Macintosh Folklore Radio

Chris Espinosa tries to build a Steve Jobs-approved calculator. Original text from folklore.org. My favourite classic MacOS calculator was ProCalc. While trying to find ProCalc, I found PowerCalc by John Mauro who went on to co-invent Gorilla Glass, used in every iPhone and iPad.

Testing software on real world users often yields surprising results. Origin of the Apple Human Interface Guidelines video with Chris Espinosa reading Bruce Tognazzini’s “Apple Presents Apple” user testing post-mortem. Original text from folklore.org.

Early Macintosh developer documentation had a bit of a rocky start. Caroline Rose also did some technical documentation work for NeXT. Caroline’s website is hosted by Andy Hertzfeld/differnet.com. Outro clip from Joanna Hoffman’s delightful interview with the Computer History Museum which you should at least read through, if only for the story of her sneaking into and out of Russia without official clearance. [video 1/2/3, transcript 1/2/3] Original text from folklore.org.

Apple’s marketing poets meet Mercedes-Benz, Latin, and Sylvester Stallone. Original text from Macworld Magazine, August 1993.

Which Mac is the current bestseller? Is Apple giving up on industrial design? Why did you screw Quadra 900 customers by introducing the 950 just five months after the 900? Editor-in-Chief of Macworld Jerry Borrell sits down for some Q&A with Eric Harslem, Apple’s Vice President of Desktop Computers in 1992. Simpler times: an Apple VP discussing future product plans and openly admitting mistakes, in this case with the Mac Portable. You don’t see Tim Cook apologizing for the butterfly keyboard or the abysmal state of OS X from 2009 onwards, do you? Come back, Eric! Original text from Macworld Magazine, September 1992. Eric in 2012 speaking about his donation to the Mathworks Endowment at Texas State University. Some months after this interview was published, Eric, along with Apple’s head of PowerBook development, jumped ship to Dell in 1993 to help turn around its notebook division. The Apple New Product Process (ANPP) lives on even though Jonathan Ive did his best to prioritize thinness and visual

Guy boils down your Macintosh purchase decision to three choices from Apple’s bloated 1993 product lineup. Apple has arguably suffered from The Ginza Syndrome(tm) since the days of the Apple II. :-) Original text from Macworld Magazine, June 1993.

This is not Macintosh-related whatsoever but it’s Guy Kawasaki, it was in Macworld, and he had some fun flying in an F-15 fighter jet. Original text from Macworld Magazine, July 1993. Get your own copy of The Macintosh Way at used booksellers. Watch a Let’s Play of F/A-18 Hornet in an emulator or play it on your iOS device. I had a copy back in the day. I knew nothing about flight simulators and could not figure out how to do anything, not even exit the game. Flailing at the keyboard, I went from zero to takeoff because I accidentally hit Delete which fired up the afterburners. That was pretty cool.

It’s late 1993, Apple is sinking, PowerPC Macs haven’t arrived yet, the Macintosh system software is showing its age, and John Sculley is out. Incoming CEO Michael Spindler to the rescue! Guy Kawasaki’s advice for Apple’s then-new leader. If you’re having trouble falling asleep, Sculley and Spindler talking about Apple’s plan for the 1990s should help. Original text from Macworld Magazine, October 1993. Spindler introduction clip from the Power Macintosh Reseller Training video.

Listener request from Charkes (not a typo): more Guy Kawasaki! Here’s Guy on the pros and cons of working from home. Who the heck is Guy Kawasaki? Remember that in 1994, there was no way any MIS/IT manager would be caught dead letting Macintoshes in the door and onto their corporate network, there was not one but 20 major online electronic mail services worldwide, and Apple quoted PowerBook battery life at 2-3 hours. Original text from Macworld Magazine, June 1994.

Steven Levy on why Macintosh developers aren’t scared of Claris, the software company backed by Apple Computer. Original text from Macworld Magazine, June 1992. ClarisWorks and other seemingly Macintosh-only products did indeed ship on Windows. Claris’ first product on Windows: Hollywood. Press coverage. A big thank you to Blake Patterson of The Byte Cellar for preserving the Claris promotional video heard in this episode. Watch the full VHS video on YouTube.

Andy Hertzfeld’s first task as an employee of Apple Computer. Original text from folklore.org.

The story of how “the best-loved application for the Mac” took on Microsoft Works as told by programmer [Bob Hearn in 2003][bob]. Read Macworld’s roundup of integrated packages to see how ClarisWorks 1.0 stacked up against its competition. Watch Symantec GreatWorks in action courtesy of hirudov2d on YouTube: Version 1.0.1, 2.0.1 Watch Bob Hearn talking about AlphaGo starting at 4m50s.

Steve Jobs temporarily forbid the Macintosh team from working with Sony. Original text from folklore.org. Bill Gates Twiggy drive clip from All Things D5, 2007, 3m54s. Alternate source.

The FBI’s attempted investigation of the nuPrometheus League. I wish there was a dramatic conclusion to this 1990 editorial, but we’ve heard nothing from the nuPrometheus League since their first and only dispatch. Original text from Macworld Magazine, September 1990.

The early days of Apple’s culture of secrecy. If you had people digging through the garbage bins outside your corporate headquarters, you would be paranoid too! Original text from Macworld Magazine, November 1989. Introductory news clip from The Computer Chronicles with bonus crazy background saxophone for some reason. Hugo Fiennes quote from the Computer History Museum’s iPhone development team panel discussion. Steve Jobs’ “Super Secret Apple Rumours” podcast from the MWSF 2006 GarageBand demo. Alleged insider comments on the damage Apple’s internal secrecy has done to Mac OS X at Michael Tsai’s blog, one of the few Macintosh news sources worth reading these days.

Steven Levy on a little-known Macintosh clone project from 1989. Original text from Macworld Magazine, April 1989. Our sponsor for April 1st: The Mac Zone!

Is it too late for Apple’s lightweight laptops? Steven Levy’s summary of the awkward PowerBook Duo situation. Original text from Macworld Magazine, December 1993. PowerBook Duo commercials courtesy of the RetroMacCast on YouTube (1, 2). Watch the Duo and Dock in action (insert, eject). PowerBook Duo commercial in Swedish Titanium PowerBook G4 introduction at Macworld San Francisco 2001 12-inch PowerBook G4 introduction at Macworld San Francisco 2003 MacBook Air introduction at Macworld San Francisco 2008

David Pogue reviews the PowerBook Duo 210/230 and the companion Duo Dock. NuBus and SCSI weren’t hot pluggable, meaning you had to shut down the machine every time you docked or undocked! Original text from Macworld Magazine, March 1993. PowerBook Duo Dock sounds courtesy of the RetroMacCast on YouTube (insert, eject).

Happy Birthday, Macintosh! Andy Hertzfeld and company rush to complete the first release of the Macintosh system software, then cobble together a demo before launch day. Original text at folklore.org: Real Artists Ship, It Sure Is Great To Get Out of That Bag, and The Times They Are A-Changin’ Make your own four-voice 256-byte wavetable music, sine wavey or otherwise, with ConcertWare or MusicWorks. Andy Hertzfeld “six person hours of testing” quote from his 2005 NerdTV interview. (video, transcript) The entire January 24th, 1984 Apple Shareholders Meeting on YouTube. Try Software Automatic Mouth in your browser or Macintalk in Mini vMac. A Macintalk mini-documentary.

Two interviews with StuffIt creator Raymond Lau, conducted during Apple’s darkest days (Maclopedia 1996, AppleWizards 1998). StuffIt Deluxe 2.0 review. Yes, people were already complaining about software bloat in 1991. Raymond’s personal website Raymond’s palmpilotfiles/palmcentral.com Raymond’s PhD Dissertation: “Subword Lexical Modelling for Speech Recognition” Today, Leonard Rosenthol is a PDF Architect at Adobe. StuffIt End-of-Life Announcement Michael Dell’s “appearance” at November 1997 Steve Jobs Keynote Barry Diller Wikipedia claims PackIt III development stopped after Harry Chesley went to work at Apple. Rumor Monger, part of Harry Chesley’s output in Apple’s Advanced Technology Group