Three Original Mac Team Members To Appear At MacHack 2001

by , 12:30 PM EST, February 8th, 2001

The wave of nostalgia concerning days if old continues to sweep the Mac community. An opportunity to meet three of the original Mac team, three of people that helped make the Mac what it is today, is being offered by MacHack. MacHack is the 2nd largest gathering of Mac developers after the World Wide developer's Conference, and is held every year in Dearborm, Michigan. The 2001 event will feature Andy Hertzfeld, Guy "Bud" Tribble, and Caroline Rose, three of the original Mac team members from Apple Computer. According to the good folks at MacHack:

Rarely has a significant portion of the original Macintosh team come together to reminisce and to look ahead. MacHack is pleased to announce a keynote as much about making history as it is about history, a keynote panel from the halls of Cupertino:

Andy Hertzfeld

Andy was a graduate student at UC Berkeley in January 1978 when he purchased an Apple II personal computer, and it changed his life. He went to work for Apple Computer in August 1979, creating peripherals and system software for the Apple II. He became a member of the original Macintosh team in February 1981 and designed and implemented a large fraction of the original Macintosh system software, including the User Interface Toolbox.

After leaving Apple in March 1984, Andy worked independently, designing the software for several Macintosh products, including ThunderScan, Switcher and the Radius Full Page Display. In May 1990, Andy cofounder General Magic, where he was the lead developer of the innovative Magic Cap platform for personal intelligent communicators. Andy is passionate about writing ground-breaking software that makes computers easy and fun to use and hopes to continue doing so at Eazel.

Guy "Bud" Tribble

Bud is one of the industry's noted experts in object-oriented programming and user-interface design. Prior to joining Eazel, he was VP and chief technology officer for the Sun-Netscape Alliance, responsible for guiding Internet and e-commerce software R&D. He held several VP-level positions at Sun during the past seven years. Bud began his career at Apple Computer, where in 1981, he was manager of the original Macintosh Software team, helping design the MacOS and user interface. In 1985, he helped found NeXT Computer, where he was VP of Software Engineering and a key architect of the NeXTstep operating system, a ground breaking software environment.

Bud earned a B.A. degree in biophysics from the University of California, San Diego, and an M.D. and Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the University of Washington.

Caroline Rose

Caroline Rose worked for Apple Computer in two stints totaling nearly 10 years. She edited and wrote most of the first three volumes of Inside Macintosh, and five years later (after managing the Publications group at NeXT) she returned to become the editor of develop, Apple's technical journal for Mac developers. Caroline now enjoys working as a freelance writer and editor; for more information, see her Web site.

This trio of speakers is empaneled not just as a retrospective on the Macintosh as we knew it, but to look forward and share their visions of the future of computing from Macintosh to MacOS X; from the Toolbox to Eazel's Nautilus and everything in between. This unprecedented keynote panel will convene at the traditional 12:01 AM on June 21 to kick off the 72-hour marathon conference.

For attendees, discounted registration is available for early response. Full attendees can register for $425 online, a savings of $100 of the regular registration rate, students can register for $50 which includes all-access to the conference as well as a special meal package. Total attendance is limited to 400. Student attendance is limited to 50.

The event will be held from June 21-23, 2001, in Dearborn, Michigan. You can get more information on the event at the MacHack Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is a heck of an opportunity to talk to some really smart folks. We also want to offer kudos to the MacHack organizers for offering such a great opportunity to 50 student Mac programmers. Bringing more young people into the ranks of Mac programmers is key to the long term growth of the platform. Groups like MacHack are an incredible resource for the programming community.

MacHack