Dawn of a revolution
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who attended Harvard, returns to campus this weekend for a question-and-answer session as part of the launch of the Harvard Campaign. Below, author Walter Isaacson, who is writing a book about the great inventors of the digital age, recalls Gates’ formative years at Harvard. It may have been the most momentous purchase of a magazine in the history of the Out of Town News stand in Harvard Square. Paul Allen, a college dropout from Seattle, wandered into the cluttered kiosk one snowy day in December 1974 and saw that the new issue of Popular Electronics featured a home computer for hobbyists, called the Altair, that was just coming on the market. He was both exhilarated and dismayed. Although thrilled that the era of the “personal” computer seemed to have arrived, he was afraid that he was going to miss the party. Slapping down 75 cents, he grabbed...