WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Macintosh Story Part 1 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.400 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:13.920 and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:15.600 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.520 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.360 tech are you? This time for a tech Stuff classic episode. 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:25.960 We have another multi parder coming up on here. It's 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.000 actually a three partner, So for the next three fridays, 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.680 including this one, we'll be talking about the Macintosh. And 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.920 because this came from a different era, I used the 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:43.080 imaginative titling sequence of the McIntosh story Part one, so 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:44.920 I bet you can guess what the next two are called. 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:50.240 This originally published back on June second, twenty seventeen. 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:51.440 Hope you enjoy. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.800 The Macintosh came out in nineteen eighty four, and we'll 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.480 talk about its debut toward the end of this podcast, 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.480 because we're really looking at the early stages, what was 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:05.120 happening back when they were first talking about starting the 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.640 Macintosh project over at Apple, and kind of explaining the 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.320 thought process that went into the formation of that computer. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.200 Maybe in later episodes, I'll continue to trace the evolution 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.840 of the Macintosh, but it's a pretty interesting story. Just 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.760 the beginning alone is an interesting story. And you have 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.800 to put yourself in the mindset of the early nineteen eighties, 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.080 really the late seventies and early eighties, and what was 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.959 going on at that time, and the really the birth 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.040 of the personal computer industry as a whole, because it 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.600 was brand new back in the late seventies early eighties. Now, 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.600 I know a lot of my listeners are younger than 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:43.959 I am. 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:44.880 That's awesome. 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.840 I'm glad you guys enjoy the show. I will be 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.760 talking a lot about the seventies and eighties. I know 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.160 it sounds like ancient history to some of you, but 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:54.360 that's when I grew up. 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.880 So just be nice. I'm old and my feelings are 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:01.560 easily hurt. All right, All that's out of the way. 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:06.680 Let us dive into the world of the Macintosh. You 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.640 know what I do for a living, or, as my 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.160 favorite character from cinema, Quint from Jaws would say. 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.040 You'll know me. You know what I do for a living. 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.320 I don't just talk about technology. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.040 I have to backtrack fifteen years before the thing began, 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:25.960 just to tell you all the stuff that happened before 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.880 the beginning thing. So we're gonna talk about some history 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.880 of Apple first leading up into the launch of the 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:39.959 Macintosh project. So let's begin with the date of April first, 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:45.840 nineteen seventy six, April Fool's Day, nineteen seventy six. That 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:51.320 was when two Steves, one known as Steve Jobs and 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:55.840 the other known as Steve Wozniak, decided in a garage 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.280 to form a very special relationship with one another to 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.120 become partner in a brand new company that would be 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:07.280 called Apple Computers. That garage was in Coopertino, California, and 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.200 that's where Apple Computers was born on April first, nineteen 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.799 seventy six. Now, the actual story, of course, starts a 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:17.040 little earlier than that. Wosniak and Jobs originally met in 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:21.399 nineteen seventy one through a mutual friend named Burl Bill Fernandez, 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:23.640 and the two of them found that they shared a 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.720 couple of really big interests in common. They both loved technology, 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:34.920 and they both loved mischief. They really loved pulling pranks. 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.360 Steve Wozniak had come from a phone freaking background, and 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.440 if you want to know what phone freaking is, freaking. 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:43.120 Is spelled with a pH. 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.760 I did a full episode about phone freaking in the past, 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.480 so you can search the tech stuff archives. In short, 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.520 it involves manipulating the phone system. It's kind of like hacking, 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.000 but for telephones. And it was all about being able 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.400 to make long distance calls for free by fooling the 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:04.400 phone system that you were some sort of administrative tone. 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.280 You know, you could actually produce a sound a tone 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.240 using a device. One of the early ones was a 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:15.720 whistle from Captain Crunch Serial and make long distance calls 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.200 for free. Well, Steve Wozniak was a guy who was 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:20.000 interested in this. He was interested in the way that 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:21.960 the phone system worked, and he also kind of liked 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.960 the idea of pulling a fast one on people. In fact, 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.960 there's a great story about jobs in Wozniak making a 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:32.800 call to the Vatican this way and they at least 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.760 reportedly nearly got the Pope on the phone, but he 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.600 didn't pick up because it turned out his fridge was running, 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:41.240 so he went out to catch it. 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.480 Anyway, the two. 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.960 Joined the Homebrew Computer Club in the mid seventies. This 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:52.800 was a big club in California, primarily where people who 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:57.000 were enthusiasts of computers would get together start building kits 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:01.840 from scratch, trying to make their own co computers. Wozniak 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:06.479 took inspiration from an early kit called the Altair. So, yeah, 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.159 this was a computer that you would get all the 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:10.440 parts for, but you would have to put it together yourself. 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:12.680 It wasn't something you bought straight out of the box. 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.000 Although there were companies that would do that for you, 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:17.080 where they'd put it together and you would just buy 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:18.160 the completed Altair. 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:20.760 That's not what Wosniak was interested. 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:25.440 Inosneiak decided he wanted to make his own computer. So 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:30.040 he thought, well, what if I made a typewriter interface, 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.680 which was innovative, no one had done that with a 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:35.400 personal computer yet. And what if instead of just a 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.720 bunch of lights that would indicate the results, I created 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.680 a display, or I allowed this computer to connect to 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.400 a display and show things on a monitor. And so 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:48.839 he used a television set, just an old TV set 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.560 that he could wire to his computer, and thus the 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:57.480 Apple one was born. It was a brand new idea. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:02.080 The Apple one computer was a far cry from the 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.040 personal computers that would follow. It was really a hobbyist computer. 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.800 Steve Jobs was able to go to a retailer and 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:12.159 convince the retailer, why don't you put in an order 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.280 for these Apple one computers because they're going to be 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.680 a hot ticket item. People are really interested in computers, 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:19.480 and now they can finally get their hands on one. 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.840 Steve Jobs is a great salesman, or was a great salesman, 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:24.800 and he was able to convince the retailer to put 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.000 in an order, which was the only way they could 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.000 actually afford to build the Apple computers. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.160 So they couldn't they couldn't. 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.679 Deliver upon the order until they had managed to secure 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:35.800 the order, and then once they did, they started building 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.400 these things. But even then they had to cut some corners. 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:40.919 So the original Apple one didn't have a case. It 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.880 was all just naked hardware and you had to build 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.200 your own case for it, or just have all these 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.360 different pieces wired together, but without any sort of protective 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.680 covering around it. Still, it was enough to get people's 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:57.120 interests and it was enough to finance Apple computers in 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:02.080 those early days. They they decided, immediately after they made 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:04.679 about two hundred of these, there were only two hundred 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.800 of the Apple one computers ever in existence, that they 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:09.640 were going to go on to the next step, which 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:14.080 was to build a more fully functional, self contained personal computer, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.560 and they decided to incorporate the company on in January 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:22.200 nineteen seventy seven. Now, in April nineteen seventy seven they 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.000 were able to debut the Apple to computer. This one 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:30.400 had originally tape based storage, So you know cassette tapes. 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.280 Maybe some of you know what cassette tapes are, well, 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:35.520 we also use those to. 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.800 Store computer data back in the day, but that's what 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.160 the original Apple two computer used as its storage system 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:47.080 was cassette tapes. Those are not ideal because obviously the 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.880 tape is stored on reels, so if you're trying to 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.440 find a specific piece of information, you have to scan 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.200 through the reel until you get to it, and this 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.480 just takes up time. Eventually they would switch over to 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.320 five and a quarter inch drives, and if you don't 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:02.960 know what a five and a quarter inch disk is, 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.640 you really missed out. The big black, flimsy discs. And 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.120 if you told people they were floppy discs and they 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.400 weren't familiar with the concept, there was a good chance 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:13.840 they would fold it in half and put it in 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.200 their pocket and thus ruin the disc For all time. 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.880 It was still a form of magnetic storage, it was 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.880 just in a disc form rather than a tape form. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.240 Once they were able to do that, they were able 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.520 to speed things up considerably. The most advanced version of 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.160 the Apple two when it was first coming out, had 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:37.560 a stunning amount of memory, sixty four whole kilobytes of memory. 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:40.040 That seems like nothing now, and I guess you could 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.520 argue it is nothing now. By the time, it was 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:48.280 really innovative. The monitor resolution was also kind of funny. 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.240 When you look at today's monitors, you know, you look 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:52.960 at the ultra high definition displays that we have today, 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:56.360 four K displays, you look at the retina displays. 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:58.800 They're amazing. That's not how things started. 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:02.839 The original Apple to monitor had a resolution of two 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:06.160 hundred and eighty pixels by one hundred ninety two pixels. 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.199 Yeah, the original monitor. 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.720 Had so few pixels you could, if you were determined, 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.400 count them all. That's pretty amazing. 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:16.880 Now. 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.600 If it weren't for the fact that someone actually made 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:24.040 some useful productivity software, the Apple two probably never would 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:28.160 have gone anywhere. It was a good idea, but you 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:30.720 had to have a killer app to convince people, hey, 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.200 this is something worth buying. And the first real killer 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.800 app for the Apple two was one called visycalc. Visycalc 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.840 was essentially a spreadsheet program. It was an application that 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.840 was like something you would see in Excel or Lotus one, 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:45.960 two three. 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:47.480 It was new. 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.240 It was a brand new idea. I mean, people just 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:51.400 didn't have access to that. They had to do all 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:55.200 their factoring on paper and then they would transfer that 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.959 over into whatever format they needed. This would allow them 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.080 to do that virtual You could create your cells, you 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.680 could create your formulas, and so this was a huge 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.880 demonstration of how powerful and useful personal computers could be. 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:14.160 It seems pretty silly now to think about it, but 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.920 at the time this was truly new. So it was 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.960 the thing that helped really convince people that the Apple 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.120 to computer was the way to go. It was an 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.640 advantage over some of the other personal computers that were 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:28.440 starting to debut around that time, things like the Commodore 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.960 sixty four or the Texas Instruments computered. We have to 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:33.760 take a quick break, but we will be back to 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:37.960 talk more about the early days of the Macintosh after 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:49.640 this message. Now I could talk a lot about the 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:54.040 Apple two a lot. My dad owned an Apple two. 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.600 Technically it was an Apple to e. He purchased it. 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:02.560 He wrote a book on typewriters, sold the book, used 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.680 the money from that book to buy the Apple to 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.600 E and then use that to write other books. So 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.360 my dad's an author if you did not know, he 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.800 writes all sorts of books, science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.520 children's literature. If you want to check out his stuff, 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.360 his name is Brad Strickland. But yeah, those early books 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:23.560 he wrote he wrote on an Apple two E, which 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.520 meant he stored them all on floppy disks. He could 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:30.640 store about a chapter per floppy discs, so each book 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:35.360 would be fifteen, sixteen, maybe even twenty floppy discs in size. 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.920 We had entire sleeves of these floppy disks that represented 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:40.760 the books that my dad had written. 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:42.240 In fact, I. 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.000 Had dinner with him very recently and he tells me 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.640 he still has all of those. We don't have a 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:49.680 computer that can read them because we don't have an 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.760 Apple too E disk drive and emulator to read off 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.800 of these things, but he still has the discs now. 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:58.720 I use the Apple to E mostly to play games 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.600 because I have my priorities stretch. I played a lot 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:05.880 of Ultima on the Apple two E. Love my Ultima series. 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:07.079 I thought it was awesome. 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:08.120 Now, while the. 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.520 Apple two and its variance began to earn some serious 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:15.000 cash for Apple, they were very successful comparatively speaking, the 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:19.720 founders were already looking at what comes next. It wasn't 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:22.520 just about let's rest on our laurels. Now that we've 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.920 made a personal computer, We've made it a success. We've 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:31.199 managed to make a mark on this brand new, fledgling industry. 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.840 So the logical successor for the Apple two would be 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:38.360 the Apple three, And in fact, that's what the company 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:41.280 began to develop. People began to work on the successor, 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.240 and they began to work on the Apple three computer 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.720 it would eventually debut. It was faster, more capable than 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.959 the Apple two, and it was meant to be primarily 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.800 a business machine, not a personal computer, and it had 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.959 built in five and a quarter inch disk drives as 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.720 opposed to the external disk drives you would have to 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:05.080 connect to your Apple to computer back in those days. 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.560 And it had an integrated high resolution graphics chip. But 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.840 it didn't sell very well. If you are thinking I've 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:13.720 never really heard of the Apple three, I've heard of 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:15.720 the Apple too. The reason for that is it just 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.360 was a failure at the market. It wasn't a total flop, 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.120 but they didn't sell nearly as well as Apple was hoping. 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.000 The reason for that, well, there are quite a few 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:30.600 By nineteen eighty one, IBM had entered the personal computer picture, 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.880 so you had a saturated market. Not only did you 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.320 have the Apple machines, Commodore, you had Texas Instrument, you 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.880 had other devices that were starting. 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:40.280 To come out too. 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:44.000 IBM got into the game, and IBM had a huge 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:49.640 name in business technology, so IBM was able to leverage 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:54.360 that and move forward creating these business machines and dominating 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:58.839 that market. This was the beginning of the IBM and 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:03.600 IBM compatible era of personal computing. So Apple three just 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.120 couldn't really keep up. It was a more expensive machine 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.280 and it was not as well supported as the Apple 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.280 two was. In other words, there weren't as many people 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.800 developing software for the Apple three as they had been 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.120 for the Apple two. And meanwhile, IBM was catching up 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.520 on a lot of ground. So even though you had 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.520 the Apple three team and Apple, some of the other 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.760 folks there were already thinking about the step beyond, where 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.200 do we go beyond just creating the next version of this. 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:35.400 Particular personal computer. 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.480 What can we do to really innovate and push what 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:43.600 personal computing is all about. So one of those people 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:45.800 who was really concerned with this was Steve Jobs. He 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:49.480 really wanted to look at a way of branching out 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.520 from this traditional approach. So while there was a team 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.960 working on the Apple three, Steve Jobs began to look 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:01.320 at another project that got started a around nineteen seventy nine. 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:06.240 Now this was not the Macintosh. Instead, it was called Lisa. 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.600 Lisa was a different project that was taking form at 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:16.720 the same time as the Macintosh project within Apple. Lisa 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:21.240 was a different a different kind of computer model. Jobs 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:23.600 really wanted to take a dramatic step away from the 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:24.160 early PC. 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:26.680 Those early PCs were all text based. 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.080 That meant that you would get a command prompt and 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.120 you would have to type in a command and a 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.880 file extension or a file and its extension in order 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:39.080 to have something happen. You had to navigate directories through 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.680 actual text commands and you would get a text result, 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:45.640 so you'd have to read through everything. There was no 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.400 graphic representation of what you were working on. It was 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.480 all text based and it was such a wonderful time. 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:57.520 My friends, I loved this time because I actually learned 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.240 all the different commands, and I could very speedily get 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.360 it through any system because I understood how they worked, 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:08.560 and it didn't require any overlay on top of the 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.600 basic system, which would slow things down. But then, I'm 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.800 a computer geek. Even though I'm an English literature geek, 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.160 I'm also a computer geek. And a lot of people 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.960 are not computer geeks. And in fact, there were a 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.920 lot of technology enthusiasts who were worried that if we 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:29.400 stayed in that realm of text based architecture, it would 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:35.960 keep people from adopting computers. The mainstream would never latch 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:40.800 onto it because it was too hard to use. So 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.680 Jobs thought perhaps they could create a better system for consumers, 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:50.520 and he wanted to move toward a graphic user interface 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.080 or a gooey Now. He was not the first person 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.920 to think about the guy that really one of the 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.400 earliest would be Douglas Ingelbart. Douglas ingle Bar had been 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.360 working on early versions of a graphic user interface since 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.879 the nineteen sixties, and we're almost at nineteen eighty at 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:10.880 this point of the story. We're beyond nineteen eighty as 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.320 of right now, just in case I confused you at 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:18.080 that moment. Ingelbart also designed a mouse as a navigational 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:21.840 tool to help with graphic user interfaces. So before that 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:26.520 you would just use a keyboard or a data pad, something. 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:27.080 Along those lines. 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:31.320 Engelbart said, Well, if we can represent information as graphics 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.880 and we can create an interface that allows you to 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.960 drag and click and point and select things, that would 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.600 make it a much more intuitive interface and allow people 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.880 to understand more easily how to navigate through the computer. 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:53.480 Ingelbart would then take on this information and bring it forward. 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:57.440 He had started his work at SRI International, but then 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:02.400 continued his work at a research and development place called 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:07.159 Xerox Park. Park is PAARC so as the research and 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.680 development brand of Xerox. It's a branch of Xerox, I 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.400 should say, and Xerox Park a lot of very innovative 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.400 stuff came out of there, And I think I've done 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.560 a couple of episodes that at least relate to Xerox Park, 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:21.840 but maybe I need to do a full one about 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.240 what the organization was and the things that came out 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.760 of Xerox Park, because it's pretty fascinating. Well, Steve Jobs 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:31.639 said he knew about Xerox Park, and he wanted to 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.199 learn more about the stuff that they were developing, so 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.480 he asked Xerox, hey, can we come and take a look, 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.640 and some folks from Apple come over and check out 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.000 what's happening at Xerox Park. I realized that this is 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.240 all mostly proprietary, hush hush stuff that. 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:47.280 You don't want to get out there. 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:51.280 But come on, we're buddies, right, And Xerox said, essentially, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:55.000 show me the money. So here's what happened. They struck 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.000 a deal. Apple said, tell you what we'll do. We 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:01.160 will sell you up to one hundred one thousand shares 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:05.119 of Apple stock at ten dollars a share, which was 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:07.920 a huge discount at what Apple stock was trading for 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.879 at the time. So I said, if you want, you 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.080 can buy up to one hundred thousand dollars at ten 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.320 bucks a share. In return, all we want is three 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:22.280 days time at Xerox Park. And Xerox said, you're on, mister, 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.480 and this was the deal of the century, and let 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.840 me explain to you why. So let's make a couple 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:34.639 of assumptions here. Let's assume that Xerox opted to buy 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.959 all one hundred thousand dollars one hundred thousand rather of 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.560 those shares at ten bucks a share. And let's also 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.800 assume that Xerox has held on to all one hundred 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:49.040 thousand of those shares since then, since nineteen seventy nine. 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.919 That's impressive. First of all one hundred thousand shares at 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:56.840 ten bucks a share, that's a million bucks. That's not 0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:59.880 a small amount of money. That's a good chunk of change, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.399 but it's peanuts compared to what it's worth now. So 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:07.479 you might have heard. Apple's done pretty well for itself 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:11.639 over the years, so well that the company has split 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:16.000 its stock four times since it's it first started becoming 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.159 a publicly traded company. Now, that means that they would 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:22.280 expand the number of shares that they had out in 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:25.720 the market, and that increases the value of the company 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.080 as a result, And it means that if you own 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:32.520 shares after the split, you own more shares. How much 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.399 more depends upon the nature of the split. So in 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.359 nineteen eighty seven, in two thousand and in two thousand 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:43.720 and five, Apple split with a two for one share 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.080 split stock split, which meant that you would get two 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.560 shares for every instead of just one share. 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:51.280 So if you owned one share. 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:53.400 Of Apple Stock, after one of those splits, you would 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:55.520 own two shares, and then after the next split you 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:57.520 owned four, and after the next split you own eight. 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:01.040 It's a great way to keep seeing value from your shares. 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:02.920 Well. 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:06.639 The fourth time that they split was in twenty fourteen, 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:09.000 and that was a real doozy. That was a seven 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.680 to one split, so for every share you owned, you 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:18.480 would get seven shares, an enormous return. So one hundred thousand, 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:20.560 let's go back to Zerox here, one hundred thousand that 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.280 they get nineteen seventy nine, it doubles to two hundred thousand, 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.160 then it doubles to four hundred thousand, then to eight 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:28.320 hundred thousand. Then you get the seven to one split, 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.920 which means that you get up to five million, six 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:39.000 hundred thousand shares of Apple stock. So for one hundred thousand, 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:41.960 they now have five million, six hundred thousand, assuming that 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:44.600 they bought all one hundred thousand and that they held 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:47.879 on to it for that long. If in fact, Xerox 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:51.240 still has those one hundred thousand shares that they bought 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:53.479 for ten bucks a share back in the day, they 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:57.639 are sitting pretty because today, assuming that the prices and 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.919 change dramatically, I checked it before, why I did anything 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.399 else this morning? I looked at Apple's trading price. Stocks 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:07.760 were trading at one hundred forty six dollars fifty three 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:11.160 cents per share, So the share price is more than 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:14.240 ten times what it was when Xerox bought it. And 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:17.680 because of the splits, they now own five point six 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.840 million stocks, not one hundred thousand stocks. 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:22.520 So you multiply those two. 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:24.639 Numbers together, the five point six million and one hundred 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:28.639 and forty six point fifty three dollars, and you factor 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.680