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FELIX COMPUTERS
Felix Computers was a shop, set up in Boston UK in the early 1980s. It was the period in history just after computers were thought to be huge engines with whirring magnetic tape drives, punch cards, and teletypes, programmed by superintelligent boffins, and before the age where computers were thought to be just unhelpful things you move a mouse about on. It was the age of the BBC Computer Literacy project, where the idea was to learn to program a computer. Felix Computers was unusual for its time as it was run by a character who actually knew about computers, having just got a degree in Computer Science at Manchester University. Felix Computers was a proper computer shop and part of the philosophy of the place was that if you bought a computer there you'd get free technical support, not just mending it if it went wrong, but advice on how to learn to program a computer. Technical support means actual help, being able to phone someone up and ask questions and get sensible answers. A few companies still do this, for example Dyson, although of course they are a vacuum cleaner company rather than a computer shop.
Other curious things about the place were:
If you could observe it from the present age (2000), go back in time and look at what went on in the shop, you'd say it was a CYBER CAFE. There was a machine there which had conceptual hypertext on the screen and was freely available for anyone to participate in the use of.
Free tea was available at all times the shop was open.
Weird scientific experiments were done at the premises.
The shop had Resident Customers.