Not long ago I ran across a nice, brief synopsis of the making of the first consumer computer with a graphical user interface, entitled “A History of Apple’s Lisa, 1979-1986”. It’s posted over at Low End Mac’s Orchard, a site that has put together many historicals regarding computing and technology in general. Soon after, I picked up and read Dealers of Lightning : Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age, an excellent book which gives an account of the glory days at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, from which sprung the technologies that inspired the Apple Lisa and upon which it was largely based. Andy Hertzfeld’s Folklore.org has an excellent, similar account entitled “On Xerox, Apple and Progress”. Well worth reading, all.
All of these texts have had me thinking about those early days quite a bit, lately. It must have been incredible to have worked amidst such new and revolutionary technology, actualy pushing the bleeding edge of computing at every step.
Very soon it will be clear why I wanted to go ahead and get this post out the door….
NOTE: This post has been modified to reflect that the story’s original source, Braeburn, a website run by Tom Hormby, has apparently become a part of Low End Mac known as Orchard.
UPDATE: Have a look at Guidebook’s Spotlight on Apple Lisa for lots of additional information. After all, it pays to know your roots….
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I was just wondering if you could email me?.. I’m having alot of trouble installing SCode on my site.. I read that you were too, but it seems that you finally got it right, so I thought I’d ask how you did it. I’d really apprciate it.
Thank you so much!
1984 Apple Stuff…what’s it worth?
What are the following 1984 Apple items worth?
1984 Apple Stuff…what’s it worth?
1. Original Macintosh box
2. Black 1984 polo shirt with Picasso-style logo
3. Black 1984 Picasso-style mouse pad still in the package