UnixWorld asked on it's April 1993 cover: "Does Steve Jobs have a future in software?" https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrbill/29870210 One of my prized possessions is my NeXT Cube[1], finally acquired in 2014. I'd wanted one ever since I saw the "Actual Size" marketing brochure that came out in '89 or '90. I owned a series of slabs (mono, color, turbo color) throughout the years, but never managed to get my hands on a…
One time when I worked at NeXT I accidentally kicked my cube with my tennis shoe - it was under my desk. Sparks flew. I told the fellow sitting in the next office what had happened - and he wanted to see it too. We both laughed as we watched sparks flying. Before long there was a crowd around my desk - maybe six people - incredulous that it was so easy to create fireworks. Well, what we didn't know was that Steve was sitting about 3 feet away - behind an office divider. His head peeked around the divider - and he silently watched the sparks flying. We all stopped laughing and returned to our work.
Next morning everyone in the company had a paper memo on their desks (the only one I ever remember - we all used email.) It said that cubes were to be properly displayed on top of desks only. No mention of the real reason for the new policy.