In January 2005, John McVeigh, technical editor of Popular Electronics magazine in the mid 1970s, writes:
"
Popular Electronics magazine was a fascinating place to work. I really lucked out getting the job.
I had been admitted to law school, but then decided to try the working world for a year,
as I had been in school all of my life. I had turned down a number of job offers with the intent of
going to law school, then found myself in the position of looking for a job.
I responded to a classified ad in the NY Times. The ad said that an electronics magazine was looking
for an electronics hobbyist, a stereo enthusiast, a ham radio operator, or an EE with some editing
experience for an editorial slot. I was all of the above, so I gave it a shot. I ended up
staying there seven years and going to law school at night.
When the Altair arrived, it was set up in Leslie's office (Les Solomon, technical director).
Subsequently, when a 20-mA current loop and a teletypewriter (Model 33, as I recall) were connected to it,
that made programming it a lot easier.
One of the programs we had was a lunar lander (LEM) simulator where you had a certain amount of fuel
and you could instruct the computer to do rocket burns to brake the descent. The teletypewriter would
print out a profile of the trajectory. However, the teletypewriter was so noisy that some of the
other Ziff-Davis staffers (we shared an office suite with Stereo Review) started complaining
about the noise, so Leslie had to keep his door closed when the thing was running.
Leslie was a prolific smoker of cigars, and would also smoke a pipe.
The air got pretty dense in there.
But all the pioneers came through that office. Don Lancaster, Roger Melen, Jerry Ogdin, etc.,
etc. I even remember young Bill Gates showing up one time, looking for some exposure for a new
software product...."
Source: Obsolete Technology Website