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The story behind Graphic Calculator

updated 10:15 am EST, Mon December 27, 2004

Graphic Calculator story

Ron Avitzur has published , 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."

 
Previous Comments

Old news

12/27, 10:41am reply

But an interesting read.
And what's wrong with 'Graphing Calculator'?

The Milkman

Forum Regular

Joined: Sep 2001

0

Great story...

12/27, 10:53am reply

...nice to know design can triumph despite 'lawyers & suits'...

bobolicious

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2002

0

It's not old news

12/27, 01:45pm reply

this is ancient news. Most people already knew the story.

thunderman

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2004

0

Yawn...

12/27, 02:31pm reply

Last week on slashdot... This is news?

LordJohnWhorfin

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2002

0

*&?$%$??

12/27, 03:26pm reply

bunch of stupid whiners!! I'm really ashamed of my fellow mac users these days.. A few years ago it was us agains the bunch, now it's us agains us.. brillant!

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.

FireWire

Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Oct 1999

0

Fascinating!!

12/27, 03:47pm reply

I read the whole article. Thanks MacNN for pointing us to it!!

telem

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 1999

0

good to post

12/27, 04:33pm reply

I agree... "if you haven't seen it, it's new to you."

Not everyone reads slashdot or the MacNN forums daily (like myself), and it's a good story regardless.

Avenir

Mac Elite

Joined: Jan 2000

0

Bling

12/27, 08:12pm reply

I liked the stories on folklore.org better because they gave me a laugh =

ApeInTheShell

Senior User

Joined: Nov 2002

0

Repeat after me:

12/27, 10:16pm reply

GraPHING caculator,
GRAPHING calculator,
GRAPHING not Graphic.

macimmortal

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

lame

12/28, 03:40am reply

That a mac site would misspell 'graphing calculator' as 'graphic' is a new low.

benh57

Senior User

Joined: Aug 2001

0

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