Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
The Emergence of Tool Libraries
By James Grahame
Despite the best efforts of kindergarten teachers everywhere, we're conditioned not to share. Nowhere is this more obvious than the garden shed. Most of us own dozens of tools, even though they spend 99.95% of the time sitting alone in the dark.
Every once in a while we get brave and lend a grubby old hammer to the neighbor in exchange for some time alone with her wheelbarrow, but mostly we keep our stuff padlocked and forgotten. Of course, the helpful folks who run home improvement stores love our deranged selfishness, since it helps them sell boatloads of expensive stuff.
The Northeast Portland (Oregon) Tool Library is a clever solution to the problem. They offer an ever-increasing assortment of household tools. Membership is free for local residents and you're allowed to check out up to seven tools per week during the library's Saturday open hours. Tools are due back by 10:00 a.m. the following Saturday. It's a simple, cheap return to the past that should be emulated by grown-up kindergartners everywhere.
