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.