Steve Jobs Unveils Mac at Boston Computer Society, Unseen Since 1984

It’s January, 1984. Steve Jobs, nattily attired in a double-breasted suit, is demonstrating Apple’s breakthrough personal computer, Macintosh, before a packed room. He speaks alarmingly of a future controlled by IBM, and shows the famous 1984 dystopian commercial based on that theme. Jobs' presentation, at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting on January 24, is the stuff of tech-legend. But, what’s not so well remembered: is Jobs did it all twice, in less than a week. Six days after unveiling the Mac at the Flint Center near the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., he performed his show all over again to the monthly general meeting of the Boston Computer Society. His host, Jonathan Rotenberg, was a 20-year-old student at Brown University who’d co-founded the BCS in 1977 at the age of 13. You can now watch this presentation in full for the first time. It features Steve Jobs at his charismatic best; or as he might have put it "insanely great"!
You can also watch an extended version on YouTube (in 84 segments).

Happy birthday #Macintosh!

Some days it takes a while to find what tech story to blog about, but not today. The iconic Apple Macintosh is 30 years old. If we want to push the birthday metaphor, we could say the cute little Mac is now all grown up with children of its own and holds down a serious job. Needless to say, the news is full of Mac stories today. The Guardian is running a great picture story - Thirty years of the Apple Macintosh – in pictures. However, in the interest of balance I'd also recommend you read Jerry Pournelle's article Why the Original Mac Just Didn’t Cut It. It's true the original Mac was woefully underpowered to handle that revolutionary operating system and interface. Waiting 5 mins for a program to save was not unusual, and anyone who tried to copy a floppy disc on the early Mac will never forget the experience and probably still suffers from a form of geeky post traumatic shock. Nonetheless, we love the Mac, it was a breakthrough.

30th anniversary of the Macintosh

January 24th will be the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Macintosh and an event to celebrate is being planned by the Computer History Museum and Macworld. It will be held at the Flint Center in Cupertino, CA. where the original launch by Steve Jobs was held. Many of the team responsible for the design of the Mac will be there and all proceeds will go to charity. More information and tickets here. I remember using a Mac in the late 80s (to make diagrams for my PhD thesis) and I find it amazing how far the technology has come but in some ways it has changed. The original Macintosh's DNA is still there in my MacBook Pro.

#Apple - 1944 and it's war!

Steve Jobs as "The Chief"

"1944" is a 9 minute long, broadcast quality, in-house riff on the now iconic "1984" Macintosh TV ad that caused a sensation during that year's Super Bowl. Set as a WWII story of good vs. IBM, and rumored to have cost $50,000, it was designed to fire up Apple's sales force at a 1984 meeting in Hawaii. Craig Elliott, who worked at Apple from 1985 to 1996, posted the video to his Facebook page, from where it went viral.
    The video shows "the fighting 32nd" preparing to invade IBM's territory to liberate the zombie-like POWs chained to their IBM computers by deploying "the most powerful weapon on earth - an idea whose time has come." The observant amongst you will notice that "The Chief" is Steve Jobs and that Bill "General" Gates is fighting on Apple's side. There's also a very amusing piece of dialog where they allude to their glorious past victories: the Apple I, the Apple II and its variants, but not the commercially unsuccessful Apple III, quote: "We don't talk about 3."



[Thanks to my friend Duncan Campbell for bringing this to my attention]

What links #Prometheus with #Apple ?

If you're a science-fiction fan you'll be eagerly awaiting Ridley Scott's Prometheus, which is released on June 7, and is a prequel to his classic Alien movie. Fans have responded very excitedly to the new trailer that was released at the weekend. Ridley Scott has a great track record in making dark and broody sci-fi with Blade Runner being a cult classic for many, and one of my favorite films. Both it and Alien, of course feature AI's that can be helpful and menacing.
   Ridley Scott has another claim to fame which is of much more relevance to The Universal Machine, and indeed he features in the free sample chapter I made available at the weekend. Ridley Scott directed the successful 1984 Macintosh commercial, which only aired once during that year's Super Bowl. Even so as it says in my book, "In 1999 TV Guide rated it the 'Number One Greatest Commercial of All Time' and in 2007 it became the 'Best Super Bowl Spot,' in the games’ 40-year history."  So that is what links Prometheus with Apple.