Floppy Days 130 - Interview with Forrest Mims III

Sep 25, 2023

Interview with Forrest Mims III, Electronics Author

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays

Sponsors:

• 8-Bit Classics 

• Arcade Shopper  

Books:

• Forrest's first memoir "Siliconnections: Coming of Age in the Electronic Era" - https://amzn.to/48wmIao 
• Forrest's best-selling book "Getting Started in Electronics" - https://amzn.to/3LDExdY 
• Forrest's upcoming book "Maverick Scientist: My Adventures as an Amateur Scientist" - https://amzn.to/3PAgP3k 

Hello, and welcome to episode 130 of the Floppy Days Podcast for September 2023.  I’m your host, Randy Kindig, and I’ll be bringing you this podcast as the beautiful fall weather and foliage descends on central Indiana.  I love the podcast, and I love the computer shows that start popping up in the fall, which you’ll hear more about on this show.

I feel like I’ve been EXTREMELY lucky lately, in being able to get interviews with some outstanding contributors to the early home computer era of the late 70’s and early 80’s.  As you know, I’ve had interviews recently published with Paul Terrell, who jump-started the early Apple Computer with his purchase of their first 50 Apple I’s.  Those interviews will continue as Paul and I continue to talk.  Additionally, I also recently was able to talk with one of the most prolific, impactful authors of electronics books and kits on the planet, Mr. Forrest Mims III.  I would be surprised if just about every listener of this podcast hasn’t heard of Forrest and wasn’t impacted in some positive manner by his terrific tutorials on electronics.  In this episode, Forrest and I talk about his early involvement with the creation of MITS and the Altair, how he got into publishing numerous books for Radio Shack, and much, much more.  Forrest is still extremely busy and involved with the scientific community today and was happy to share his story.  Almost as happy as we are to have been able to talk with him.

Before we talk with Forrest, I will give a short run-down of what I’ve been up to and new acquisitions (that’s where the computer show discussion comes in).

New Acquisitions/What I’ve Been Up To

• TS2068 Twister/HDMI board - https://www.andertone.com/product/the-twist/ 

• TS2068 OS64 board - https://www.andertone.com/product/zebra-os-64-cartridge-for-timex-sinclair-2068/ 

• HDMI cable - https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Original-Master-System-Console/dp/B07Z5W7QS7/ 

• 2068 Personal Color Computer User Manual - https://www.andertone.com/product/timex-sinclair-2068-personal-color-computer-user-manual/ 

• T/S 2068 Basics and Beyond by Sharon Zardetto Aker - https://www.andertone.com/product/t-s-2068-basics-and-beyond/ 

• The Essential Guide to Timex/Sinclair Home Computers - https://www.andertone.com/product/the-essential-guide-to-timex-sinclair-home-computers/ 

• TS2068 group on groups.io - https://groups.io/g/TS2068 

• “Back Into the Storm” by Bil Herd and Margaret Morabito (autographed) - https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/back-into-the-storm-a-design-engineers-story-of-commodore-computers-in-the-1980s/ 

• modern power supply for TS2068 - https://www.andertone.com/product/ts-2068-power-supply/ 

• M100/T102/T200 TPDD1 boot disk - https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/store/#!/TPDD1-disk-26-3808/p/141211027 

• TI99 CF7+ case - https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/store/#!/3D-printed-case-for-CF7/p/80201708 

Upcoming Shows

• Tandy Assembly - Sep. 29-Oct. 1 - Courtyard by Marriott in Springfield, Ohio - http://www.tandyassembly.com/ 

• Amiga38 Germany - Oct. 6-7 - Das Rote Krokodil - Kunstwerk Mönchengladbach - https://amigaevent.de/WB.html 

• The Interim Computer Festival - Oct. 7-8 - Seattle, WA - https://sdf.org/icf/ 

• AmiWest - October 14-15 - Sacramento, CA - https://retro.directory/browse/events/4/AmiWest.net 

• Dragon MeetUp - October 7-8 - The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge -  https://www.facebook.com/events/225011523831254/?ref=newsfeed 

• Portland Retro Gaming Expo - October 13-15, 2023 - Oregon Convention Center, Portland, OR - https://retrogamingexpo.com/ 

• Chicago TI International World Faire - October 14, 2023 - Evanston Public Library, Evanston, IL - http://chicagotiug.sdf.org/faire/  

• Mactoberfest Bay Area Meetup - October 14, 2023 - Belmont, CA - https://www.bigmessowires.com/2023/09/03/mactoberfest-bay-area-meetup-is-october-14/ 

• World of Commodore - Dec. 2-3, 2023 - Admiral Inn Mississauga, Mississauga, ON - http://www.worldofcommodore.ca/ 

• http://chiclassiccomp.org/events.html 

• Facebook show schedule - https://www.facebook.com/VintageComputerShows/ 

Interview

• Web site operated by Forrest - http://www.forrestmims.org/biography.html 

• History of MITS - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Instrumentation_and_Telemetry_Systems 

• Forrest at Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Mims 

• “The Altair story; early days at MITS.”, CREATIVE COMPUTING VOL. 10, NO. 11 / NOVEMBER 1984 / PAGE 17, Forrest M. Mims III - https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n11/17_The_Altair_story_early_d.php 

• Easy-to-understand guide to home computers by Forrest Mims III - https://archive.org/details/easy-to-understand-guide-to-home-computers 

• Digital computer book by Paul Malvino - https://www.amazon.com/Digital-computer-electronics-introduction-microcomputers/dp/0070399018/ 

• Understanding Digital Computers by Forrest Mims III - https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Digital-Computers-Self-learning-Microcomputer/dp/B002E6HIAI/ 

• Forrest’s articles in Popular Electronics Magazine - https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Consumer/Archive-Poptronics-IDX/search.cgi?zoom_query=forrest+mims&zoom_page=2&zoom_per_page=10&zoom_and=1&zoom_sort=0&zoom_xml=0