Steve Jobs' business card from 1979 | Hacker News Reader

Steve Jobs' business card from 1979

obamapacman.com

80 pointsujeezy22 comments

"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.

> "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.

"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.

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

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

Apparently the Xerox Star had basic desktop publishing with a variety of typefaces in 1981, so Jobs's calligraphy course may not have been the history-changing event he makes it out to be. "Beautiful" is, of course, subjective.

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/screenshots/xerox-star-8...

I wonder if you've noticed but the rendered text on websites viewed from a mac is very different from the same on windows. On windows the fonts aren't as smooth as on the mac.

I always dread viewing the windows version of websites I develop after I did them on my mac. They make a good looking website into a crappy looking one because its headings, its text becomes more pixelated.

The good thing is... (There's always a good thing). Now I know how much typography matters in making things look good.

I believe Spolsky covered this topic in depth a while back... and here it is: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html

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.

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."

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-obama...

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?

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

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!

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

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.

> 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.

Do you want to change the world or sip sugar water for the rest of your life?

sell sugar water.

Not everyone was president of Pepsi.

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.

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

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