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Lee Felsenstein was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had a complex and competitive relationship with his brother and adopted sister Growing up, he loved electronics and worked on it in his basement for a reprieve from his family. Working on electronics was the first thing he was better at than his brother. -
Lee Felsenstein graduated from high school and began college at the University of California at Berkeley for electrical engineering. He did not receive a scholarship to attend. -
In order to pay his tuition, Felsenstein got a work-study job at NASA’s Edwards Air Force Base. He loved this job and thought it was paradise because it was like science fiction, and he was surrounded by other engineers. However, after two months, he got kicked out because his father had been a Communist. -
Felsenstein went back to Berkeley and joined the Free Speech Movement. He decided he wanted to use technology to benefit society. He began creating new communications technology to take power away from powerful companies and institutions in order to bring it to the people. -
Lee dropped out of Berkeley in order to focus on assorted engineering jobs as well as his activism. -
Felsenstein joined the underground Berkeley Barb newspaper and wrote articles criticizing demonstrations and suggesting improvements. -
After placing an ad in the Berkeley Barb, Felsenstein got an offer to join Resource One as a hacker. This company wanted to use technology for social change, which aligned with his beliefs. However, as he worked there, he learned that they did not believe in the hacker ethic and hands on approach to technology, so Felsenstein did not always approve of their methods. -
Felsenstein started Community Memory with Efrem Lipkin to get the public access to computer networks and bring computers to everyday people. They wanted to do this by putting terminals in public places. The first one was put at a record shop called Leopold’s Records. -
Lee Felsenstein and Bob Marsh began working on the Tom Swift Terminal, which used a TV as a display. It was a complex, multi-backup system because Felsenstein did not trust one chip. He believed this terminal would have big future importance. -
Felsenstein and other people involved in Community Memory got together and decided to continue the project because it was too risky. It was an influential project that showed all that computers could do. -
Gordon French moved to Baltimore and appointed Felsenstein to lead and moderate the Homebrew Computer Club -
Lee created a video display module (VDM) for the Altair, which worked like a mini time-sharing system between the video display and computer and was very influential. -
The first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club was held in Gordon French’s Garage. This club was started by Gordon French and Fred Moore to provide a space to learn about, talk about, build computers with people who were interested. It began after the release of the Altair 8800 earlier that year. Felsenstein attended and played a large role in the club. -
Felsenstein and Marsh created the Sol Computer Terminal. It was low profile and had a typewriter style built in keyboard and video display. This device brought hacking into the home but was only sold for a few years. -
Lee Felsenstein worked for Adam Osborne to create the Osborne 1, the first portable computer.