The Altair 8800 was an early home computer which came out in 1975. You programmed it by flipping switches and watching the lights blink. The picture is actually an
Altair 8800 Clone; it turns out that original ones are now super expensive so a guy made a version with modern components. What used to be a box stuffed with circuit boards is now empty - the work is done by a chip the size of a penny. It's a bit like old tube radios...
