One of the first computers my family owned when I was growing up was the Apple ][+. This computer was the most open computer you'd ever want. It was a hacker's dream. It came with a schematic of the circuit of the whole computer, in case you wanted to invent things for it or just modify it somehow. No, really: People used to pass around ways that you could solder in jumper wires on the motherboard to make it do some new trick. [more]