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Audio slideshow: Moving forward with Halted

In this audio slideshow, take a virtual tour of the Silicon Valley electronics surplus store that's DIY heaven.

James Martin Managing Editor, Photography
James Martin is the Managing Editor of Photography at CNET. His photos capture technology's impact on society - from the widening wealth gap in San Francisco, to the European refugee crisis and Rwanda's efforts to improve health care. From the technology pioneers of Google and Facebook, photographing Apple's Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai, to the most groundbreaking launches at Apple and NASA, his is a dream job for any documentary photography and journalist with a love for technology. Exhibited widely, syndicated and reprinted thousands of times over the years, James follows the people and places behind the technology changing our world, bringing their stories and ideas to life.
Expertise photojournalism, portrait photography, behind-the-scenes Credentials
  • 2021 Graphis Photography Awards, Gold Award, Journalism, 'The Doorway' Graphis Photography Awards, Silver Award, Portrait, 'Cast of film '1917'' Graphis Photography Awards, Silver Award, Environmental, 'Upper Lola Montez' ND Awards, Architecture, 'Taj Mah
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James Martin

For almost 50 years, whenever Silicon Valley's budding entrepreneurs, engineers, and start-ups have needed parts for their latest electronics innovations, they've turned to the eclectic electronics surplus superstore, HSC Electronics--also known as Halted--to power their inventions.

Tech pioneers like Apple's Steve Wozniak, Atari's Nolan Bushnell, Intel's Ted Hoff, who helped develop the microprocessor, have all searched through Halted's vast inventory in search of the capacitors, inductors, wires, and transistors to bring their ideas to life.

Like the creative minds that have come here in search of success, the long shelves and deep boxes are a chaotic mix of enterprising history and wild imagination. Step inside the DIY heaven that is Halted.