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A day with Jon Titus

8

8008guy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2014
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Location
Salt Lake City, Utah
Hi All!

I thought I would share a couple of pictures I took today. I was fortunate enough to get to spend part of the day with Jon Titus. Jon is an incredibly gracious and humble man. It's been fifteen years since I had seen him last. Since then I completed my Mark 8 and was lucky to get him to sign it!!! We actually spent most of the time on the road cruising the mountains in my Cobra. We did also spend a bunch of time talking about computer and technology. :bigups:

jonT_1_s.jpg

m8_jt_s.jpg
 
commodorejohn said:
... a Mark-8 and a Moog modular? Holy envy, Batman!
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Don't forget the Cobra!

Congratulations, 8008guy. It's great that you have a relationship with Mr. Titus. The signed Mark-8 will be a terrific keepsake, beyond its value as a working early personal computing example.

smp
 
Sounds like you had a fun day. Moog collector as well... Didn't know that one. I have noticed a lot of guys in vintage computer hobby, like myself, love cars and musical instruments. Happy to find another person as crazy as myself. Though I don't know how your kidney's can handle driving around in that cobra. LOL

Cheers,
Corey
 
I go to massage therapy on a weekly basis for the lower back. Way too much time sitting in a chair.

Ham radio as well?

From what I can tell most of us have really short attention spans, in a way. It seems to take a LOT of stimulation to keep life interesting. I think I have a hobby for each season of the year. I take the "crazy" comment as a total complement comming from you Corey! :)


It was a really great day. I wish there were more like that in life.




Corey986 said:
Sounds like you had a fun day. Moog collector as well... Didn't know that one. I have noticed a lot of guys in vintage computer hobby, like myself, love cars and musical instruments. Happy to find another person as crazy as myself. Though I don't know how your kidney's can handle driving around in that cobra. LOL

Cheers,
Corey
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Len,

You are lucky to be be able to spend some time with Jon. I exchanged emails and chatted with Jon on the phone a few years ago regarding a project that ended up going into another direction. From all accounts and personal experience, he is a great guy.


regards,
Mike Willegal

PS
I might have too many hobbies, on the other hand...
 
Wow, this sounds like it would have been awesome.

I have personally thought about getting stuff signed while these sure-to-be historical figures are still around. For example, I'd love to get Chuck Peddle to sign a KIM-1. Would have been awesome to have Ed Roberts sign a Mits Altair. Having Jon sign the Mark-8 is very cool.

Actually, I have two signed items that I recall. I once bought a Commodore 64 with a scrawled signature of it. I figured it was the owner but it turned out it was signed by Karl Hildon, editor of the Transactor magazine. I also bought a book from Amazon that was used to help repair an Apple Lisa called, "Macintosh Repair and Upgrade Secrets" and found an inscription in it from Larry Pina to the person who he sold his Apple Lisa to that had been used in the book. I thought those were pretty cool.
 
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Jon was really cool, he was the one who suggested it.

I think it's good from the stand point that it ties him to the actual design. In a world where people think Bill Gates and Steve Jobs invented the computer, crediting the actual creators is only fair. Even though I designed my own 8008 in the mid 70's I was totally isolated. Jon's Mark 8 influenced a generation of computer enthusiasts. (And actually still continues to inspire many of us today.) I feel extremely lucky that I could spend time with Jon.

I think what we do to preserve early computer technology not only gives us a really cool and enjoyable hobby, it will benefit those who follow.

To me the Cobra is much like this. There is an incredibly rich and interesting history. These were machines that people actually touched, they were hand-built cars. Except for the skin on my car that was fabricated in Poland I personally know and meet everyone who was responsible for its creation. I think in this day and age to know the creators is pretty cool where most everything we touch is built in China, sold at Walmart, and then quickly disposed of for the next version.

To get to know those behind these creations is incredibly humbling, it humanizes our technology. It was created by "us" for "us".

We live in a world where drones of workers at google, apple, etc.. work to make human life obsolete. I laugh at the thought of a machine ever being able to truly love or enjoy Jon's Mark 8 or Carol Shelby's Cobra. I think rather they will melt them down to make more bolts from themselves...

len


KC9UDX said:
I got Dave Haynie to sign my A3000UX. He was pretty annoyed by that.
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Jack Tramiel was pretty annoyed signing my PET 2001 manual, though Leonard was delighted, and wanted to know if it still worked (it does, of course).

But then, Jack was pretty much permanently annoyed by everything.
 
I'd sure value Jack's autograph, much more than Jobs'. But I think for the PET, I'd value Leonard's even more. Don't get me wrong, I'd sure like Peddle's too. But, Leonard made the font. Somehow that is important to me.
 
I don't think I would ever get any of my machines signed, it just doesn't do anything for me. Talking to the people who designed, programmed, and produced the hardware would be interesting just to see what was going through their minds at the time and how cost, time, and corporate decisions influenced the final product.
 
Discussing the inner workings of the C=1541 with Jeri Ellsworth probably worth more than signatures.
 
I second (third?) that Jon is a great guy. We were coworkers from 2007-2008 at ECN magazine. At first I was in awe most of the time -- holy crap, I get to work with the Mark-8 creator!!! -- and he was nice enough to indulge me. :) But then I got to know him just as my colleague Jon. Neither of us work there anymore but we stayed friends. He's donated some things to the MARCH museum. He is retired now and still appreciates that we all appreciate what he did.
 
Jon was telling me about two pdp8's, were those to the MARCH?



EvanK said:
I second (third?) that Jon is a great guy. We were coworkers from 2007-2008 at ECN magazine. At first I was in awe most of the time -- holy crap, I get to work with the Mark-8 creator!!! -- and he was nice enough to indulge me. :) But then I got to know him just as my colleague Jon. Neither of us work there anymore but we stayed friends. He's donated some things to the MARCH museum. He is retired now and still appreciates that we all appreciate what he did.
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8008guy said:
Jon was telling me about two pdp8's, were those to the MARCH?
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Nope.

He donated a signed MMD-1, a replica Mark-8 front panel, and the original IBM PC press kit. He also gave a nice quote for the VCF East testimonials page (he lectured at East 2.0 in 2004.)
 
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