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Treasure Trove of Internal Apple Memos Discovered in Thrift Store (gizmodo.com)
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.
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.
Is Apple going 16-bit? Is there anything in the notes that says they are? I'll pay top dollar.