folklore.org

Topics
Software Design (44)
Personality (33)
Management (30)
Technical (20)
Lisa (17)
Hardware Design (15)
Apple Spirit (13)
Marketing (12)
Origins (10)
Prototypes (10)
Personality Clashes (8)
The Launch (8)
Buildings (6)
Inspiration (6)
QuickDraw (6)
3rd party developers (5)
Celebrities (5)
Lisa Rivalry (5)
Reality Distortion (5)
Recruiting (5)
User Interface (5)
Apple II (4)
Documentation (4)
Hardware (4)
Industrial Design (4)
MacPaint (4)
Quitting (4)
Bugs (3)
Credit (3)
Early Programs (3)
Microsoft (3)
The Press (3)
Allnighters (2)
Compensation (2)
Recreation (2)
Retreats (2)
Social Life (2)
Testing (2)

Authors
Andy Hertzfeld (92)
Bruce Horn (6)
Caroline Rose (3)
Tom Zito (3)
David Ramsey (2)

Characters
Steve Jobs (81)
Andy Hertzfeld (46)
Burrell Smith (42)
Bill Atkinson (40)
Bud Tribble (23)
Steve Capps (18)
Bruce Horn (17)
Jef Raskin (17)
Steve Wozniak (15)
Bob Belleville (14)
Susan Kare (12)
Larry Kenyon (11)
Rod Holt (11)
Brian Howard (10)
Jerome Coonen (10)
Jerry Manock (9)
Dan Kottke (7)
Joanna Hoffman (7)
John Sculley (7)
Mike Murray (7)
Bill Gates (6)
Donn Denman (6)
Larry Tesler (6)
Mike Markkula (6)
Alan Kay (5)
Chris Espinosa (5)
George Crow (5)
Rich Page (5)
(4)
Caroline Rose (4)
Charles Simonyi (4)
Mike Boich (4)
Randy Wigginton (4)
Bill Budge (3)
Dan Cochran (3)
Dan Smith (3)
Frank Ludolph (3)
Jean-Louis Gassee (3)
John Couch (3)
John Warnock (3)
Mike Scott (3)
Neil Konzen (3)
Terry Oyama (3)
Tom Malloy (3)
Wayne Rosing (3)
Wendell Sander (3)
Bob Anders (2)
Bob Bishop (2)
Brad Hacker (2)
Bruce Daniels (2)
David Ramsey (2)
Debi Coleman (2)
Dick Huston (2)
Folon (2)
Lynn Takahashi (2)
Mac Team (2)
Pat Sharp (2)
Patti King (2)
Regis McKenna (2)
Rich Williams (2)
Steve Hayden (2)
Ted Kaehler (2)
Tom Petrie (2)
Tom Whitney (2)
Victor Bull (2)
The Original Macintosh
Anecdotes about the development of Apple's original Macintosh computer, and the people who created it. (119 stories)
“If everything is under control, you're going too slow.” -- Mario Andretti

Visit the Image Gallery (14 images) or view recent comments.

  
Page  1  2   3   4   5   6   7   8    

I'll Be Your Best Friend
Burrell Smith was creative in more than just engineering
Date: August 1979
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Origins, Personality, Hardware Design,Apple II
Comments: 13
Rating:  (4.37)

We'll See About That
Burrell proves his mettle with the 80k language card.
Date: November 1979
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Hardware Design, Technical,Apple II
Comments: 6
Rating:  (4.16)

Scrooge McDuck
The very first image on the very first Macintosh
Date: February 1980
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Origins, Hardware Design, Prototypes
Comments: 11
Rating:  (4.57)

It's The Moustache That Matters
Burrell wants to get promoted to engineer
Date: September 1980
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Management, Personality
Comments: 6
Rating:  (4.66)

Burrell was hired into Apple in February 1979 as Apple employee #282, in the lowly position of service technician, one of the lowest paying jobs at the company. Even though he'd been doing genius quality work as a hardware designer on the Macintosh project for a while now (more than nine months), and he was even filling in for Steve Wozniak on the low cost Apple II project, he still wasn't officially promoted to engineer as he requested, which was getting pretty frustrating.

Burrell started thinking about what it would take to get promoted. It obviously wasn't a matter of talent or technical skill, since he was already far more accomplished in that regard than most of the other hardware engineers. It wasn't a matter of working harder, since Burrell already worked harder and was more productive than most of the others. Finally, he noticed something that most of the other engineers had in common that he was lacking: they all had fairly prominent moustaches. And the engineering managers tended to have even bigger moustaches. Tom Whitney, the engineering VP, had the largest moustache of all.

So Burrell immediately started growing his own moustache. It took around a month or so for it to come in fully, but finally he pronounced it complete. And sure enough, that very afternoon, he was called into Tom Whitney's office and told that he was promoted to "member of technical staff" as a full-fledged engineer.

Good Earth
The original Mac team's original office
Date: October 1980
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Apple Spirit, Origins, Management, Buildings
Comments: 7
Rating:  (3.75)

I Invented Burrell
Burrell imitates Jef
Date: 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Personality
Comments: 7
Rating:  (4.63)

Texaco Towers
The office where the Mac became real
Date: January 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Origins, Lisa,Buildings
Comments: 6
Rating:  (3.50)

Black Wednesday
A shakeup in Apple II engineering frees me up to work on the Macintosh
Date: February 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Origins, Apple II, Management,Recruiting
Comments: 5
Rating:  (4.87)

Reality Distortion Field
Bud defines Steve's unique talent
Date: February 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Management, Personality,Reality Distortion
Comments: 14
Rating:  (4.53)

Nybbles
My first job on the Macintosh project
Date: February 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Hardware Design, Prototypes, Software Design, Early Programs, Technical
Comments: 4
Rating:  (3.80)

He's Only in Field Service
The SCC gets designed into the Mac
Date: March 1981
Author: steve blank
Topics: Hardware,Hardware Design
Comments: 5
Rating:  (4.26)

More Like A Porsche
The design of the Macintosh case
Date: March 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Industrial Design,Hardware,Prototypes
Comments: 9
Rating:  (4.35)

Bicycle
Rod wants to change the name of the project
Date: April 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Management, Apple Spirit
Comments: 11
Rating:  (3.58)

A Message For Adam
We encounter Adam Osborne at the West Coast Computer Faire
Date: April 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Personality,Personality Clashes
Comments: 4
Rating:  (4.67)

Early Demos
Various demos showed off what the hardware could do
Date: April 1981
Author: Andy Hertzfeld
Topics: Hardware Design, Prototypes, Software Design. Early Programs
Comments: 7
Rating:  (4.15)

Page  1  2   3   4   5   6   7   8    


Login
Account Name:

Password:

Create a new account

Search

Recently Added
First day with the Macintosh team
He's Only in Field Service
Revolution in the Valley

Overall Favorites
Switcher
Black Wednesday
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Can We Keep The Skies Safe?
Busy Being Born

External Links
Stanford Library's Early Mac Site
Apple Computer History Weblog
Online Exhibit of Rare Mac Artifacts
Slashdotted!
In Search of the Valley

Creative Commons License The text of this site is licensed under a Creative Commons License.