apple news/media reports
12/27/2004, 10:15am, EST
Monday, December 27th
The story behind Graphic Calculator
Ron Avitzur has published the story behind Graphic Calculator, the popular Mac OS X application bundled on classic Mac computers. Avitzur apparently developed most of the application for free after his contract expired at Apple in the early/mid 90s. The bundled application was created by two non-paid ex-Apple contracts sneaking onto campus and receiving support from dozens of other Apple employees--both officially and non-officially: "I view the events as an experiment in subverting power structures. I had none of the traditional power over others that is inherent to the structure of corporations and bureaucracies. I had neither budget nor headcount. I answered to no one, and no one had to do anything I asked. Dozens of people collaborated spontaneously, motivated by loyalty, friendship, or the love of craftsmanship. We were hackers, creating something for the sheer joy of making it work."
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And what's wrong with 'Graphing Calculator'?
maybe this is old news for you but a lot of people, including myself, didn't know this story. If you know the news item, just skip it damn it!!!! MacNN is doing a good job of fetching the news from around the world so we don't have to.
Will ABC stop broadcasting a news because CNN talked about it earlier?? Grow up, people... Last week it was about the "zealots", which is an insult from PC users, in my book. Now Mac fans say that about another Mac fan!! Great, simply great!
Back on topic, this kind of story reminds me why the Macintosh world is so special: every piece of hardware or software has its own interesting story. Be it a code-name for a computer case, the impact of the geographical location of the clarisworks development team or simply the design stages of their products.
Not everyone reads slashdot or the MacNN forums daily (like myself), and it's a good story regardless.
GRAPHING calculator,
GRAPHING not Graphic.