Reminds me of a Superman comic book cover.

Thirty years ago this October, Personal Software unleashed VisiCalc, the world’s first spreadsheet software for personal computers, upon an unsuspecting computer populace. Invented and developed by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston of Software Arts, VisiCalc has become legendary for its influence on the personal computer industry.

VisiCalc, with its almost magical ability to instantly and intelligently crunch multiple cascading figures, proved to be the Apple II’s killer app — the application that gave the Apple II a viable foothold in the business market and drove the machine’s sales.

Of course, other spreadsheet packages (Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel come to mind) soon imitated and then eclipsed VisiCalc in sales, but we should all raise a glass and toast the original on this fine 30th anniversary.

For more information, check out Dan Bricklin’s website. Dan also has a new book available that you might be interested in.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What was the first spreadsheet software you ever used?

VC&G Collecting Tip: Remove your old computer clock batteries.

Right now.

I’m serious: do it. Despite my regular battery purges (done to avoid just such a situation), I forgot to remove the Mac IIsi PRAM battery you see above because the computer was buried under a bunch of stuff. The battery electrolyte leaked out and corroded everything it touched, ruining the logic board. Sometimes you can recover from battery leaks with extensive cleaning if the damage isn’t that bad. In this case, it wasn’t worth the effort. Bye, bye, IIsi.

While you’re ditching the vintage clock batteries, do yourself a favor and remove the main power batteries from any laptops in your collection. I typically store laptop batteries in a gallon zipper bag each. Even if the batteries are dead/bad (which they usually are), I save the plastic cases for re-use if I plan to rebuild the battery in the future.

As a good rule of thumb, never keep batteries (no matter how new) in any electronic device for longer than a couple weeks of non-use. Any longer, and you’re just playing Russian roulette with your gadgets.

Almost all batteries leak eventually. If your old ones haven’t leaked already, you’re very lucky. Focus on alkaline and NiCd batteries first, because they leak the worst; lithium cells can leak as well (as seen above), but it’s less common overall.

Regardless of the type, if they’re old, remove them now — even if it requires clipping or desoldering — and spare yourself the leaky battery blues later on.

The Sharp PC-6220 Notebook Computer

Discussion Topic of the Week: In your opinion, what’s the difference between a “notebook” and a “laptop” computer?

TRS-80 computers are clearly changing the world.

Growing up in the 1980s, I was no stranger to free educational materials designed to promote commercial products. Here’s such an example from Radio Shack: The Science Fair Story of Electronics, a colorful comic book that spares no opportunity to introduce the Tandy/Radio Shack brand to the consumers of tomorrow. (For those who might not be familiar with it, Radio Shack is a chain of electronics retail stores in the US.)

If you click on the picture above, you’ll see a two-page spread from the comic that extols the benefits of (TRS-80) computers and briefly retells computer history from a decidedly Radio Shack perspective.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you owned or used any Radio Shack / Tandy / TRS-80 computers? If so, which ones?

As you may have already noticed by my previous two posts, the Macintosh Portable turns 20 this week. As part of the celebrations, I not only took one apart for Technologizer, but I also wrote two Macintosh laptop retrospectives for Macworld: “The Five Most Important Mac Laptops” and a slideshow, “Twenty Years of Notable Apple Totables.” Hope you enjoy them.

Twenty years ago, Apple released its first laptop computer, the Macintosh Portable. It was a large and heavy beast, oft maligned (especially now) for its size and high expense.

But at the Portable’s heart sits a truly clever design — very nice for 1989 — that incorporated a number of interesting features people often overlook, since few have actually seen a Portable in the flesh.

In honor of this anniversary, I decided to take apart a Mac Portable for the seventh entry in my “workbench series” of technology teardowns. This time, Technologizer is hosting the slideshow.

Please join me as I pry into its secrets (including hidden case signatures!), compare the Portable to an iPod Touch (six of which could fit inside the Mac Portable’s battery), and just generally ogle over the beautiful technological clockwork that makes the Portable tick.

Here are my previous teardowns, if you’re interested (all at PC World): Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Famicom, Apple IIc, Commodore 64, IBM Model M Keyboard, and TRS-80 Model 100.

P.S. In case you didn’t notice, our Retro Scan of the Week this week focuses on the Portable as well.

You can’t be your best if you don’t eat a good breakfast.

Twenty years ago yesterday, Apple released the Macintosh Portable — the first battery-powered portable Mac. I say “battery powered” because in some sense the first compact Macs were very portable in their own way, but they were designed to be plugged into a wall.

Here’s the first advertisement for the Mac Portable (that I know of). Apologies for the giant crease down the center, but it was a two page ad. Just for the record: I hate scanning split-page ads. It makes you wonder why any ad designer would want the product they’re showcasing to be cleft in two by the folds of a magazine, distorting the image of the product in question. But oh well.

By the way, I’ve taken apart a Macintosh Portable in honor of this anniversary over at Technologizer (you’ll see another post about this soon).

Discussion topic of the week: What’s your favorite Macintosh laptop/notebook/portable of all time?

Click above to see the ad in situ.

Here’s another vintage clipping from my grandmother’s cedar chest, this time from a Knoxville, TN newspaper. It mentions SCRIPSIT, early word processing software for the TRS-80 computer line.

Discussion topic of the week: What was the first word processing software you ever used?

Numbered lists, numbered lists. What would the Internet be without numbered lists? I’ll tell you: it would be a lonely, barren place. As much as they seem like a literary cop out, people love them. They go wild for them (or at them). Numbered lists slice and dice facts and figures into tantalizing nuggets of information, easy to consume and digest in today’s frenetically-paced world. It seems nobody has the time to read long-form prose anymore.

Some years ago, I realized that this seemingly lightweight article format is here to stay, so I might as well make the best of it. That’s why I’ve dedicated a portion of my career to writing the best numbered lists possible. I may not always succeed, but at least I try.

Exhibit A: The 11 Most Influential Microprocessors of All Time. The fine folks at PC World published my latest foray into the numbered-list genre late last night. It explores some of the most important microprocessors ever devised in a slideshow format, replete with nifty graphics.

As always, I’ll include a standard disclaimer that I include for any numbered list: your opinion my vary. Even though it probably will, you might learn something along the way. And perhaps, like me, you’ll be oddly invigorated by the quantification of something typically un-quantifiable. It’s an exciting weirdness that we can’t resist.

I hope you enjoy it.

Longtime VC&G reader Mike Melanson recently sent me this image of Halle Berry Jennifer Freeman from You Got Served, a “2004 urban dance flick” (Mike’s words — I’ve never seen it).

I ask you now, vintage sleuthhounds: what’s wrong with this picture?