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 8800 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