Paul Cantrell
@hacksilon posted this marvelous story of a calculator app:
https://chadnauseam.com/coding/random/calculator-app
…which reminded me of one of my all-time favorite stories, also about a calculator app:
https://www.pacifict.com/Story/
I love how each story epitomizes the old-school ethos of each company:
1/
Paul Cantrell
In the Apple story, somebody seizes a hardware advance to make something that matters. Their relentless focus on human-centered design and usability, fighting all authority and corporate structure, makes something so stunningly popular and useful that the corporate overlords are •forced• to acknowledge it. They then cannibalize and gradually half-ruin it.
(Aside: a much-updated original version of Graphing Calculator is still available as commercial software, and it’s quite good: https://www.pacifict.com)
2/
Paul Cantrell
In the Google story, somebody notices an obscure problem that is only marginally important but is technically deep, gratuitously multiplies that difficulty by two orders of magnitude, and solves the barely-a-problem with a thoroughness of theoretical and technical depth that could certainly be publishable research. This makes very few actual people’s lives better, but keeps a brilliant person entertained so they don’t wander off to one of Google’s competitors.
/end
Paul Cantrell
Reflecting on both stories gives me a lot of wistful feelings: for all the cultural failings of both companies as they used to be, it’s a grim comparison to how they are now, turning their customers into Matrix-style data batteries and falling over each other to lick Nazi boots.
I never knew how much I’d miss the consumer-driven capitalism I was born into, but our current flavor of investor-driven capitalism sure makes it look good by comparison.
/end
Paul Cantrell
@VE3RWJ
I mean, it’s not •always• Apple: Word ← WordPerfect, Excel ← Visicalc, C# ← Java….
To be fair, C# stands out as being the imitation that is arguably better than what it copied.
Chris Smart, ve3rwj
@inthehands And Microsoft is: copy Apple but make it clunky, slower, and unwieldy
Brad Howes
@inthehands @hacksilon I remember reading the second post ages ago. Favorite part: “His contract in another division at Apple had just ended, so he told his manager that he would start reporting to me. She didn't ask who I was and let him keep his office and badge. In turn, I told people that I was reporting to him. Since that left no managers in the loop, we had no meetings and could be extremely productive.”
Paul Cantrell
Oo, jealous! I’ve long known the story was real, but never met the people behind it.
I remember when I first saw Graphing Calculator on the Power Mac, it knocked me out. “•This • is how user interfaces should world!!” It’s still an app I admire greatly to this day.
Avi Rappoport (avirr)
@inthehands @hacksilon @__BRH__ The Graphing Calculator story is real, I heard it from the source and his smart friends.
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