January 24, 2004
Changing the World, One Person at a Time.
20 years ago today Steve Jobs walked onto the stage and introduced us to the Macintosh. It changed my life.
WOW, 20 years ago I got my first Mac, doesn't seem that long. The great 128K machine, which I remember got upgraded to a 512 in September of that year. Thought 512 K was the best at that time.
I remember that meeting.
It was exciting.
Steve Jobs walked out on stage and removed a cover from the Macintosh.
He then stepped aside and the huge screen on stage displayed the same image that was in the Mac's little screen.
Next we saw the word hello appear on the Mac screen AND heard the Mac say, "Hello, I am Macintosh."
At that point I think the entire audience erupted. It was like a religious experience. Looking back on it, I think I heard someone scream, Yeeeaah!"
Ha ha.
Ok, so maybe I don't remember that meeting exactly as it happend, but lucky for us Fred D'Ignazio was there too, and wrote about it over here:
http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue47/macintosh.php
Lot's more details over there!
My husband and I used our 128 k Mac to write a book (Longing for the Harmonies). Because of memory limitations, no MacWrite file could hole more than 10 pages of text. Even so, the Mac was bliss compares to our earlier efforts to collaborate over a mainframe. (We also considered it "portable"--after all, it weighed less than 30 lbs!)