Newly-Released Trove of Recordings from the 1980s Includes Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak (fastcompany.com) 39
"Steve Jobs is now known for revolutionizing just about every part of the tech world, but back in 1988, he was perhaps best known for getting fired," remembers SFGate:
In his first product reveal since his dismissal from Apple in 1985, Jobs unveiled a new project called NeXT at a meeting of the Boston Computer Society. An audio recording of the event was unearthed and released as part of a trove of early tech recordings released by Charles Mann, as reported in an extensive feature by Fast Company...
Computing advances included a UNIX operating system that allows multi-tasking, a one million pixel display, CD quality sound and a then unprecedented 256 MB of storage. The computer would be completely built by robots rather than a human assembly line, which he said resulted in a defect rate 10 times lower than its competitors. The partnership with academia makes even more sense once you consider the price-tag of $6,500.
Fast Company's tech editor Harry McCracken was at the 1988 event, and quotes Jobs as saying "The Macintosh architecture is going to peak next year sometime. And that means that there's enough cracks in the wall already, and enough limitations to the architecture, that the Mac's pretty much going to be everything it's ever going to be sometime next year."
Some clips are available on Soundcloud, but the full trove of tech recordings includes 200 full hours of audio and 16 more of video (available on a USB drive for $59.95) showing luminaries from the early days of personal technology. "In 1985, for instance, a month after Commodore announced its groundbreaking Amiga computer in New York City, president Tom Rattigan came to Boston to show it to BCS members and argue that it left the Mac in the dust." Other recordings include Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, Osborne computer designer Adam Osborne, and investor Esther Dyson, McCracken writes:
Jobs is on three recordings — one from his first Apple tenure, and two from NeXT. Bill Gates is on five. There are folks who were already legends (mobile-computing visionary Alan Kay, marketer extraordinaire Regis McKenna) and up-and-comers (budding PC tycoon Michael Dell, age 23). Everyone from Sony cofounder Akio Morita to psychedelics advocate and part-time technologist Timothy Leary is represented; just the Apple-related material, including CEO John Sculley talking about the company in the 21st century and Hypercard creator Bill Atkinson demoing his brainchild, is a feast...
The audio of Jobs's NeXT demo at the BCS — and dozens of other recordings — exist solely because Mann realized more than 35 years ago that the talks going on at computer user-group meetings and conferences were history in the making... In May 1982, the BCS hosted Applefest, an Apple II-centric fair that featured already-iconic Apple cofounders Jobs and Wozniak as keynote speakers. In this excerpt, fielding a question from the audience, they talk about software copy protection. Woz does so from a technical bent; Jobs, who speaks of a future involving low prices and convenient electronic distribution, sounds like he was thinking about the App Store decades before it appeared. This is rare, rare stuff; if you know of even one other example of surviving audio or video of Jobs and Wozniak talking about Apple together, I'd love to hear about it.
Computing advances included a UNIX operating system that allows multi-tasking, a one million pixel display, CD quality sound and a then unprecedented 256 MB of storage. The computer would be completely built by robots rather than a human assembly line, which he said resulted in a defect rate 10 times lower than its competitors. The partnership with academia makes even more sense once you consider the price-tag of $6,500.
Fast Company's tech editor Harry McCracken was at the 1988 event, and quotes Jobs as saying "The Macintosh architecture is going to peak next year sometime. And that means that there's enough cracks in the wall already, and enough limitations to the architecture, that the Mac's pretty much going to be everything it's ever going to be sometime next year."
Some clips are available on Soundcloud, but the full trove of tech recordings includes 200 full hours of audio and 16 more of video (available on a USB drive for $59.95) showing luminaries from the early days of personal technology. "In 1985, for instance, a month after Commodore announced its groundbreaking Amiga computer in New York City, president Tom Rattigan came to Boston to show it to BCS members and argue that it left the Mac in the dust." Other recordings include Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, Osborne computer designer Adam Osborne, and investor Esther Dyson, McCracken writes:
Jobs is on three recordings — one from his first Apple tenure, and two from NeXT. Bill Gates is on five. There are folks who were already legends (mobile-computing visionary Alan Kay, marketer extraordinaire Regis McKenna) and up-and-comers (budding PC tycoon Michael Dell, age 23). Everyone from Sony cofounder Akio Morita to psychedelics advocate and part-time technologist Timothy Leary is represented; just the Apple-related material, including CEO John Sculley talking about the company in the 21st century and Hypercard creator Bill Atkinson demoing his brainchild, is a feast...
The audio of Jobs's NeXT demo at the BCS — and dozens of other recordings — exist solely because Mann realized more than 35 years ago that the talks going on at computer user-group meetings and conferences were history in the making... In May 1982, the BCS hosted Applefest, an Apple II-centric fair that featured already-iconic Apple cofounders Jobs and Wozniak as keynote speakers. In this excerpt, fielding a question from the audience, they talk about software copy protection. Woz does so from a technical bent; Jobs, who speaks of a future involving low prices and convenient electronic distribution, sounds like he was thinking about the App Store decades before it appeared. This is rare, rare stuff; if you know of even one other example of surviving audio or video of Jobs and Wozniak talking about Apple together, I'd love to hear about it.
Woz (Score:2)
Woz comes on slashdot, maybe he would like to comment? Maybe something insightful? I don't think he's said anything in over 10 years though.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think he's said anything in over 10 years though.
I knew he's not exactly in his prime, but I didn't realize he'd been aphasic for years.
Uhhh (Score:4, Insightful)
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That's un-American: Capitalism is about taking free stuff and charging what the market will bear. Maybe Dell and Jobs (estate) can sue for copyright infringement.
It's history ...
"Who[ever] controls the past, controls the present."
1984, George Orwell.
Re: Uhhh (Score:1)
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> Put that shit on youtube. It's history and should be shared for perpetuity, not turned into a cash cow.
If you feel that strongly about it, buy one and put it on YouTube.
If you don't have $60 then other things ought to have your attention.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Preferably without the Steve Jobs shit, he was a smelly greedy narcissistic cunt who got lucky.
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Technology is supposed to work good rather than look good. There's a reason my entire computer setup has precisely one visible light on it and that's the LED on the front.
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No drive activity light? Tsk...
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My iMac has no light on it at all. Not even invisible.
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Right. Getting rid the floppy drive and actually using USB ports set technology back.
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At the time, "using USB ports" meant buying an external USB floppy drive and plugging it into your iMac.
Oh, it also meant throwing away all your ADB peripherals and buying new USB ones.
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I wouldn't say it was luck. NeXT was great from a technical standpoint and Apple was months from bankruptcy when he was brought back in 1997.
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The history of management. Both failures in a different way. The reason NeXT didn't take the market by storm and the reason Scully is no longer Apple CEO.
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You misspelt Bill Gates.
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Depends on your definition of revolutionize. It's clear that the tech world wouldn't be what it is today without him. He didn't have to be technical to influence it.
Re:Misleading quote (Score:5, Insightful)
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Okay, so Woz was Jobs' catalyst. That takes nothing out of his role in shaping the industry. After all, nobody of any significance gets to do what they do without someone helping or enabling them in one way or another.
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Without Woz, Steve would have found himself another Woz. There were tons of bright engineers in that Wild West era, and they all swapped back-and-forth between employers.
Its a fallacy (Score:1)
Used and dirty (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
ASCII Porn just doesn't cut it. And in green screen or amber too.
You want to know me better (Score:1)
Fooled (Score:2)
What Steve Jobs is known for? (Score:1)
Steve Jobs is also known for getting paid $700 plus a bonus fee of $5,000 to work on "break-out" for Atari. Passed the work onto Steve Wozniak and only paid him $350. Jobs was good at promoting himself and benefiting off of the technicals of others.
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At least Steve paid Woz, instead of stealing his work like Bill Gates did many times.
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And Bill Gates and SteveB were overheard by Paul Allen [inc.com] discussing how to dilute Allens stock before he expired from lymphoma.
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Dispicabe people, both of them. The scum of the Earth.