Business Times, January 4, 1999

 

Computer Devotee Plans Research Center
Michelle Pentz

 

Computer programmer and collector Sellam Ismail envisions a hands-on hacker's haven for "burgeoning nerds." Now it's going to happen.

After two years of hosting a vintage computer festival, Ismail plans to transform an Oakland-area warehouse he has rented into a workstation and clubhouse and later into a public research center where students and scholars can study computer artifacts up close.

"We need a resource for the early days, the 50s, 60s and 70s, for computer science historians and for kids to show them what it was like before everything became a Windows world," Ismail said. "This will be like a public works project, a new community center where you can read the notes and old manuals, touch and turn on the machines."

While there are others, for example, The Computer Museum History Center at Moffet Field, Ismail's machines all are in running order and not behind glass. "Sam's idea is much more accessible and specific," said co-collector Doug Salot of San Jose.

On Dec. 16, Ismail signed the lease for the 2,000-square-foot space, part of an old red brick auto factory on the San Leandro/Oakland border at Durant Square. "Many respected engineers came from this area," he said. "It was a hot bed of activity in the 70s."

"It was for vendors as well. Imsai, maker of the first clone computers, started in San Leandro - later became ComputerLand and is now Vanstar. Bill Godbout's electronics, which spun off into CompuPro, also sprung up nearby.

Ismail is working on pitches to the Oakland and San Leandro chambers of commerce and city councils in hopes of garnering support for the self-financed project. "It would be nice to get a little funding to help defray the costs," he said. Total project cost was not available.

The first task for Ismail, a programmer for Evercom Inc., is to catalog the 1,000-plus computers and peripherals crammed precariously into his Livermore garage. Some of Ismail's gems include the first laptop ever, a 1981 Epson, an original Apple Mona Lisa and two refrigerator-sized artificial intelligence machines. He plans to build shelves and transport the high-tech antiques to the Oakland space.

"I didn't intend for it to get so out of hand as it did," said Ismail, who started collecting old computers in 1987. "The catalyst for me was finding out there were other collectors out there."

"Finding out about others purged me of my guilt instantly," said co-collector Salot. "There's guilt associated with never throwing all of these things away which are perceived to be junk by almost everyone else on the planet.

"Communing with 200 other aficionados led Ismail to found the Vintage Computer Festival, which features speakers, an exhibition and a buy-trade-sell flea market. Last year, the event attracted 300 attendees, some from as far away as England and Germany.

Knowing that others have an interest gives him hope that his museum concept, like the festival, will eventually take hold.

"Back in the 70s, we had to learn how to program and repair computers," said Ismail, leaning on a Raisinets box crammed with cables and Atari cassettes. "Now it's the total opposite. I want to make my fortune, then just teach kids - get them back into knowing the true nature of computers."