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Felsenstein's parents were heavily involved in politics. They were members of the Communist party and participated in protests, sometimes bringing Lee along. -
Lee Felsenstein was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He grew up in the Strawberry Mansion area, in the row homes largely populated by first- and second-generation Jewish immigrants. (Levy 154) -
Lee spent much of his adolescence in his home basement, which he referred to as his "monastery". Here he sought peace from familial tensions and discovered a love of electronics, devouring schematics and guides, and working with hobbyist kits (Levy 155) -
To pay for his UC Berkeley tuition, Lee joined work-study program with NASA at the Edwards Air Force Base. It was short-lived however, once they found out about his parent's involvement with the Communist Party (Levy 158). -
Felsenstein started working on an engineering degree at Berkeley in 1963. He left the university in 1967, but after a four year break came back and finished his schooling, graduating in 1972.
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Lee was involved in the Free Speech Movement happening on the Berkeley campus. He was one of many protestors arrested at the Sproul Hall Sit-In on December 2nd, 1964. -
Lee joined the underground paper, the Berkeley Barb, and was named "military editor" and ran the column "Military Editor's Household Hints", where he wrote critiques and suggestions for political activism (Levy 159). -
Resource One, an organization wanting to set up a community computer center, received a donated XDS-940 computer and needed a full-time systems person to get it going. Lee moved into the basement of their warehouse and found his second monastery (Levy 161). -
Lee, along with Efrem Lipkin, started a project as an offshoot of Resource One, called Community Memory - a terminal located in Leopold Records in Berkeley that housed the first public computerized bulletin board system (Isaacson 301). -
Felsentein designed one of the earliest modems for hobbyists. -
The Tom Swift Terminal was Felsenstein's conceptual design for a cheap open-design computer, named after "the American folk hero most likely to be found tampering with equipment" (Isaacson 313). Lee saw it as a "convivial cybernetic device", though it never ended up as a working machine. -
Lee Felsenstein designed the first graphics card for Processor Technology, the Video Display Module, or VDM. It could display 16 lines of 64 characters, including graphic characters, and was made as a terminal system for the Altair. -
From 1975 to 1986, the Homebrew Computer Club was an influential hobbyist group. Felsenstein was a founding member and acted as the clubs moderator. -
Along with Bob Marsh, Felsenstein designed the Sol, the first full assembled home computer, complete with typewriter-style keyboard and video display (Levy 244). More than 10,000 units were sold between 1977 and 1979. -
At the first Computer Faire, Felsenstein ran a workshop on the Community Memory movement. -
Felsenstein and Adam Osborne founded the Osborne Computer Corporation. -
Felsenstein created the Micro Expander, a S-100 based microcomputer, as his successor to the Sol-20. -
Felsenstein designed the first commercially successful portable computer, the Osborne-1. It weighed 24.5 lbs and cost $1,795. -
Felsenstein was named "Pioneer of the Electronic Frontier" by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. -
Lee founded the online archives documenting the history of the Free Speech Movement. -
Lee worked with the Jhai Foundation in San Francisco, designing open-source telecommunications and computer systems for the developing world. -
Felsenstein is the founder and "founding sensei" of Hacker Dojo, a 9500 square foot non-profit facility in Palo Alto. They offer $100/month access to in-house networks and tools. -
Felsenstein was made. fellow of the Computer History Museum for "his influence on the technical and social environment of the early personal computing era". -
Lee Felsenstein wrote and published a memoir, "Me and My Big Ideas".