History: Macintosh Review- Apple Changed Everything

I first worked in an HQ, or as we cutting edge companies later called it, a Support Center, in 1983.  When I walked through the place, the open cubicle design softened the edges of each departments' "turf".  Until you got into Finance.  The green glow illuminating faces staring intently into the crystal balls of IBM workstations let us mortals know we were in the realm of the illuminati.  We went there for readings of our work lives.  Were we working on the right things?  Was our work having any impact?  Was there money to continue?  What would bonus look like?  This was how computing was done, the altar room of the IBM 36 was off limits, but there was a glass partition so when we had the opportunity we could go and look at it in its lair, deep in the subterranean level.  Really.



Then in 1984 it changed.  For the first time, as far as I know.  Remember the Super Bowl?  Jim Plunkett faced Joe Theisman.  Raiders (of LA) vs. Redskins.  Marcus Allen was the MVP.  But most remember it for a commercial event- the Apple ad.  A Ridley Scott mini movie that has become legend.  If you haven't seen it in awhile, check it out- turn up the volume, set it to play full screen, stream it to your 60 inch LCD TV.  This is magic!



Well, shortly after that ad, we began to see Macintosh computers on desks in the Training Department, part of Personnel.  Now in our company, the Personnel department was not what it is in most.  We called them the "Black Robes".  Like their Jesuit antecedents, they were the most educated, secretive and effective band within the company.  Ridicule them at your own peril.  Antagonize them and disappear.  So it was natural that they would lead the revolution.

If Personnel was the Black Robes, my little band was Black Ops.  We two or three people made everything done in the HQ work or not in the several thousand field locations.  We had to have this new weapon, a computer!

Finally sometime around 1987 we decided we could use one.  At that time we just went out and bought a "computer".  No one took such things seriously, and it was a good year.  It was also before such purchases were squelched, for it was before the new Illuminati, I.T. emerged to take power like the Borg.

The Macintosh was already a legend.  We knew about its internal beauty, and the internal struggle at Apple that spawned it.  Its new CEO, John Scully, had been touted to be our next boss at our parent company, Pepsico, so some of us watched his new career with interest.

Next- the Unboxing...