ALBRECHT, Bob.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

My Computer Likes Me* First edition, early printing, of a hugely influential BASIC primer, opening with the declaration that "this book is about people, computers and a programme language called BASIC. We will communicate with a computer, in the BASIC language, about population problems. We will use a teletypewriter. Teletypewriters are the Volkswagens of computer terminals... rugged, dependable, inexpensive, ugly and noisy".Based at the Portola Institute in Menlo Park, California, and influenced by the publication of its Whole Earth Catalog, Bob Albrecht toured the state's campuses in his VW bus loaded with a bulky PDP-8 minicomputer borrowed from the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and gave demonstrations to students and educators of its potential and (relative) portability. In return, the DEC helped distribute Albrecht's book, which sold over 250,000 copies. Around the same time, Albrecht started the People's Computer Company (PCC), a community project and newsletter "about having fun with computers" that, like his book, aimed to bring computing to the people. Its name was a nod to the rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, because it was to be a "company" in the same sense - in that it was not a company at all, and was fuelled by a similar counterculture ethos.Although My Computer Likes Me* sold in large numbers, copies are not common. It appeared with various colour covers (green, orange, yellow), and there are a series of printing variations, no priority def

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