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Treasure Trove of Internal Apple Memos Discovered in Thrift Store (gizmodo.com)

Posted by msmash on from the blast-from-the-past dept.

An anonymous reader shares a Gizmodo report: Peeking inside a book bin at a Seattle Goodwill, Redditor vadermeer caught an interesting, unexpected glimpse into the early days of Apple: a cache of internal memos, progress reports, and legal pad scribbles from 1979 and 1980, just three years into the tech monolith's company history. The documents at one point belonged to Jack MacDonald -- then the manager of systems software for the Apple II and III (in these documents referred to by its code name SARA). The papers pertain to implementation of Software Security from Apple's Friends and Enemies (SSAFE), an early anti-piracy measure. Not much about MacDonald exists online, and the presence of his files in a thrift store suggests he may have passed away, though many of the people included in these documents have gone on to long and lucrative careers. The project manager on SSAFE for example, Randy Wigginton, was Apple's sixth employee and has since worked for eBay, Paypal, and (somewhat tumultuously) Google. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also features heavily in the implementation of these security measures.

28 comments

  1. Re:Build a shrine for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Lol. They already have one. Everyone's home wifi network :-/

  2. Re:Build a shrine for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    folklore.org

  3. Scrubbing Bubbles by The-Ixian · · Score: 3, Funny

    A "Treasure Trove" this is not... mildly amusing perhaps... I mean... these notes don't even seem to show off the genius of our glorious demigod Steve Jobs, let alone even mention him! They seem to only reference this guy named "Woz"... as though he was some kind of important person at Apple...

    I think we need more documentation on Scrubbing Bubbles though...

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    1. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      A "Treasure Trove" this is not...

      See if you still feel that way when there is another story in 6 months or so where these pulled 5 figures at auction.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    2. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      Bought by the same person who has a gold Apple Watch...

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    3. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *Whoosh*

      To ruin the joke, root is lampooning the "Cult of Jobs" mindset typically seen in Apple fanatics who started their devotion to the brand after the release of the original iMac (It can be rarely found in older customers, and has increased in rate significantly after launch of iPod, iPad, and iPhone. The iWatch release does not seem to have had any similar effect.).

      Slashdot has a small bit entertaining enemy faction, "Wozniak's Witnesses" who have a very different interpretation of Apple corporate history than the Cult of Jobs.

    4. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by number6x · · Score: 1

      I thought Apple went out of business after they killed the IIgs! Didn't that guy from Pepsi kill them with the Performa series?

      They still make stuff, huh?

    5. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Scoff if you want but there are many here, maybe including yourself, who have a fondness for 1980s-era computing. I know it's the hip thing to bash Apple but there are a lot of folks here who cut their computing teeth on some of the very systems that are discussed in these documents. I think science/engineer/technological history is fantastic. I'm sure many others here do too.

      I never used Apple in the early days but I'm sure there is some good insights into that era of where they really were and where they were looking to go.

    6. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

      I am with you. I basically took over the family Apple II+ and wrote BASIC programs day in and day out. I especially liked to take sheet music and convert it to "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along style along with the proper pitch and length beeps from the computer speaker.

      Despite that, I would never pay 5 figures for anything because I don't have that kind of disposable income. Hence the gold Apple Watch... that is the only person would have that kind of disposable income and also be an Apple fanatic likely enough to pay 5 figures for some pieces of paper...

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    7. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The day they changed from "Apple Computer" to "Apple Inc." a part of my childhood died.

      I used to bleed in six colors and say "Moof!" at parties. I visited the Apple campus when they used to have giant icons on the lawn. Apple was fun back then, something special has been lost.

    8. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by jbolden · · Score: 0

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    9. Re:Scrubbing Bubbles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That ain't history, that's drama!

  4. D-D-D-Don't Copy that Floppy! by Lije+Baley · · Score: 1

    Welcome to the end of the Computer Age.

    --
    Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
  5. Re:Build a shrine for them by DickBreath · · Score: 0

    They already built a shrine. But it looks more like a space ship than a shrine.

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  6. I'll pay top dollar for these documents by puddingebola · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is Apple going 16-bit? Is there anything in the notes that says they are? I'll pay top dollar.

  7. Ironic how DRM was pushed this early... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ironic how DRM was pushed out so early in Apple's history. It is a lucky break that the tech at the time couldn't do much about it, other than perhaps use the timing of the floppy drive that wrote the sectors as a unique value.

    In a way I miss those days. Load the game into RAM, hit the switch on a copy card (which popped a NMI call, saved all the RAM as a binary to a floppy, then you could just run that binary image to get to that exact RAM state), and bypass much DRM.

  8. Kirkists deplore filthy Picardites by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And in ~700 years...
    You say Sunni, I say Shia,
    let's call the whole thing off

  9. Re:Build a shrine for them by ausekilis · · Score: 1

    Are you talking about Scientology, mormonism, or some other mother ship?

  10. You forgot the link by The-Ixian · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  11. 20 years ago today, Cmdr Ti taught the gang to pla by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    Wow, it's coming up on 20 years since comet Hale Bopp swung by
    Kids these days don't know not to get sucked in by crazy people on the internet.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  12. its Gizmodo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    its Gizmodo, so I'll bet they were also racist nazies.

  13. Impossible dream... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    that Woz can’t copy then it is as protected as possible.

    There pretty much wasn't anything Woz couldn't do in "the day." What this phrase really
    means that Woz _can_ copy it; but if he signs off on it then it's protected as possible.

    Coolest story every heard about Woz is that a design of his was rejected (not at Apple).
    It was a "clone" of their product (I think it was an early game or something like that) and it
    used fewer chips / gates and provided identical functionality. But the engineers couldn't
    understand how he did it, so they rejected his design. So funny.

    CAP === 'oppose'

    1. Re: Impossible dream... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then they must be fucking stupid. Reducing gates is first year stuff in Electronics at college. It's math.

      Then again, if engineers for a well known design couldn't figure out some optimizations, either they were stupid or he was a really shitty communicator.

      I've never seen an engineer take more than a minute to understand changes to their design by someone else. Maybe I've just worked with competent engineers.

    2. Re: Impossible dream... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wasn't reducing logic gates, but clever chip economy.

      See: 1984 Steve Wozniak: Developing Floppy Disks

  14. A sincere thank you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As someone who first got into computing on my school's abused Apple II+, thank you very much for sharing this. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave all of this snark behind and go grab the scanned documents.

    You're awesome, thanks again! :)

  15. Re: 20 years ago today, Cmdr Ti taught the gang to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stupidest comment on Slashdot, ever.