Saturday, October 11, 2008

Gadget lab from the amazing personal library of Jay Walker


Gadget Lab
A brand-new One Laptop per Child XO, far left, sits next to a relatively ancient RadioShack TRS-80 Model 100.
In back, a 1911 typewriting machine and a 1909 Kent radio. The large
contraption at center is the Nazis' supposedly unbreakable Enigma code machine. The book to its left is a copy of Johannes Trithemius' 1518 Polygraphiae, a cryptographic landmark.
On the right is an Apple II motherboard signed by Woz. An Edison
kinetoscope sits beside an 1890 Edison phonograph (along with three of
the wax cylinders it uses for recording). Nearby is a faithful copy of
Edison's lightbulb. The gadget with the tubes is an IBM processor circa
1960. In front of it stands a truly ancient storage device, a Sumerian
clay cone used to record surplus grain.

Jay Walker is an internet entrepreneur and founder of Walker Digital. His collection of world changing books and historical objects is impressive. The massive library includes a Sputnik, the chandelier from Die Another Day, an instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket and many more interesting things.

See more at http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

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