Happy Birthday Mac!
Given that I've made my living the past 18 years on a Mac, I need to wish a Happy Birthday! to Macintosh.
Here's a link to the famous 1984 commercial and some film of Jobs' unveiling.
And, I'll quote a post I made elsewhere:
In November 1984 Apple was running a promotion - "Test Drive a Mac". You could go into an Apple store and borrow a computer for over night to, well, test drive it. Being a clever lad, I arranged my pick-up for a Saturday night, so I had Sunday, when the store was closed, to play too. Consistent with Apple resellers everywhere at the time, they forgot to pack the manuals. The fact I could figure it out was amazing to me. Apple later made a commercial joking about the difference in the size of the Mac manual compared to a PC manual set.
I still remember figuring out how to enter a formula in Multiplan. Type an '=' and then CLICK IN THE CELLS YOU WANT TO ADD! Holy cow. And MacPaint!
So, the first purchase was a 128 Mac (even though the 512 was shipping or was imminent, I forget which). An ImageWriter, a case. Multiplan/Chart (which turned into Excel. My Windows using friends should now that Excel shipped first for Mac.) and OverVue (now Panorama) and an external floppy drive.
So, the fallout from falling in love with a computer?
I was working for a tax-funded non-profit at the time and had to appeal to a board of elected officials to get the money for the computer. One of the members, a city councilman from Roseville was also a Mac fan and this public hearing turned into a conversation as we talked about the wonder that was Mac and the programs that were pending and MacPaint! That guy became a ringer for me on the board and was key to the future success of the organization I ran.
My work in OverVue led to working in Helix and then in 4th Dimension. In 1990, I left the non-profit world and began a database and Mac consulting business that continues (albeit in a different form) today. Sadly, the original Mac (which was still around) belonged to the non-profit and had to stay there. The first Mac I bought with my own money was an SE/30.
Update: This site has the videos referenced above as well as some additional ones. Including Bill Gates extolling Mac's virtues.
Here's a link to the famous 1984 commercial and some film of Jobs' unveiling.
And, I'll quote a post I made elsewhere:
In November 1984 Apple was running a promotion - "Test Drive a Mac". You could go into an Apple store and borrow a computer for over night to, well, test drive it. Being a clever lad, I arranged my pick-up for a Saturday night, so I had Sunday, when the store was closed, to play too. Consistent with Apple resellers everywhere at the time, they forgot to pack the manuals. The fact I could figure it out was amazing to me. Apple later made a commercial joking about the difference in the size of the Mac manual compared to a PC manual set.
I still remember figuring out how to enter a formula in Multiplan. Type an '=' and then CLICK IN THE CELLS YOU WANT TO ADD! Holy cow. And MacPaint!
So, the first purchase was a 128 Mac (even though the 512 was shipping or was imminent, I forget which). An ImageWriter, a case. Multiplan/Chart (which turned into Excel. My Windows using friends should now that Excel shipped first for Mac.) and OverVue (now Panorama) and an external floppy drive.
So, the fallout from falling in love with a computer?
I was working for a tax-funded non-profit at the time and had to appeal to a board of elected officials to get the money for the computer. One of the members, a city councilman from Roseville was also a Mac fan and this public hearing turned into a conversation as we talked about the wonder that was Mac and the programs that were pending and MacPaint! That guy became a ringer for me on the board and was key to the future success of the organization I ran.
My work in OverVue led to working in Helix and then in 4th Dimension. In 1990, I left the non-profit world and began a database and Mac consulting business that continues (albeit in a different form) today. Sadly, the original Mac (which was still around) belonged to the non-profit and had to stay there. The first Mac I bought with my own money was an SE/30.
Update: This site has the videos referenced above as well as some additional ones. Including Bill Gates extolling Mac's virtues.
posted by Lee at 8:39 PM
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