The Father of Video Games

If you are a fan of vintage video games, then stop by your nearest bookstore and pick up a copy of the Fall 2009 issue of American Heritage’s Invention and Technology magazine. Mark Wolverton has a great interview of Ralph Baer, the inventor of the Magnavox Odyssey video game, which was a forerunner of Atari Pong.

Baer first had his idea for the video game while working on early television test equipment, but it took 15 years before he started to develop the game and another five years before the game was released as a product.

Although you can read the article on the web, the magazine has many more photos and other interesting articles about the history of technology and is definitely worth the cover price.

National Railroad Museum Photo Journal

Unseasonably warm November weather made my recent visit to the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin that much better. From simple handcars to the Union Pacific Big Boy steam locomotive, there is plenty for railfans to see and enjoy. Photos only give a taste of how magnificent the old locomotives and rolling stock are. Enjoy the photos below and the next time you are in Wisconsin, plan a visit!

Repurposing a Railroad Boxcar as a Covered Bridge

While dodging raindrops during a late season round of golf, I stumbled upon a couple of old Milwaukee Road railroad boxcars that had been repurposed into covered bridges. In the past I have seen rail cars used as diners or retail stores, now I have seen them made into covered bridges! You can see full size images of the photos by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Excel got you down? Go back to VisiCalc!

Have you ever been frustrated with the complexity of Excel and the amount of disk space it takes up? Are you longing for the long-gone 1980s? Now, thanks to Dan Bricklin, you can revisit the days of text-based spreadsheets! Dan created the first spreadsheet program called VisiCalc. He has arranged to make it available on his web site for personal use. I couldn’t resist! I downloaded the software, all 27 Kbytes of it, and I was able to immediately run it on my Windows XP system. After a brief run through the reference card that Dan reproduces on his web site, I was able to put together my first VisiCalc spreadsheet. Click on the thumbnail below to see the full screen shot. It sure was great seeing a program written more than 25 years ago able to run on a modern system!