Synopsis
From the moment the public met Macintosh - introduced by an apocalyptic commercial that had a nation rubbing its eyes in astonishment - it was clear that there had never been anything like it. Its creators had been commanded to devise a personal computer that was not just good, not just great, but "insanely great" - so great that it would change the world. And it did. Macintosh won over a fanatic cult audience with its friendly interface, its attention to aesthetic detail, and what could only be called its quirky personality. It invaded not only people's offices and homes, but their minds as well. The Mac also catapulted the computer industry into an unprecedented mix of technics, economics, and show biz. Eventually, the essence of Macintosh found its way to nearly all computers, and has fundamentally changed the way we deal with information. Like the Model T or the Apollo mission, Macintosh thrust America into a new millennium.
Now, on the Mac's tenth anniversary, Insanely Great tells the exciting story of the machine that became a kind of Manhattan Project in a box. Veteran technology writer and Macworld columnist Steven Levy zooms in on the machine - the product of the collective will of its sometimes maniacal creators and its dedicated users - as well as the fortunes of the unique company responsible for the Mac's evolution. Levy looks beneath the surface of our stormy romance with silicon and software, at how the Mac proved to be a harbinger of our changing relationship with technology. And he tells how he - a self-described proto-Luddite - became a convert, seduced by a machine and its vision.
Full of insider anecdotes, peppered with Levy's sharp commentary - and created entirely on the machine it celebrates - Insanely Great is the definitive book on the most important computer ever made. It is a must-have for Mac users, as well as for anyone curious about how we've arrived at the portal of the interactive era.
Reviews
This sensible and entertaining book outlines "how technology, serendipity, passion, and magic combined to create . . . the most important consumer product in the last half of the twentieth century: the Macintosh computer." Levy ( Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution ) describes the travails that beset Apple, the company run by Steven Jobs that created the Mac--"dippy new-age culture," a "mission from God" mentality and a Silicon Valley image. "What's the difference between Apple and Boy Scouts?" he queries, reviving a long-running joke. Answer: "The Boy Scouts have adult supervision." And Levy's view of Jobs himself seems reasonable: "a con man," and "a slick marketer" whose impulsive management style and overbearing ego "drove people crazy." As the author recounts, in 1985 Apple's directors forced Jobs out; he left Apple while creating a new comuter company, Next. "It made no dent in the universe," Levy reports. John Sculley replaced Jobs, but he too was relieved of his position as CEO in 1993, when Apple's directors judged him "too much a visionary." This solid work adroitly covers the information age.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A breezy, anecdotal, yet discerning history of the people, ideas, and technology that led to the user-friendliness of the Macintosh computer. Levy (Artificial Life, 1992, etc.) is among our best interpreters of computer technology (he speaks fluent geek). Here, however, his overbearing passion for the Macintosh keeps this from being a first-class treatment; though he recounts Apple's wrong turns and the widespread criticisms of Steve Jobs, his report lacks the rigor of Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine or even of his own Hackers (1984). Moreover, there are surprising gaps here: The early days of home-computing are limned only briefly, as are Apple's beginnings. But in tracing the evolution of how humans conceive of, and relate to, information in cyberspace, the author has done his research. From a 1945 essay by Vannevar Bush describing a ``memex''--a sort of desk/cockpit with monitors for ``piloting'' one's way through information--that inspired Douglas Engelbart to invent the desktop metaphor and the now-ubiquitous mouse, Levy takes us to the golden age of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (``Nerds now think of it as Camelot''). There, although Xerox overlooked the invention of the personal computer, Allan Kay wrote SmallTalk-- the simple operating system that would one day be embodied in the Mac--and conceived of the ``DynaBook,'' the inspiration for Apple's PowerBook and considered ever since the Grail of computer designs. As the creation of the Mac looms, Levy focuses on the personal contributions and internal politics of those working at Apple; on software offerings like PageMaker, which revolutionized desktop publishing; and the last step in evolving the Mac as we know it: Bill Atkinson's HyperCard, the program that changed the way computer-users think about information. Everything you never realized you wanted to know about the Mac, by a very smart, infectiously enthusiastic partisan. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
"Insanely great" was the kind of personal computer that Steve Jobs wanted his group at Apple to develop. As he recounts the history and development of the Mac, Levy concludes that they were successful. As opinionated as his treatment of computer hackers ( Hackers , LJ 11/1/84), this book is one of the first to give credit to some of the lesser-known individuals responsible for the basic research in this field --in particular, Levy acknowledges the substantial contributions of Douglas Engelbart, including the conception and demonstration of the first mouse and of windows. Levy's final chapter on technology and productivity alone is worth the price of the book; all his points are well taken. This is sure to be a popular publication.
- Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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