Well being that Texas is part of the (Silicon Prairie)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Prairie). I do believe that it always has been.
Afterall if it wasn’t for Steven Levy’s write up on First Saturday and its impact on Hacker culture, a few select individuals wouldn’t have came here to Texas. It also didn’t hurt that SDF Lonestar bbs and Public Unix Shell was based out of here. Plus, John Carmack is a Texas Resident.
yes it is sad they lost their lease. But I’m hopeful they can keep it going.
Bought my first copy of Codewright at First Saturday in the mid-80’s. It was at Ross and 75 and anchored in the parking lot of an electronics distributor (who remembers their name?) as well as adjacent lots. Didn’t take long before it expanded to lots across the street. I still have my 1927 Philco floor standing radio that I bought there and restored. That was definitely one early and strong contributor to the Dallas hacker movement.
Wholesale Electronics?
Do you remember the Heathkit store that was right there? I was one of the sellers at Ross Avenue, getting there at 4 AM in the morning to set up. Oh what fun those times were.
Does anybody remember the folks that gave away IC Data Books at the First Saturday Sale? That was me! Here is the back story. I was working at Texas Instruments and our department was moving to another TI site. Back then all the Engineers had a shelf full of hard copy IC Data Books from all the various IC vendors. There were stacks and stacks of old data books in the hallway waiting to be disposed of. I talked to management about taking all these data books down to the First Saturday Sale. Ended up having to get permission from several levels of management and security to remove them from the building. Management said: We could not sell them, could not mention TI’s name . . just give them away. So, myself and a couple of co-workers took 3 truck loads of data books. My own pickup truck had around 45 boxes of books alone. We took a blue tarp and had laid it out on the ground under the Woodall Rogers overpass and dumped a huge pile of data books. As the morning went on we just added to the pile and folks grabbed what they wanted. We had a sign “Take what you need and leave some for others.”
Now back then (mid 1980’s time period) these IC Data Books were not available to the general public, some of the vendors would being selling a few of these data books. For several months after our Free Data Book venture I checked to see if some of the vendors were now re-selling these Data Books. I didn’t see any, so I believe these books got into the hands of the hackers and hobbyist, just like they were supposed to.
Nothing like having a Brat for breakfast at 6am and then digging in boxes of parts. Ahh miss those days.