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Apple Technology

Treasure Trove of Internal Apple Memos Discovered in Thrift Store (gizmodo.com) 28

Posted by msmash from the blast-from-the-past dept.
An anonymous reader shares a Gizmodo report: Peeking inside a book bin at a Seattle Goodwill, Redditor vadermeer caught an interesting, unexpected glimpse into the early days of Apple: a cache of internal memos, progress reports, and legal pad scribbles from 1979 and 1980, just three years into the tech monolith's company history. The documents at one point belonged to Jack MacDonald -- then the manager of systems software for the Apple II and III (in these documents referred to by its code name SARA). The papers pertain to implementation of Software Security from Apple's Friends and Enemies (SSAFE), an early anti-piracy measure. Not much about MacDonald exists online, and the presence of his files in a thrift store suggests he may have passed away, though many of the people included in these documents have gone on to long and lucrative careers. The project manager on SSAFE for example, Randy Wigginton, was Apple's sixth employee and has since worked for eBay, Paypal, and (somewhat tumultuously) Google. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also features heavily in the implementation of these security measures.
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Treasure Trove of Internal Apple Memos Discovered in Thrift Store More

Treasure Trove of Internal Apple Memos Discovered in Thrift Store

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  • Scrubbing Bubbles (Score:4, Funny)

    by The-Ixian ( 168184 ) on Friday February 24, 2017 @01:05PM (#53924011)

    A "Treasure Trove" this is not... mildly amusing perhaps... I mean... these notes don't even seem to show off the genius of our glorious demigod Steve Jobs, let alone even mention him! They seem to only reference this guy named "Woz"... as though he was some kind of important person at Apple...

    I think we need more documentation on Scrubbing Bubbles though...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )

      A "Treasure Trove" this is not...

      See if you still feel that way when there is another story in 6 months or so where these pulled 5 figures at auction.

      • Bought by the same person who has a gold Apple Watch...

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Scoff if you want but there are many here, maybe including yourself, who have a fondness for 1980s-era computing. I know it's the hip thing to bash Apple but there are a lot of folks here who cut their computing teeth on some of the very systems that are discussed in these documents. I think science/engineer/technological history is fantastic. I'm sure many others here do too.

          I never used Apple in the early days but I'm sure there is some good insights into that era of where they really were and where they

          • I am with you. I basically took over the family Apple II+ and wrote BASIC programs day in and day out. I especially liked to take sheet music and convert it to "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along style along with the proper pitch and length beeps from the computer speaker.

            Despite that, I would never pay 5 figures for anything because I don't have that kind of disposable income. Hence the gold Apple Watch... that is the only person would have that kind of disposable income and also be an Apple fanatic like

  • Welcome to the end of the Computer Age.

  • I'll pay top dollar for these documents (Score:4, Funny)

    by puddingebola ( 2036796 ) on Friday February 24, 2017 @01:35PM (#53924149) Journal
    Is Apple going 16-bit? Is there anything in the notes that says they are? I'll pay top dollar.

  • Impossible dream... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    that Woz can’t copy then it is as protected as possible.

    There pretty much wasn't anything Woz couldn't do in "the day." What this phrase really
    means that Woz _can_ copy it; but if he signs off on it then it's protected as possible.

    Coolest story every heard about Woz is that a design of his was rejected (not at Apple).
    It was a "clone" of their product (I think it was an early game or something like that) and it
    used fewer chips / gates and provided identical functionality. But the engineers couldn't
    un

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