My name is Garrett Holthaus. I am an engineer and teacher living in Silicon Valley, California. I have had an interest in electronics and computers since a young age, when my dad would bring me downstairs to his basement shop to help him repair a broken TV, stereo, or other household appliance. When I was 6, my family got our first computer, an Atari 800XL, and my experiences with that machine motivated me to study electrical engineering and computer architecture in college.
I worked on microprocessors as a functional validation engineer for years before deciding to shift my career to another one of my passions, teaching and education. I got my California teaching credential and taught two years of high school physics, including (of course!) a unit on electricity and electronics.
Ever since those early days in my dad’s shop, I have been an avid electronics hobbyist, repairing and restoring vintage electronics (such as antique radios and record players), and collecting the Atari computers that I enjoyed so much as a kid. I especially enjoy resurrecting older technology and interfacing it to modern electronics, such as when I used an Arduino board to emulate the Apple II bus and drive a Sweet Talker speech synthesizer card. This blog will detail some of my adventures in both vintage and modern electronics. Thanks for visiting!
