Do You Remember?

So, I blogged about life in Mac BU, and Scoble picked
up on it. It’s always interesting when this happens, because some of the
comments from Scoble’s readers can be a bit amusing. For example, Robert noted
Microsoft’s early investment in the Macintosh platform, and one of his readers
questioned when that investment ever happened. I don’t know. Maybe he thinks
that creating software doesn’t cost anything.

Anyway, it got me thinking about that original software investment and how
it all started, and I thought, “Hm… I wonder if anyone remembers the Software
Dating Game.” For those who don’t know or don’t remember, the first Apple
sales meeting for the Macintosh featured a spoof on the old Dating Game with
Steve Jobs asking questions on behalf of the new lady, Macintosh, of three
potential suitors in the form of executives of different software companies.
The problem is, I could only remember Bill Gates and Mitch Kapor as two of the
suitors, but I couldn’t remember the third (or even the company he
represented). So, I did a little googling, and ran into this—gads,
do they look young! Ah, yes. Fred Gibbons. Software Publishing Corp.
Harvard Graphics. How could I forget?

By the way, the ToastDesign site has quite a few items to facilitate a nice
little trip down memory lane. I like this one. Check out the
two pictures on the top of the right-most column. Remember the “Portable” Mac?
I think about that, and then think about the 15” PowerBook G4 that’s sitting
on my lap as I type this, and I can’t help but marvel at the operation of
Moore’s Law.

Of course, some of the memories are not so pleasant: remote debugging using
a PC connected to the Mac via SCSI interface (shudder). But, it’s still good
to remember how far you’ve come even if there were a few folks who didn’t quite
figure out how to come along for the ride.

Rick