Meeting one of the most famous microcomputer publishers, Dave Ahl, was an honor. At 83, he is still full of energy and life, traveling the world (he has visited 126 countries so far), supporting missionary efforts, and actively pursuing philanthropy by selling all his key possessions for charity. In the 70s, he created a working prototype of a personal computer laptop at DEC but was turned away by DEC’s co-founder, Ken Olsen, who said, at the time, “I can’t see any reason that anyone would want a computer of his own.” If only DEC would have listened to Ahl before Apple and the PC came to the scene. Dave was a visionary. He also published the most popular BASIC programming book, BASIC Computer Games, the number 1 book ever to sell over a million copies. He later founded Creative Computing, one of the earliest magazines on microcomputers. (wiki link about David].

David and I connected through eBay after I went into collecting nearly every book published by David and Create Computing Press. What impressed me was his generosity. He would always add an extra book or a signed thank you card, including his address and phone. He gifted me the last copy of the published creative computing magazine and gave me a unique brochure from Carnegie Mellon featuring him. How often in today’s times do we get to meet fine people with great hearts and minds? David is my hero and role model. #computing #technology

Meeting David