I grew up in the late 1950s and the 1960s, an age of invention. As a boy I loved transistor radios. Being able to cart a radio around in your pocket to hear the newest Beatles song or the latest news may seem quaint now, but it was incredible at the time. It allowed me, for example, to listen to opening day baseball games while in elementary school classes by looping a cord up my shirt sleeve to an earphone hidden by my hand. OK, I’m sure the teachers figured it out, but they let me slide.
Trivial, right? But transistors, which replaced vacuum tubes in electronic equipment, ushered in the second generation…
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