History remembers the Mac
Synchronicities and Singularities
It’s 24 January 2024. Today my son Jaimeo and his daughter Selah share a birthday today. He’s 46, she’s 14 and a better father/daughter team you won’t find anywhere. Today, however, I also have to acknowledge that 40 years ago, one of my most valued “instruments” came into existence.
Computer History Museum Presentation
Today— Wednesday afternoon at 5PM CST, The Computer History museum out of Mountain View CA. is celebrating the 40th Birthday(!) of the Macintosh personal computer. Steve Jobs, the father of the Mac was more than a visionary. More than a curious whiz kid who just happened to have a bright idea, Steve P. Jobs was a person on a mission.
If you haven’t read Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson’s biography, I highly recommend it because of its telling coverage of Jobs’ early life.
Luckily for us content creators (formerly known as musicians, writers, photographers and visual artists), Steve Jobs was a liberal arts major. His interdisciplinary view of the world, shaped by his time at Reed College, planted the seeds for what was to come.
The availability of relatively inexpensive transistors into the home workshop space created a phenomenon akin to what Jimi Hendrix’ “Star Spangled Banner” performance at Woodstock did for the guitar pedal industry. People saw new possibilities because new tools were available.
Building on the work of visionary engineers, devices like the mouse (Thanks Doug Englebart), the spreadsheet (Thanks Dan Bricklin) and many basic communication, business and media-creation functions are now commonplace.
Steve Jobs certainly didn’t create many of these things but like a gifted maestro, he orchestrated the contributions of many into something that made the words, images and music in this column possible.
By the way, you marketing majors probably don’t have to be told this but Steve Jobs and Guy Kawasaki re-invented the marketing AND developer relationship industry chronicled in a book (now rare) called The Macintosh Way.
So Happy Birthday Mac. Much respect of Steve Wozniak, the actual engineer who co-designed the Apple II series of computers whose success made the Mac possible.
Happy Birthday Mac. (notice the tag on my original 512k Mac)
(Tuesday Jan 23rd was “Lobby Day” with the legislature at the Capital in Des Moines. After meeting with them, I needed a change of “mental venue” so I’ll end this post with…music made on the Mac (and my guitar)
More later.
Got a Mac story ? Tell me about it.
Love the sharing of your music with the post, Dartanyan. Enjoyed it. And the photo! I remember using that! Was it for the Basic programming class my last year in college? I can't remember. Really brings home how far we've come. I really liked the Steve Jobs book, too. It was very insightful and I learned a lot about two men I knew little about beyond headlines, plus had me reflecting on management styles of those I've had while working in IT.
Thank you, Dartanyan. I give Wozniak a bit more credit, but they were quite a duo. I’m at my Mac for many hours daily.