AT&T Unix System V, Release 4, was the first version on that branch of Unix to include TCP/IP and network mail (1988).

[i] Tops-10 was the original operating system for the PDP-10 computer from Digital Equipment Corporation, derived directly from the PDP-6 monitor program. TENEX was created by Bolt, Beranek & Newman as an experiment in operating system design; it ran on a PDP-10 with virtual memory provided by a paging device invented at BBN. TOPS-20 was created at DEC as a licensed development of TENEX for the 3rd generation processor in the PDP-10 family. ITS (“Incompatible Timesharing System”) was written at the MIT AI Lab for the PDP-6 and ported to the PDP-10.

[ii] GALAXY was created as a common replacement for spooling systems on Tops-10 and TOPS-20. The command language for operator interaction was identical across both DEC operating systems for the PDP-10 and the VMS operating system for the VAX family and its follow-ons.

[iii] There does not appear to have been any attempt to create a mail program for the earlier Unix for the PDP-7, but we would welcome information to the contrary.

A Message from the Director

A lot of the people I know are “project people”. They are always in the middle of something interesting, or at least have plans. I’ve also noticed that they tend to be split into Winter project people and Summer project people. The Winter people disappear for months at a time into their workshops, garages, and studios, then emerge with the return of the sun holding some wondrous creation. The Summer people are scheming and planning all winter. Then come warmer weather, begin their new projects out in the open for all to see.

Here at LCM we have a bit of both. Projects that we’ve been laboring on behind closed doors, and those that we tackle in the light of day.

Frequent visitors can’t miss the work our team has been doing on the CDC6500 supercomputer- from its arrival, to installing the cooling system, to rewiring, then powering it up. Lately you have seen the addition and operation of tape drives. Recently a card reader has arrived in our lab. The DD60 console finally has new tubes and is on its way to operating, but as with any of our machines, it’s also slowly breaking down. We’ve been borrowing logic modules from the second CPU to fix the first, and now we are running out. The ED module was first to go. So, what did we do? Well, Bruce simply reverse engineered it and manufactured a new one. (Ok, maybe not “simply”…) The amazing thing is that it’s working on the first try!

One of the Winter projects undertaken here has been the restoration of our XEROX Alto computers. For this we pulled them (yes, both of them) into our 3rd floor workshop and painstakingly brought them back to operation. This entailed completely overhauling the monitors with new tubes, boards, power supplies, and a new feature- cooling fans. The CPU’s needed new chips, power supplies, and LOTS of time under the logic analyzer. Even the Diablo drives took a fair amount of TLC. But all that work can now be seen by the light of day on the floor of the museum, and you can even play Maze War. But, we didn’t stop there. Our engineering team has also built a 3MB Ethernet bridge for the Alto, for which the Ethernet was invented. Our Altos can now connect to one another via Ethernet and soon may even connect remotely to other remaining Altos. That sounds like enough to keep those Summer project people busy, right? Well, we might just have one more groundbreaking project to pull out of the lab… but, I’m going to wait and let our founder tell you about that one.

So, whether you are more of a Winter or Summer project person, I wish you the best with all of your endeavors. Just be sure to take a little time off. I'm going to try to as well. I have so many projects at home to do!

Lāth Carlson Executive Director Living Computer Museum

LCM Welcomes a Curator

Aaron Alcorn has joined the Living Computer Museum as Curator, where he will develop new exhibit content and expand programming.

Before arriving at the Living Computer Museum, Aaron spent more than a decade as an educator, public historian, and museum professional. He has held positions at the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, and National Air and Space Museum, as well as the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, among others. He received his PhD in the History of Technology and American Culture in 2009 from Case Western Reserve University.

Outside of work, Aaron enjoys spending time with his wife and son, skateboarding, and cooking. He doesn’t enjoy running, but he does it anyway.

LCM Welcomes an Operations Manager

Robert Schmuck has joined the Living Computer Museum as Operations Manager where he will oversee the museum’s daily operations including coordination of LCM’s 1st floor building renovations, new exhibit construction, guest services, and general business operations.

Robert previously worked for Target Corporation for 15 years in a variety of store operational roles, the last being a Sr. Human Resources Team Leader. He has held various management roles overseeing logistics, customer service, merchandising, sales analysis, vendor relations, team management, supply chain troubleshooting, perpetual inventory management, food and supply ordering, performance management and building brand.

Outside of work Robert is an avid retro video game enthusiast and collects games on virtually any system from around the world, including arcade machines. He is the Executive Vice President/Director of Programing for the Seattle Retro Gaming Expo and helps organize community events in the Seattle-Tacoma area, giving people a space to share their love of videogames, and meet like-minded individuals.

Thoughts on Circuit Boards, Plastics and CRTs

By Keith Hayes Vintage Hardware Restoration Engineer

Around us the world overwhelms. To survive we pay attention to just the amount of detail that allows us to succeed. If a need to know more suddenly impacts our world, we sharpen our focus, and like a layer of an onion being peeled away, another level of detail is revealed. Once we reconcile this new awareness, it becomes our new reality. A perk of working, for me, has always been the pleasure of being exposed to new environments, where I must learn about layers of details that I may never have otherwise known.

I have worked on circuit boards most of my professional career. I focused on how well circuits on circuit boards performed and what circuit boards cost to produce. Used within specified tolerance the assumption I naturally made along with everybody else was that components lasted forever. I knew there would be ways some things could fail over time, but I assumed that the time scale for failure would be so far in the future it was nothing to worry or even think about. But working at the Living Computer Museum has changed how I look at things. My focus was never on how long or how well an electronic circuit board would survive the passage of time- until now.

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