8 ms·

Steve Jobs' business card from 1979

80 points by ujeezy 16y ago

mahmud 16y ago
That man was a founder of a successful tech company before I was born. Somehow, being reminded of that makes me hesitant to perform any future acts of technical punditry, specially when arguing against his judgment.
- derwiki 16y ago
  He's got quite a headstart on you. You have a headstart on everyone born after you. And take some of his own advice, "stay hungry, stay foolish."
joezydeco 16y ago
"But looks like the penny pinchers who later kicked him out of Apple probably made Steve use these black and white business card instead?" Um, I'd get a little more Apple history under your belt before writing the commentary next time. "I wonder who will answer that phone number?" Since it's still the same number 30 years later, I'd guess Apple would. It's Apple's switchboard.
- mayank 16y ago
  > "I wonder who will answer that phone number?" Thanks for that. After reading that line on TFA, as well as the rationalization for the lack of color on the card (seriously??), I had an image of a misty-eyed fanboy staring longingly at the business card while getting strangely aroused.
geuis 16y ago
The number still goes to Apple. Put me through to an Apple operator. Seems like an internal number maybe?
cobralibre 16y ago
"back in the days when typography is rare (the Mac,which popularized desktop publishing, has not been released yet)" There was plenty of great typography back then. The difference was that you had to pay a professional to do it for you.
- drats 16y ago
  Yeah this is just fires up my dual tone WWII era fan-boy siren.[1] This intimates Jobs somehow innovated massively in typography, when we see tons of logos experimenting with typography throughout the 20th century (and much further into the past). The same intimations are made about the mouse, about window managers and about smart phones and tablet computers. When in reality Apple should be praised for execution, attention to detail, UI and public relations rather than invention or innovation. Ditto for the OS, basically the underlying system is taken from BSD and the UI is improved and marketed. Ditto for Webkit. [1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i1QAtET0ok http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i1QAtET0ok
  - MrRage 16y ago
    According to Jobs, he's the only reason computers have typography whatsoever: > Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. > None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. Quoted from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1422863/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1422863/posts
jw84 16y ago
408-996-1010 is the corporate switchboard for the past 30 years. Buildings around Bandley Drive used to be warehouses. My old boss at Apple told me back in the day if you wanted a job you just showed up at the door ready to work. A few weeks later if you lasted you're hired.
- MrRage 16y ago
  > My old boss at Apple told me back in the day if you wanted a job you just showed up at the door ready to work. A few weeks later if you lasted you're hired. Sorta sound like how people joined Project Mayhem in Fight Club.
  - jw84 16y ago
    Do you want to change the world or sip sugar water for the rest of your life?
    - jedberg 16y ago
      sell sugar water.
      - jw84 16y ago
        Not everyone was president of Pepsi.
stevenp 16y ago
I wonder if I'll go from being called "Steven" to "Steve" when I'm a billionaire. I would think that having that much money would make you want to use your formal name more.
- pavel_lishin 16y ago
  I would imagine that if you're a billionaire, you don't really much care what version of your name people call you.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
raheemm 16y ago
Why this site name? Obama has a Mac, and his Mac has a Pacman on it. Originally OP is going to be a site on both Apple / Obama news, but there are just so many interesting Apple stories so we scrapped the non-Apple part. PS. Thinking of changing site name. So if you have any ideas, please contact us. http://obamapacman.com/2010/07/pacman-birthday-cupcake-obamapacman-com-turns-1/ http://obamapacman.com/2010/07/pacman-birthday-cupcake-obama...
- nhebb 16y ago
  Obama has a Mac, and his Mac has a Pacman on it. Why is the Pacman sticker on the un-bitten side of the Apple logo?
petercooper 16y ago
I love that he's a "vice president of new product development." A good way to make a company look bigger.
- thewordpainter 16y ago
  i think titles are one of the most overrated inventions of the 20th century. they are way too limiting and unnecessary. any startup might as well put "Pro Athlete" on the title of each team member's card as they'll need to be pretty versatile with limited resources. some people work their entire professional careers just to get a "bigger" title...might as well increase the font size!

80 points by ujeezy 16y ago

That man was a founder of a successful tech company before I was born. Somehow, being reminded of that makes me hesitant to perform any future acts of technical punditry, specially when arguing against his judgment.

derwiki 16y ago
He's got quite a headstart on you. You have a headstart on everyone born after you. And take some of his own advice, "stay hungry, stay foolish."

joezydeco 16y ago

"But looks like the penny pinchers who later kicked him out of Apple probably made Steve use these black and white business card instead?" Um, I'd get a little more Apple history under your belt before writing the commentary next time. "I wonder who will answer that phone number?" Since it's still the same number 30 years later, I'd guess Apple would. It's Apple's switchboard.

mayank 16y ago
> "I wonder who will answer that phone number?" Thanks for that. After reading that line on TFA, as well as the rationalization for the lack of color on the card (seriously??), I had an image of a misty-eyed fanboy staring longingly at the business card while getting strangely aroused.

geuis 16y ago

The number still goes to Apple. Put me through to an Apple operator. Seems like an internal number maybe?

cobralibre 16y ago

"back in the days when typography is rare (the Mac,which popularized desktop publishing, has not been released yet)" There was plenty of great typography back then. The difference was that you had to pay a professional to do it for you.

drats 16y ago
Yeah this is just fires up my dual tone WWII era fan-boy siren.[1] This intimates Jobs somehow innovated massively in typography, when we see tons of logos experimenting with typography throughout the 20th century (and much further into the past). The same intimations are made about the mouse, about window managers and about smart phones and tablet computers. When in reality Apple should be praised for execution, attention to detail, UI and public relations rather than invention or innovation. Ditto for the OS, basically the underlying system is taken from BSD and the UI is improved and marketed. Ditto for Webkit. [1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i1QAtET0ok http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i1QAtET0ok
- MrRage 16y ago
  According to Jobs, he's the only reason computers have typography whatsoever: > Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. > None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. Quoted from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1422863/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1422863/posts

jw84 16y ago

408-996-1010 is the corporate switchboard for the past 30 years. Buildings around Bandley Drive used to be warehouses. My old boss at Apple told me back in the day if you wanted a job you just showed up at the door ready to work. A few weeks later if you lasted you're hired.

MrRage 16y ago
> My old boss at Apple told me back in the day if you wanted a job you just showed up at the door ready to work. A few weeks later if you lasted you're hired. Sorta sound like how people joined Project Mayhem in Fight Club.
- jw84 16y ago
  Do you want to change the world or sip sugar water for the rest of your life?
  - jedberg 16y ago
    sell sugar water.
    - jw84 16y ago
      Not everyone was president of Pepsi.

stevenp 16y ago

I wonder if I'll go from being called "Steven" to "Steve" when I'm a billionaire. I would think that having that much money would make you want to use your formal name more.

pavel_lishin 16y ago
I would imagine that if you're a billionaire, you don't really much care what version of your name people call you.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

raheemm 16y ago

Why this site name? Obama has a Mac, and his Mac has a Pacman on it. Originally OP is going to be a site on both Apple / Obama news, but there are just so many interesting Apple stories so we scrapped the non-Apple part. PS. Thinking of changing site name. So if you have any ideas, please contact us. http://obamapacman.com/2010/07/pacman-birthday-cupcake-obamapacman-com-turns-1/ http://obamapacman.com/2010/07/pacman-birthday-cupcake-obama...

nhebb 16y ago
Obama has a Mac, and his Mac has a Pacman on it. Why is the Pacman sticker on the un-bitten side of the Apple logo?

petercooper 16y ago

I love that he's a "vice president of new product development." A good way to make a company look bigger.

thewordpainter 16y ago
i think titles are one of the most overrated inventions of the 20th century. they are way too limiting and unnecessary. any startup might as well put "Pro Athlete" on the title of each team member's card as they'll need to be pretty versatile with limited resources. some people work their entire professional careers just to get a "bigger" title...might as well increase the font size!