Macintosh Folklore Radio

From the days before flash ROM and easy firmware updates, the tale of Landon Dyer’s accidental inspiration for what to do when your ROMs are truly read-only. Non-techies may wish to skip the middle bit and go straight to Landon’s Newton post-mortem at 12m10s. Original text from dadhacker.com. Intro audio clip from Michael Tchao at the Apple User Group Breakfast, Boston MacWorld 1993. Patch talk from the Q&A section at 1h23m25s. Outro audio clip of Steve Capps (ex-Newton) and Donna Dubinsky, former CEO of Palm and ex-Claris VP, from the Computer History Museum’s Computing In Your Pocket panel discussion.

Landon Dyer describes how he made the Newton storage architecture crash-resistant at the last minute before the Newton shipped. Original text from dadhacker.com.

Steve Chamberlin tells the story of the birth, death, and afterlife of the slickest shareware Tetris for the Macintosh. Hear Steve’s interviews about Floppy Emu, Tetris Max and more on the RetroMacCast episodes 317, 351, and 358. More about Steve’s various projects and items for sale at bigmessowires.com: Floppy Emu, Mac ROMinator II, Plus Too FPGA Macintosh, and homebrew CPU. Visit famed Tetris Max music composer Peter Wagner and check out his 2020 remake of Bricklayer/T-Maxx. Original story text from Steve’s web site.

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Why did the original Macintosh team disband immediately after 1984–and where were they five years later? Checking in on Steve Jobs, Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Randy Wigginton, Steve Capps, and Bill Atkinson. From Macworld February 1989. Text available in HTML and ePub. Andy Hertzfeld’s Frox Demo (1990) Bill Atkinson talking about PhotoCard Buy gorgeous nature photography work by Bill Atkinson Atkinson Interview - Triangulation 244, 247 Don Melton Safari stories: text, podcast Andy Hertzfeld demonstrating Eazel’s file manager for Linux The Machine that Changed the World - The Paperback Computer General Magic Documentary Love Notes to Newton

Douglas Adams’ delightfully irreverent take on HyperCard from MacUser December 1987. Text available in HTML and ePub.

As elegant and intuitive as the classic Mac environment may have been, life went downhill fast if you needed more than two serial ports or your SCSI chain went south. The one and only Douglas Adams shares a personal horror story. Source: MacUser, November 1991. Full text available at Douglas’ website.

From Doug Clapp’s The Macintosh Reader, PDF page 171-176, a rare interview with original Macintosh hardware designer/wizard Burrell Smith. An extra special thanks to vintageapple.org for scanning and uploading this and many other old Macintosh books. Text available in HTML and ePub. Burrell’s contrary statement on PC Board Aesthetics at folklore.org.

A bonus episode to keep my tiny listener base company while they’re stuck inside because of you-know-what. Stay safe. From folklore.org: I’ll Be Your Best Friend, We’ll See About That, and Pineapple Pizza. Interview with Collette Askeland, PCB design and layout sorceress, at Drop III Inches.

Steve Jobs threatens to pull the sound hardware out of the original Macintosh design. Original text available at folklore.org. Download SoundLab, Talk Demo, and Hendrix at Macintosh Garden.

R.I.P. Larry Tesler, 1945-2020. With audio from Larry’s presentation on the development and testing of the Lisa user interface, and Bill Atkinson speaking about making modal interfaces useful. You can hear more about Larry’s days at Apple from the Steve Jobs Legacy Panel, 2011. Written by Larry Tesler, Macworld September 1985. Text available in HTML and ePub.

Bonus video! Watch Bill Atkinson demo HyperCard live on stage in 1987. The problem with HyperCard isn’t HyperCard, it’s what people are saying about it. Written by Steven Levy, The Iconoclast, Macworld February 1988. Text available in HTML and ePub.

A humorous look at a typical Macintosh User Group meeting. Written by Ted Jones, BMUG Newsletter Summer/Fall 1988. Text available in HTML and ePub format.

Behind Apple’s first multitasking system software is a controversy that cuts to Apple’s core. Written by Steven Levy, The Iconoclast, Macworld January 1988. Text available in HTML and ePub.

David Pogue’s Macintosh holiday gift guide. Written by David Pogue, The Desktop Critic, Macworld December 1992. Text available in HTML and ePub.

You know you want a Macintosh II. But wouldn’t it be wiser to wait? Written by Steven Levy, The Iconoclast, Macworld November 1987. Text available in HTML and ePub.

The little things that Macintosh pilgrims can be thankful for. Written by David Pogue, The Desktop Critic, Macworld November 1996. Text available in HTML and ePub.

The co-founder of id Software shares his collection of Steve Jobs stories. Published by John Carmack at F—book. Audio from the Macworld San Francisco 2000 keynote, October 1999 iMac DV launch event, and WWDC 2007 keynote.

The grassroots, cloak-and-dagger effort that brought NeXT and Intel together. Written by Chris MacAskill at cake.co. Intro audio from Steve Jobs’ 2010 appearance at All Things D with Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg.

An in-depth look at the beginning of Apple mismanaging itself into oblivion in the early 1990s. Written by Cheryl England, Macworld September 1991. Fun fact: Cheryl England founded MacAddict magazine in 1996. Audio from the Computer Chronicles’ coverage of Macworld Boston 1996. Steve Jobs inventory management quote from the WWDC 1999 keynote. Text available in HTML and ePub.