This week, Leo Laporte and his Podcast panel at TWIT participated in an intriguing interview with many of the original inventors and enthusiasts who worked in their neighborhood garage to bring about the Apple Computer (pictured above from The Smithsonian). (Click here to see the print ad).
It’s an interesting story too as Bill Fernandez, Andy Hertzfeld, Daniel Kottke, Randy Wigginton, and Steve Wozniak gathered with Leo, citing their Apple Id badge numbers (1,3,5,7) and remembering the incredible time they had together as Jobs and Woz worked with their home-brew computer club to bring computing to the masses.
Early in the interview, Leo (who always gushes about Apple -rightfully so) suggested that Apple’s 30th Anniversary is more than just the birthday of the product, but in many ways, it represents a defining moment in computer technology and the birth of the ‘personal computer.’
As they agree, this was bound to happen at some time. Up until that moment there in the late seventies, computers were bound to academic, institutional and big business, but when these high school geeks got together and began to make their first computer, it’s inspiring to hear the energy and momentum of one of the world’s great brands and an influence upon the history of computing.
My first Mac was an Apple IIsi. I remember buying it from Shawn Odell at Caber Systems in Johnson City and it took a small business loan to purchase it back in 1986 for almost $4500. The box had a 13″ monitor, 5mb of Ram and an 80mb hard drive and I used to create newspaper ads and produce newsletters to many customers and it was the beginning of a long and loyal relationship.
In the printing industry, these machines are everywhere and although lots of people like to criticize the simplicity and the intuitive interface about Mac, they continue to shape the industry. Besides, what a great logo and even if they do have to pay the Beatle’s Apple Studios for the use of the name, there was never anything more appropriate.
So, happy birthday Apple and thanks for bringing us the personal computer! It’s changed our lives significantly and after buying my first Ipod and seeing some of the revolutions in software and laptops, I can’t wait to see what’s next.