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Joining Apple Computer (2018)

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11–20 of 131 posts

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#11
I was wondering recently about where the original sin of “light mode” came from. Guess it was him!

> The Apple II displayed white text on a black background. I argued that to do graphics properly we had to switch to a white background like paper. It works fine to invert text when printing, but it would not work for a photo to be printed in negative. The Lisa hardware team complained the screen would flicker too much, and they would need faster refresh with more expensive RAM to prevent smearing when scrolling. Steve listened to all the pros and cons then sided with a white background for the sake of graphics.

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#12
post #11

I was wondering recently about where the original sin of “light mode” came from. Guess it was him! > The Apple II displayed white text on a black background. I argued that to do graphics properly we had to switch to a white background like paper. It works fine to invert text when printing, but it would not work for a photo to be printed in negative. The Lisa hardware team complained the screen would flicker too much,…

The real sin is having both.

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#13
post #8

> It was exciting working at Apple, knowing that whatever we invented would be used by millions of people. I admit it is exciting to make something you truly believe is good and helpful. And that it's disappointing when that thing isn't used by anyone. It's even worse when it turns out it's just not that useful. But in the end, everything is replaced anyway. So I guess it's fine.

> whatever we invented would be used by millions of people Two billion active Apple devices in 2025.

I was reflecting on his thoughts and my life's work.

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#14
I'm always blown away by the vision behind stuff like HyperCard. It was all about giving non-techies the keys to the kingdom.

But looking at today's tech landscape, with its walled gardens and app stores, I can't help but feel we've gone backwards.

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#15

> Inspired by a mind-expanding LSD journey in 1985, I designed the HyperCard authoring system that enabled non-programmers to make their own interactive media. Watching some YouTube about the Beatles and, of course, their LSD trips. More recently the history of Robert Crumb — on his big acid trip he more or less created a large part of his stable of comic characters. Somewhere along the way, someone said that LSD alt…

Pretty ancient practice probably. See the history of drug use in cultures and spirituality/art. Soma, etc.

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#16

I'm always blown away by the vision behind stuff like HyperCard. It was all about giving non-techies the keys to the kingdom. But looking at today's tech landscape, with its walled gardens and app stores, I can't help but feel we've gone backwards.

Apparently we need to be doing more LSD

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#17
post #6

> Inspired by a mind-expanding LSD journey in 1985, I designed the HyperCard authoring system that enabled non-programmers to make their own interactive media. Watching some YouTube about the Beatles and, of course, their LSD trips. More recently the history of Robert Crumb — on his big acid trip he more or less created a large part of his stable of comic characters. Somewhere along the way, someone said that LSD alt…

All traditional practices of use of psychedelic substances emphasize the importance of preparation, having the right state of mind, right stimuli / environment, and sitters in un-altered state of mind nearby. LSD is not known to permanently alter brain; for that you need psilocybin.

You had me up until your last clause…

If you understand that LSD doesn’t permanently alter the brain, why do you think PY “permanently” alters the brain? It does alter the brain (like LSD; see the plethora of research on PY altering neurogenesis and functional connectivity [0]), I’m unsure of what you mean by “permanent”.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07624-5

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#19

I'm always blown away by the vision behind stuff like HyperCard. It was all about giving non-techies the keys to the kingdom. But looking at today's tech landscape, with its walled gardens and app stores, I can't help but feel we've gone backwards.

It's really hard to extract computing from the capitalistic, consumerist cradle within which it was born.

Every other human creative practice and media (poetry, theater, writing, music, painting, etc) have existed in a wide variety of cultures, societies, and economic contexts.

But computing has never existed outside of the immensely expensive and complex factories & supply chains required to produce computing components; and corporations producing software and selling it to other corporations, or to the large consumer class with disposable income that industrialization created.

In that sense the momentum of computing has always been in favor of the corporations manufacturing the computers dictating what can be done with them. We've been lucky to have had a few blips like the free software movement here and there (and the outsized effect they've had on the industry speaks to how much value there is to be found there), but the hard reality that's hard to fight is that if you control the chip factories, you control what can be done with the chips - Apple being the strongest example of this.

We're in dire need of movements pushing back against that. To name one, I'm a big fan of the uxn approach, which is to write software for a lightweight virtual machine that can run on the cheap, abundant, less/non locked down chips of yesteryear that will probably still be available and understandable a century from now.

Re: Joining Apple Computer (2018)

#20
post #17
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All traditional practices of use of psychedelic substances emphasize the importance of preparation, having the right state of mind, right stimuli / environment, and sitters in un-altered state of mind nearby. LSD is not known to permanently alter brain; for that you need psilocybin.

You had me up until your last clause… If you understand that LSD doesn’t permanently alter the brain, why do you think PY “permanently” alters the brain? It does alter the brain (like LSD; see the plethora of research on PY altering neurogenesis and functional connectivity [0]), I’m unsure of what you mean by “permanent”. [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07624-5

It permanently changed my buddy's brain when we were in college doing it. He thought he was talkng to God and blew his brains out. Not worth it for me now.
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