The Osborne 1 with Lee Felsenstein Welcome to episode 91 of the Floppy Days Podcast for May, 2019. In the timeline for personal computer introductions, we are now in the year 1981.  For this episode we are going to be talking about the Osborne 1. The Osborne 1 was the first commercially successful portable microcomputer, released on April 3, 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation (OCC).  It was powered by the Z80 CPU at a blazing 4MHz, weighed 24.5 lb, cost US$1,795, and ran the CP/M operating system. It was powered from a wall socket, as it had no on-board battery, but is a portable device since it can be hand-carried when packed.  The computer shipped with a large bundle of software that was almost equivalent in value to the machine itself. The Osborne 1 was the brain child of Adam Osborne and was brilliantly engineered by Lee Felsenstein.  So, who better to have help me talk about the machine than Lee Felsenstein himself! For this show, we’re going to spend some time with Lee talking about the history surrounding the Osborne 1.  Finally, Lee will leave us and I will cover the usual computer topics such as tech specs, emulators, Web sites, and more. Links Mentioned in the Show: New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To VCF Southeast April 27, 28, Roswell, GA - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-southeast/ VCF East May 3-5, InfoAge Science Center, Wall, NJ - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ TI-95 Stats Library - https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instrument-Statistics-Guidebook-Cartridge/dp/B00PHOS6SW Oric Atmos cassette cable - https://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIC-1-ORIC-ATMOS-CASSETTE-TAPE-RECORDER-CABLE-LEADS/321775032876 Atari 800 S-video cable - https://www.8bitclassics.com/shop/computers/atari-8-bit-computer/atari-xlxe-5-pin-din-to-s-video-composite-av-cable/ Nunchuk 64 - https://github.com/djtulan/nunchuk64 Upcoming Shows June 8-9 Pacific Commodore Expo NW (PaCommEx) at The Living Computers: Museum + Labs, Seattle, Washington - http://www.portcommodore.com/pacommex, discussion is on the forum at https://www.commodore.ca/forum/viewforum.php?f=14 KansasFest, July 15-21, 2019, Kansas City, MO - https://www.kansasfest.org/ VCF West, Aug 3-4, Computer History Museum, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, California - http://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west/ Fujiama 2019 - Monday, August 26, 2019 to Sunday Sep. 1, 2019 (ONE WHOLE WEEK.  Fujiama 2019 will be held at the Schützenhaus, Lengenfeld, Germany. Visit atarixle's Fujiama page, Krupkaj's parties photos or mathy meetings page. VCF Midwest, Elmhurst, IL - Sep. 14-15, 2019 - http://vcfmw.org/ Tandy Assembly - Springfield, OH, Sep. 28-29, 2019 - http://www.tandyassembly.com Portland Retro Gaming Expo Oct 18-20 http://www.retrogamingexpo.com Chicago TI International World’s Faire - Nov 2, 2019 - http://chicagotiug.sdf.org/ - The 37th annual Chicago TI International World Faire will take place on the weekend of November 2, 2019, in Evanston, IL Feedback HT1080Z, the Hungarian School Computer - http://zimix.hu/ht1080z-the-hungarian-school-computer/ Popular Magazines/Newsletters Portable Companion - http://www.vintage-computer.com/portablecompanion.shtml (Bill Degnan) The entire run is on archive.org - https://archive.org/details/theportablecompanion Also at Yesterbits - https://yesterbits.com/scans/the-portable-companion-magazine/ (Paul Hagstrom) Books/Manuals in 1984, Adam Osborne and computer industry author and columnist John C. Dvorak coauthored a book about the experience, from Adam Osborne's point of view - Hypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of the Osborne Computer Corporation. Using the Osborne 1 computer Paperback – 1983 by T. G Lewis - https://www.amazon.com/Using-Osborne-computer-T-Lewis/dp/083598141X Technical manual - http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/osborne/o1techm.pdf User’s Reference Guide - http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/osborne/osborne1/Osborne_1_Users_Reference_Guid