Hi, I'm Eric.

I’m an avid world traveler, photographer, software developer, and digital storyteller.

I help implement the Content Authenticity Initiative at Adobe.

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Computer History Museum

11 October 2023

  • Added to Eric Scouten :: Travel on 13 October 2023
  • California 38

This week I’ve been attending Internet Identity Workshop (warning: that link is mostly deeply geeky). This event is held twice a year at the lovely Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, which recounts the formative years of our tech industry.

One of my teammates made the suggestion that I should take a few moments out from the conference and explore the exhibit halls at CHM.

It was such good advice. Here are some highlights from my journey through the museum:

A backlit glass exhibit panel etched with columns of hexadecimal code and its ASCII interpretation (including text like “WANT SIN-COS-ATN” and “8080 BASIC VER 1.0”), with the title “R|EVOLUTION: The First 2000 Years of Computing” and a line reading “Made possible through the generosity of Bill Gates.” A person’s silhouette and reflections of trees and windows appear through the translucent panel at the entrance to the Computer History Museum.
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

My grandfather had several “adding machines” similar to this that he used in his accounting business. I remember being endlessly fascinated with them.

A vintage black Monroe mechanical adding machine with a green keypad of gold, silver, and white numbered keys arranged in columns, plus a hand crank on the side and a digit register across the top, displayed on a polished stone surface against a dark wood background.
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
An old open book displayed on clear acrylic stands inside a glass museum case, its two facing pages densely filled with columns of printed mathematical sine tables. A printed placard below identifies it as Peurbach and Regiomontanus’s Tractatus, printed by Johann Petreius in Germany, 1468 (1541 edition), possibly the oldest surviving printed mathematical tables.
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
Close-up of the aged control panel of a vintage mainframe computer, showing illuminated indicator bars labeled STOP and COMPUTE above rows of yellowed translucent square pushbuttons marked with functions like NORMAL, MANUAL INPUT, STAND BY, OPERATE, START, CLEAR COUNTER, EXECUTE INSTR., POWER ON, POWER OFF, BREAK POINT, and TRANSFER CONTROL. The metal-and-tan console shows wear, scratches, and grime, with a mesh grille surrounding the buttons.
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
The control console of a vintage NEC (Nippon Electric Company) mainframe computer, labeled “004,” with an angled panel full of knobs, toggle switches, illuminated pushbuttons, two analog meters (amps and volts), and rows of indicator lights, above a keyboard/keypad input unit. Behind it stand tall equipment cabinets, and the whole display sits on a light-colored desk surface at a museum.
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
A vintage Hewlett-Packard 2116B minicomputer front panel on display in a museum, its gray metal chassis covered with rows of small register indicator lights labeled T, P, M, A, and B registers, a bank of switches, and buttons like PRESET, RUN, HALT, and POWER. A large yellow price tag reading “$26,000” hangs in front, and taped paper reference charts and a Digital Maintenance Corporation label are affixed to the upper panel.
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

Ummm … sexism much? Not surprised this didn’t sell.

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

This chart ends at 2011. If the computer … camera … phone I used to make this photo were on this chart, I think it would be well beyond the atmosphere. Things have advanced so much in the last 12 years.

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

And … this is where it gets awkward. This computer is where I cut my teeth. It wasn’t even my first computer. That was two years earlier.

And now … it’s a museum piece. Uff.

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

This one, too:

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

I was still in high school when the original Macintosh was released and it was not in our budget at the time. I remember being so excited to have access to Mac Plus computers in the “computer lab” two years later when I started as a freshman at the University of Minnesota.

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

Oh, and I really wanted a Commodore Pet. Never managed to land one.

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

Not sure if I had this exact model, but I definitely remember having one of the early Powerbooks as my main personal computer around this time.

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

It would be some years later when I joined Adobe, but I’ve had the chance to meet at least one of the Knoll brothers and to contribute on several occasions to Photoshop. After all these years, it still feels rather heady to say that.

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California

“Texting might be mildly useful …” Understatement of the century!

Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California
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