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Tag: history

Glenn Fleishman 10 comments

Newspaper Cartoonists Rely on Digital Tools, but Not as You’d Expect

You might think that modern cartoonists would create their strips using digital drawing tools, but in fact, many still rely on traditional pens and brushes. Glenn Fleishman explored the surprising way that cartoonists meld the old with the new as part of the research for a new book, How Comics Were Made.

Adam Engst 24 comments

Microsoft Word Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary

One of the longest-standing Mac apps is also one of the most popular to this day—Microsoft Word. It has been a fixture in the Mac world for 40 years now.

Adam Engst 13 comments

Internet Artifacts Virtual Museum Exhibit Documents 30 Years of the Internet

When you have a few spare minutes, check out Neal Agarwal’s Internet Artifacts, a virtual museum exhibit of Internet history from 1977 through 2007. Apple shows up twice.

Adam Engst 9 comments

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Take Control Books

Time flies when you’re doing good work. After Joe Kissell took over Take Control Books from TidBITS Publishing in 2017, the ebook imprint has continued to thrive and is now marking its 20th anniversary with a free ebook, a big sale, and some thoughts about the impact it has on the Apple ecosystem.

Adam Engst 8 comments

Looking Back across Thirty Years of PCalc

James Thomson’s venerable PCalc is celebrating its 30th anniversary, so James has updated PCalc’s 20th-anniversary history with more details from the last ten years.

Adam Engst 7 comments

Looking Back on Past April Fools Day TidBITS Issues

Happy April Fools Day! We have no jokes or pranks this year, but here’s a look back through our April Fools efforts in past years that proved prescient.

Josh Centers 11 comments

The Mystery of Why Web Hyperlinks Are Blue

Why are hyperlinks dark blue and underlined? On Mozilla’s blog, Elise Blanchard explores the history and possible reasons for this seemingly arbitrary design choice.

Adam Engst 5 comments

Beware the Mac Chimes of Death

Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels has gathered together sound clips of the chimes of death played by various classic Mac models when they couldn’t boot. They’re fascinating, but if you experienced these a lot back in the day, beware of flashbacks!

Adam Engst 12 comments

Remembering Dantz Development’s “Drink Different” Posters

Remember Apple’s “Think different” ad campaign and those striking black-and-white images of historical figures? What you probably didn’t know is that backup software company Dantz Development had parodies created of those posters as decorations for a late-1990s Macworld Expo party. Here they all are.

Josh Centers 1 comment

David Bowie’s 1999 Insights into the Internet

The BBC has recently resurfaced a 1999 interview in which musician David Bowie offered some prescient insights about the future of the Internet.

Josh Centers No comments

The Co-Inventor of the Computer Mouse Has Passed On

Bill English, the co-creator of the computer mouse, has died at 91. Largely overlooked while he was alive, his contributions make him one of the most influential people in the history of computing.

Josh Centers 3 comments

How Rogue YouTube Employees Killed Internet Explorer 6

Early YouTube employee Chris Zacharias has shared the story of how he and a rogue team of developers bypassed Google’s bureaucracy to put a stake through the heart of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 Web browser.

Josh Centers No comments

The Mac’s First Product Manager Discusses Working with Jobs and Woz

Joe Shelton, one of Apple’s earliest employees and the first product manager for the Macintosh, has come forward to talk about what it was like to work alongside Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Josh Centers 7 comments

20 Years of the iMac

The iMac is now 20 years old, and 9to5Mac's Michael Steeber takes a look back at its history.