Ken Levy's Blog

Disneyland recently opened a new interactive experience called the Innovations Dream Home, located in the Tomorrowland area of the park near Space Mountain. The major sponsors were HP, Microsoft, and LifeWare (a home automation company). Based on a full page article with photos in E-Gear magazine, here are some details.

• The kitchen has a voice-activated digital recipe guide via a display on the kitchen counter, using an HP TouchSmart PC.
  When someone stands in front of the magic mirror in a bedroom superimposes a digital wardrobe paper-doll style including jewelry and hair styles).
• Another bedroom projects storyboard images on the wall when reading a book out loud.
• Microsoft’s Surface technology is used for the dining room table to display pictures, videos, or a digital light show.
• A projector and screen are used in the living room play music and movies via a media library from an HP Media Center PC.
• There are about 150 digital picture frames around the house that change images whenever guests enter, based on an RFID chip they wear on their cloths to identify the person.
• LCD touchpanels by LifeWare are all over the house to allow control of most every system including lights, media, temperature, and access to news and weather.

The official home builder of the Dream House at Disneyland is Taylor Morrison, the company my brother works for in the Phoenix area selling new homes. He was invited with a group of co-workers to visit Disneyland for a day just after the opening.

I haven’t been to Disneyland or Disneyworld in over 20 years. Anyone who is about my age or older probably remembers when they charged per ride and various rides had their own type of ticket from A to E, with E tickets being the most expensive for the good rides like Pirates and the Haunted House – thus the cliche’ that still exists today an E-ticket ride.

About 75% of what is on display in the Dream Home is actually available to consumers today. What I (and probably most people) would be most interested is in the 25% category of not available to the public, which is a consumer version of the Surface table.

I started computer programming in 1981, when I got a TRS-80 Pocket Computer 1 (made by Sharp) which was also the same here I started 10th grade in high school and took a class in BASIC programming using the TRS-80 Model 1. We had a model II at home and I ended up doing part-time programming work for extra allowance. I taught myself Z-80 assembly language a year later, and ended up programming on many other TRS-80 (aka Trash-80) models over the following years.I also built many electronic based projects during my high school years based on parts from Radio Shack (my favorite store during that time).

Below is a Radio Shack and TRS-80 history timeline that I copied a while back, not sure of the source but it appears accurate:

• 1921: - Radio Shack begins as a one-store retail and mail-order company catering to ham operators and electronics buffs.
• 1963: - Charles Tandy buys the chain of stores, and within two years turned a $4 million dollar loss into a $20 million dollar profit.
• 1977: August - Radio Shack announces the TRS-80 Model I microcomputer for US$600.
• 1977: September - One month after launching the TRS-80, 10,000 are sold.
• 1979: May - Tandy/Radio Shack announces the TRS-80 Model II.
• 1979: October - Radio Shack begins shipping the TRS-80 Model II to users.
• 1980: July - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model III, priced from US$700 to US$2500.
• 1980: July - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Color Computer, and sells for US$400.
• 1980: July - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Pocket Computer. Price is US$230.
• 1981: January - Radio Shack ceases production of the TRS-80 Model I, and recalls units from the US market, due to failure to meet new FCC radio-frequency interference regulations.
• 1982: January - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model 16, with 8-inch floppy drives, and optional 8-MB hard drive.
• 1982: January - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Pocket Computer, Model PC-2, for US$280.
• 1983: March - Radio Shack announces its TRS-80 Model 100 portable computer. Price is US$799 for 8KB version, to US$1134 for the 32KB version.
• 1983: May - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Model 4, for US$2000.
• 1983: June - Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 PC-3, for US$99.95.
• 1983: October - Tandy/Radio Shack announces the "transportable" TRS-80 Model 4P, for US$1800.
• 1983: Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 Pocket Computer, Model PC-4, replacing the PC-1, for US$70.
• 1983: Tandy releases the TRS-80 Model 2000, which uses the Intel 80186 microprocessor.
• 1983: Radio Shack unveils the TRS-80 Model 12 at the CP/M ’83 Show. Price is US$3200.
• 1985: March - Radio Shack introduces the Tandy 6000 multiuser system. It features Z80A and 68000 processors, 512 KB RAM, 80×24 text, graphics, 1.2-MB 8-inch disk, optional 15 MB hard drive, TRS-DOS, or XENIX 3.0. It supports up to 9 users.