I'd like to offer our heart felt sorrow to the family of Jef Raskin. May he rest in peace....
Jef Raskin, who dreamed up the affordable, user-friendly computer that became Apple's Macintosh, died Saturday night at his Pacifica home.
Raskin, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago, was 61. He was employee No. 31 at Apple when he joined in 1978. By the next year, he began to pursue his goal of simplifying the computer user's experience, focusing on a faster and more logical interface. And the computer should sell for less than $1,000. He named the project after one of his favorite fruits as a child in Manhattan: the McIntosh apple. The computer's moniker was spelled differently to avoid trademark issues. He recalled, "I figured if I was going to name an Apple, it might as well be my favorite.
But when he clashed with another Apple visionary, co-founder Steve Jobs, Jobs took over Raskin's team "by fiat," Raskin once said, and he resigned in 1981. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said many of Raskin's groundbreaking user-interface features remained part of the Mac when it was released in 1984 -- at a price of $2,495. "Jef's dream changed the world," Wozniak said Sunday. "Making technology work simpler, he was at the heart of that from the first days at Apple." Wozniak said Raskin also convinced Jobs to spend time at Xerox PARC to see how to develop cutting-edge technology. "Jef Raskin is one of the most important people in personal computers, to this day," he added. Raski n contended over the years that Jobs had taken credit for his work developing the Mac. But most Apple observers credit Jobs for the marketing genius behind the Mac.
After leaving Apple, Raskin coined the term "information appliance" -- the name of his company -- and developed the Canon Cat, with backing from Canon. Though he incorporated features learned from extensive study of cognitive psychology, the Cat never gained popularity. Raskin believed a computer should be as easy to use as any other household appliance, like a toaster or a washing machine. "Have you ever noticed there are no Maytag users groups?" he once asked a Mercury News reporter. "That's because you just put the clothes in, push the button and they get clean." Raskin was also an accomplished musician and artist. His artwork was once displayed at New York's Museum of Modern Art and he conducted the San Francisco Chamber Opera Society. He also was a model airplane designer, an archer and an occasional race car driver.
Source: Yahoo! News
i found this article and i'd like to share it here cause i believe is very important to know
and this man contributted very much to what this mac pc is now
