
Dev stays without pay to finish Mac Graphing Calculator as skunkworks project - maryrosecook
http://www.pacifict.com/Story/
======
SwellJoe
Every time I read, or hear anyone speak about, working for Apple, I always
think, "Who would put up with crap like that from a multi-billion dollar
corporation?"

And yet, many people do. Just goes to show what good design, maniacal focus,
and a charismatic leader can do, I guess.

~~~
pmjordan
This story taking place 1993-1994, Apple would have actually been without its
charismatic leader.

~~~
SwellJoe
Jobs still built the corporate machine and culture. It takes a while for that
kind of thing to wear off or evolve.

------
jrnkntl
"We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly,
Microsoft has effective building security"

For once they do something good, are they still being bashed for it :)

------
mahmud
A great classic.

People who enjoyed it are urged to read more like it at the mac-oriented
Folklore website:

<http://www.folklore.org/>

A treasure!

~~~
maryrosecook
Steven Levy's book about the creation of the original Macintosh is also
wonderful.

[http://www.amazon.com/Insanely-Great-Macintosh-Computer-
Ever...](http://www.amazon.com/Insanely-Great-Macintosh-Computer-
Everything/dp/0140291776/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246522804&sr=1-1)

------
pietro
They gave a talk at Google about it:
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567>

------
bayareaguy
_The secret to programming is not intelligence, though of course that helps.
It is not hard work or experience, though they help, too. The secret to
programming is having smart friends._

I think there's a lot of truth to this. It's the real reason some of the best
software comes from universities.

------
wglb
I had not seen this before. What a beautiful marvelous story.

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dukeofchutney
This is a good story, well worth the time spent reading it. Mac developers
devotion to duty is admirable. :)

~~~
heroin
That was not their _duty_ to do that. they were not on a pay roll, and nobody
assigned that project to them. It seems they wanted to do some kind of
commitment. Nice to see some people works not just for money, but for a higher
good. I wish more people, and not just in software industry, have this kind of
motivation.

~~~
vorador
You'd be amazed to see how much time some people spend on free software
projects.

------
enra
Previously: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1741>,
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=169149>,
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=170373> (video)

It would be nice to add year to the title if the article is old.

~~~
maryrosecook
Sorry. I didn't realise it had been posted before.

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keefe
uhm, call me cynical but maybe he could have spent his time more profitably?
Could he have launched this as a $2 app?

~~~
jonah
In the This American Life episode referenced at the bottom of the story, it is
mentioned that they ultimately received a sizable royalty check for licensing
it to Apple.

~~~
keefe
nice! I scanned, lots of text for an at work distraction (:

------
lpgauth
"We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly,
Microsoft has effective building security."

Best line.

------
jlees
Awesome story. I love the final line.

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christofd
very enjoyable read. thanks.

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diN0bot
i like these oldies but goodies, too, but can a story from 2004 really be
considered (hacker) _news_ ? i don't think the chronologically "what's new"
aggregator is not the right solution for "best things of all time".

it's no good if this story pops up every year. hacker news should prevent
duplicate urls, and perhaps provide more browsing options, eg monthly top
stories.

~~~
pchristensen
1\. Despite the name, it's not just for news.

2\. Some people weren't here a year ago and haven't seen it before.

3\. There are 50-100 items per day on the front page - it won't kill you to
see a few repeats a week.

