“The man who created the Mac interface gives his son Aza Raskin a final gift that that testifies to the beauty and power of simplicity.” A very touching story about the final days of one of the greatest minds in the technology world. A must-read.
“The man who created the Mac interface gives his son Aza Raskin a final gift that that testifies to the beauty and power of simplicity.” A very touching story about the final days of one of the greatest minds in the technology world. A must-read.
I’ve given the same to my brothers. Sometimes in life people find the perfect solution to a problem and everyone uses it. Then, without sense, it is replaced with an inferior model that is praised more for its newness than any practical advantage.
I find its often worth wile to stop and think about the history of how man kind has solved a problem in the past to see if there was anything that we could learn from.
Although I was never a fan of the original Mac at the time of its release, I do appreciate the immense about of thought and work that went into its design and implementation. Jef Raskin will always be remembered for his elegance and consistency in the Mac design. Two aspects that we who design new products should always strive for.
Agreed. Too often, the passion is not for design, but for fashion.
That was an amazing story. Thank you for linking it, Thom.
… except for the tiny itsy bitsy detais that his father did not create the mac’s interface. Also, the Mac is/was a product. A commodity appliance at that. It was neither the first personal computer, nor the first computer to implement a graphical user interface. The term “inventor” seems a bit out of place.
I don’t think spinning stuff out of proportion for effect was necessary IMHO.
Edited 2011-02-04 03:01 UTC
It’s indeed a touching story about a terminally ill man.
I don’t get the message about a razor, though:
Just can’t help the feeling that if you stripped all the hype from the story (a dying man, co-designer of a Mac, an iRazor style description of the product) you’d end up with a a mere “old-style razor”. If you don’t believe, just imagine the story involves your own father.
I don’t really understand you comment. Are you saying the safety razor isn’t a brilliant invention? That’s crazy. King Gillete was a genius.
I think the razor for him was a reminder from a loved one to turn life’s obstacles to your advantage.
His use of the term incorporeal way of thought does seem a bit strange though, surely all thoughts are incorporeal? It’s poetic but I can’t get it out of my head now.
Anyway like you said, it is indeed a touching message and was a nice read on a miserable day.
Edited 2011-02-05 17:44 UTC
What a great story. It hit home hard because I lost my father when I was too young. That Aza guy writes a great piece on his dad and shares it with us, were lucky.
I have one, stolen from my father since he always uses electrical razors nowadays anyway.
Feel more comfortable using it than more recent models. On the other hand, some guys who design blade packages clearly want to hurt their customers.
It’s too bad that the story is written in an overly dramatic tone and with constant interruptions, which makes it quite hard to follow.
It’s very Macy like that
I thought Apple ripped off Xerox to come up with their interface…
And the final Macintosh is very far from what Jef Raskin wanted it to be, so I’m not sure we can call him the “Mac Inventor”. But well…
Edited 2011-02-04 17:32 UTC
IIRC, the Canon Cat was what Raskin was going for, FWIW.
A son loosing his father is of course always a sad story, but I fail to see why people find this story so amazing and special. I’m sure that gift meant a lot to the son, as a last memory of his father. But beyond that?
I must have missed something, will read it again.
The guy worked for Apple, that’s what you missed I guess…
Sarcasm I assume?
I wouldn’t bother.
It’s a well written tribute but has zero relevance to computing nor is any more meaningful than the next story about an unfortunate life cut short or family torn apart.
I stare at the package. In it is my father. The man who invented the Mac.
So not gwyneth paltrow then?
Melodrama is damaging, but pair it with a design magazine and we’re breaking windows. YUPPY
LOL.
On the positive side, he did not claim his dad invented the question mark.
I wish I could write like that about my dead relatives.
Famous or mostly not, they all have a special place in my heart, and all deserve an eulogy in the likes of this.
Honestly, under normal circumstances I’d would have ignored that article. But I have to say some things in this regards. My roommate, a close friend of mine died being only 23 years old a few weeks ago. He was a CS student like me but he was a big fan of Raskin’s concepts he thought about his ideas and he was pretty sure that the concepts of big files with good bookmarking where a great concept. Weather I don’t agree or not, I really want to encourage everyone who’s trying to implement Rasins ideas to give him a last shoutout, I’ll put up a website with his university-thesis if you want, but if you are starting a project implementing Raskins not-yet-implemented ideas give him some credit. He was called Christan and he was great mate.
Kind regards
Patrick