resurrectionsong

January 24, 2005

The Mac: 1984 (Jerry)

This is one that will have ZombyBoy excited. Slashdot is reporting that the famous Apple Macintosh "1984" commercial has been found on a 21-year old Betamax and transfered to digital format. It is now available over the Internet for the first time. of course, the poor host has reached his bandwidth limit...

Posted by stumpjumper at January 24, 2005 01:54 PM

Comments

Oh, son of a...

Posted by: zombyboy at January 24, 2005 02:05 PM

Z: I'm not even going to try to track down a copy, especially since I'm sure that this will become an obsession for you. I trust, of course, that you'll send it to me once you find it!

Posted by: Jerry at January 24, 2005 02:09 PM

I'm already half of the way there...

(Freakin' comment spam...)

Posted by: zombyboy at January 24, 2005 02:15 PM

True story --

When I brought my new Mac home in 1984 I was as giddy as...as...well, think of something you get giddy about. I carefully unpacked the beautiful machine and lovingly placed each piece on the floor. All expcept the mouse. Maybe if they'd called it the muppet (Macintosh pointer/tracking device), or anything else that didn't refer to a frigging rodent I would have taken the damn thing out the box. But, I wasn't about to use the first cousin to a rat with the third most expensive thing I owned.

So, anyways, I turned on the computer, fell in love with g-string (the Mac startup sound) and watched in awe as the desktop appeared. I quickly figured out that the arrow in the middle of the screen was the cursor and the means to making my new computer perform magic. Now, if I could just figure out how to make the damned thing move.

I tried every key command possible to move that cursed arrow, but nothing I did would make it budge. Nothing. I even read every freaking page in the freaking manual. Still, nothing. I tried every possible apple-key, option, shift combination with every other key on the keyboard and still got nuttin'.

Finally, with heavy heart, I realized that the freaking mouse thingy in the box was needed -- just long enough to find the setting that would let me navigate with the arrow keys. (Yes, I was still in denial.)

So, that's my story. The presentation clip is awesome and it brings back a lot of good memories and even an endorphin rush. I got shivers watching it. Funny thing about that presentation, Bill Gates couldn't do anything like it until 1995. Yeah, he's a billionaire. Just goes to prove, if you want to be rich, sell crap to morons. But, if you want eternal respect and gratitude make a Macintosh.

BTW, anyone remember Talking Moose? That is still my favorite program of all time.

Posted by: Remy Logan at January 24, 2005 07:36 PM

Great story.

Posted by: zombyboy at January 24, 2005 08:43 PM

Here's another MAC blogger for you...a gift if you will. http://daringfireball.net/

Posted by: Don O at January 25, 2005 09:41 PM