Pinned
John Buck
@hellojohnbuck.bsky.social
· Jan 26
In crises like this, you can play politics, point fingers and resist reality, or you can choose safety. Australians chose the latter. We don’t regret it.-> we took the same approach with guns.
Reposted by John Buck
Just coming here to check on how many Republican lawmakers have rebuked Trump for his comments condoning the murder of journalists and dismissing a female reporter as "piggy" and...anyone?
November 18, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Just coming here to check on how many Republican lawmakers have rebuked Trump for his comments condoning the murder of journalists and dismissing a female reporter as "piggy" and...anyone?
Bring Back Bix.
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/apple-connec...
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/apple-connec...
November 18, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Bring Back Bix.
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/apple-connec...
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/apple-connec...
Former Head of Software Engineering at Apple, Mike Potel:
"For so many of the people named in this book, Steve Jobs's leaving was a breath of fresh air. The skunkworks projects and next-generation technology efforts that were hidden away and kept secret from Steve, were now out in the open."
"For so many of the people named in this book, Steve Jobs's leaving was a breath of fresh air. The skunkworks projects and next-generation technology efforts that were hidden away and kept secret from Steve, were now out in the open."
November 13, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Former Head of Software Engineering at Apple, Mike Potel:
"For so many of the people named in this book, Steve Jobs's leaving was a breath of fresh air. The skunkworks projects and next-generation technology efforts that were hidden away and kept secret from Steve, were now out in the open."
"For so many of the people named in this book, Steve Jobs's leaving was a breath of fresh air. The skunkworks projects and next-generation technology efforts that were hidden away and kept secret from Steve, were now out in the open."
Such was the siloed nature of various skunkworks that management greenlit PenLite. Tom Gilley recalls:
Apple moved 20 people into a new portable group, under Sue King. She aligned us with a software team, called PenMac, to create the ‘Mac Look and Feel’.
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/penlite/
Apple moved 20 people into a new portable group, under Sue King. She aligned us with a software team, called PenMac, to create the ‘Mac Look and Feel’.
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/penlite/
PenLite
Paul Mercer's "Swatch" handheld had progressed inside Apple as product manager Phac Le Tuan recalls:
Soon we had a stripped down, Apple operating system on the Sony PTC-550 device, using a Motorola 6...
inventingthefuture.ghost.io
November 7, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Such was the siloed nature of various skunkworks that management greenlit PenLite. Tom Gilley recalls:
Apple moved 20 people into a new portable group, under Sue King. She aligned us with a software team, called PenMac, to create the ‘Mac Look and Feel’.
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/penlite/
Apple moved 20 people into a new portable group, under Sue King. She aligned us with a software team, called PenMac, to create the ‘Mac Look and Feel’.
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/penlite/
Reposted by John Buck
We are going to win.
October 5, 2025 at 11:53 PM
We are going to win.
Reposted by John Buck
we lost a queen 👑
Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.
October 5, 2025 at 5:12 PM
we lost a queen 👑
Reposted by John Buck
WATCH: "They are underwater across the board, and they know it. And that is causing them to double down in public. But it is backfiring. That is why—whether it's a shutdown, whether it's all of this—they want us to blink first. And we have too much to save," says AOC.
October 1, 2025 at 1:03 AM
WATCH: "They are underwater across the board, and they know it. And that is causing them to double down in public. But it is backfiring. That is why—whether it's a shutdown, whether it's all of this—they want us to blink first. And we have too much to save," says AOC.
Beat perfect edit by Andy Jurgensen
September 28, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Beat perfect edit by Andy Jurgensen
September 14, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Apple engineer Steve Milne recalls.
Which chord to use for the Mac II boot chime. A major chord (tonic, major 3rd, fifth) has a positive, perhaps corny sound. A minor chord (tonic, minor 3rd, fifth) sounds sad. We settled on a power chord (tonic, fifth) - the most neutral.
books.by/john-buck
Which chord to use for the Mac II boot chime. A major chord (tonic, major 3rd, fifth) has a positive, perhaps corny sound. A minor chord (tonic, minor 3rd, fifth) sounds sad. We settled on a power chord (tonic, fifth) - the most neutral.
books.by/john-buck
September 10, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Apple engineer Steve Milne recalls.
Which chord to use for the Mac II boot chime. A major chord (tonic, major 3rd, fifth) has a positive, perhaps corny sound. A minor chord (tonic, minor 3rd, fifth) sounds sad. We settled on a power chord (tonic, fifth) - the most neutral.
books.by/john-buck
Which chord to use for the Mac II boot chime. A major chord (tonic, major 3rd, fifth) has a positive, perhaps corny sound. A minor chord (tonic, minor 3rd, fifth) sounds sad. We settled on a power chord (tonic, fifth) - the most neutral.
books.by/john-buck
Bob McNinch recalls.
Jobs said, 'If there's anything I can do for you, come to my office'. I did 'To make more sales in Europe we need a localized Lisa keyboard with characters like Å and Ö. "Don't worry. We're going to fix it in software". And walked away.
books.by/john-buck #apple #jobs #design
Jobs said, 'If there's anything I can do for you, come to my office'. I did 'To make more sales in Europe we need a localized Lisa keyboard with characters like Å and Ö. "Don't worry. We're going to fix it in software". And walked away.
books.by/john-buck #apple #jobs #design
September 10, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Bob McNinch recalls.
Jobs said, 'If there's anything I can do for you, come to my office'. I did 'To make more sales in Europe we need a localized Lisa keyboard with characters like Å and Ö. "Don't worry. We're going to fix it in software". And walked away.
books.by/john-buck #apple #jobs #design
Jobs said, 'If there's anything I can do for you, come to my office'. I did 'To make more sales in Europe we need a localized Lisa keyboard with characters like Å and Ö. "Don't worry. We're going to fix it in software". And walked away.
books.by/john-buck #apple #jobs #design
Tom Erickson notes:
This was before Apple turned into a vampire ecosystem where everything tries to suck money out of people. We were on a mission. Whatever you could do to make something attractive, engaging, and understandable for people. And nothing else.
books.by/john-buck #apple #HIG #design
This was before Apple turned into a vampire ecosystem where everything tries to suck money out of people. We were on a mission. Whatever you could do to make something attractive, engaging, and understandable for people. And nothing else.
books.by/john-buck #apple #HIG #design
September 1, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Tom Erickson notes:
This was before Apple turned into a vampire ecosystem where everything tries to suck money out of people. We were on a mission. Whatever you could do to make something attractive, engaging, and understandable for people. And nothing else.
books.by/john-buck #apple #HIG #design
This was before Apple turned into a vampire ecosystem where everything tries to suck money out of people. We were on a mission. Whatever you could do to make something attractive, engaging, and understandable for people. And nothing else.
books.by/john-buck #apple #HIG #design
Jim Reekes recalls:
I had a music background, and was put in Apple tech support to fix sound problems. Developers contacted us with very technical programming questions. If we couldn't answer, we'd go to the actual engineers working on the OS to find the answers.
books.by/john-buck #apple
I had a music background, and was put in Apple tech support to fix sound problems. Developers contacted us with very technical programming questions. If we couldn't answer, we'd go to the actual engineers working on the OS to find the answers.
books.by/john-buck #apple
August 24, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Jim Reekes recalls:
I had a music background, and was put in Apple tech support to fix sound problems. Developers contacted us with very technical programming questions. If we couldn't answer, we'd go to the actual engineers working on the OS to find the answers.
books.by/john-buck #apple
I had a music background, and was put in Apple tech support to fix sound problems. Developers contacted us with very technical programming questions. If we couldn't answer, we'd go to the actual engineers working on the OS to find the answers.
books.by/john-buck #apple
Another unique Steve story from Inventing the Future.
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/unix-on-the-...
#apple #jobs #unix
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/unix-on-the-...
#apple #jobs #unix
Unix on the Mac
Unknown to Steve Jobs a team at Apple was working on a Unix Macintosh. Former Lisa software manager Ron Johnston recalls:
A friend of mine from college, Steve Smith, also went to HP after graduating ...
inventingthefuture.ghost.io
August 18, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Another unique Steve story from Inventing the Future.
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/unix-on-the-...
#apple #jobs #unix
inventingthefuture.ghost.io/unix-on-the-...
#apple #jobs #unix
A fabulous Woz story from Chuck Mauro.
And a typical Steve story.
tinyurl.com/yckbhx85
tinyurl.com/yrxuu8db
#apple #wozniak
And a typical Steve story.
tinyurl.com/yckbhx85
tinyurl.com/yrxuu8db
#apple #wozniak
Chuck and Woz
I had built the first 80-column video card but I still hadn’t decided on a name! Grant (Jasmin), my business partner, and I put our heads together and came up with SmarTerm®, an amalgamation of “Smart...
tinyurl.com
August 17, 2025 at 10:33 PM
A fabulous Woz story from Chuck Mauro.
And a typical Steve story.
tinyurl.com/yckbhx85
tinyurl.com/yrxuu8db
#apple #wozniak
And a typical Steve story.
tinyurl.com/yckbhx85
tinyurl.com/yrxuu8db
#apple #wozniak
Reposted by John Buck
Watching the first episode of #AlienEarth inspired me to make a free Final Cut Pro title template that emulates the MU-TH-UR chat user interface, and also on-screen titles.
alex4d.com/final_cut_pl...
It’s about time I got back into making free tools for Final Cut users!
alex4d.com/final_cut_pl...
It’s about time I got back into making free tools for Final Cut users!
Alex4D Interface 2038 | Alex4D
A free Final Cut Pro for Mac title that emulates text seen in Alien (1979) and in Alien: Earth (2025). […]
alex4d.com
August 14, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Watching the first episode of #AlienEarth inspired me to make a free Final Cut Pro title template that emulates the MU-TH-UR chat user interface, and also on-screen titles.
alex4d.com/final_cut_pl...
It’s about time I got back into making free tools for Final Cut users!
alex4d.com/final_cut_pl...
It’s about time I got back into making free tools for Final Cut users!
i’d rather they could spell Off rather than Of
Will you watch a tire rolling down a massive sand dune for three minutes? Yeah, I didn’t think I would either, but here I am telling you that you probably will. It’s definitely a metaphor for something! [kottke.org]
Roll On, You Crazy Tire!
The team at Tuk South visited one of the tallest sand dunes in Chile and did the obvious: threw a tire down it and followed it with a drone to see how long it would roll. The answer: almost three minutes. Take a break
kottke.org
August 12, 2025 at 8:42 AM
i’d rather they could spell Off rather than Of
"Apple is in danger of looking like a laggard, not a leader. It must prove that it can introduce new technology, get it to market in a reasonable timeframe, and at a reasonable price.
It has to continue to attract good work from third-party developers. We'll be waiting."
InfoWorld, Oct 1990
It has to continue to attract good work from third-party developers. We'll be waiting."
InfoWorld, Oct 1990
August 8, 2025 at 6:02 AM
"Apple is in danger of looking like a laggard, not a leader. It must prove that it can introduce new technology, get it to market in a reasonable timeframe, and at a reasonable price.
It has to continue to attract good work from third-party developers. We'll be waiting."
InfoWorld, Oct 1990
It has to continue to attract good work from third-party developers. We'll be waiting."
InfoWorld, Oct 1990
Jeremy Jones recalls:
"What Steve Hain and I had written in a basement, was now good enough for former Xerox PARC scientists, Larry Tesler and Alan Kay, as well as Newton's Steve Capps and Steve Sakoman to tell John Sculley to buy Coral Software and create Dylan."
books.by/john-buck #apple #dylan
"What Steve Hain and I had written in a basement, was now good enough for former Xerox PARC scientists, Larry Tesler and Alan Kay, as well as Newton's Steve Capps and Steve Sakoman to tell John Sculley to buy Coral Software and create Dylan."
books.by/john-buck #apple #dylan
August 4, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Jeremy Jones recalls:
"What Steve Hain and I had written in a basement, was now good enough for former Xerox PARC scientists, Larry Tesler and Alan Kay, as well as Newton's Steve Capps and Steve Sakoman to tell John Sculley to buy Coral Software and create Dylan."
books.by/john-buck #apple #dylan
"What Steve Hain and I had written in a basement, was now good enough for former Xerox PARC scientists, Larry Tesler and Alan Kay, as well as Newton's Steve Capps and Steve Sakoman to tell John Sculley to buy Coral Software and create Dylan."
books.by/john-buck #apple #dylan
Vicki Brown recalls Project Oreo:
Our building was off campus and there wasn't any of the Tech-Bro culture. This was Apple, and this was Unix. And between the two of those, if you knew what you were doing, you were a member of the team, and that's all that mattered.
books.by/john-buck #apple #unix
Our building was off campus and there wasn't any of the Tech-Bro culture. This was Apple, and this was Unix. And between the two of those, if you knew what you were doing, you were a member of the team, and that's all that mattered.
books.by/john-buck #apple #unix
August 3, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Vicki Brown recalls Project Oreo:
Our building was off campus and there wasn't any of the Tech-Bro culture. This was Apple, and this was Unix. And between the two of those, if you knew what you were doing, you were a member of the team, and that's all that mattered.
books.by/john-buck #apple #unix
Our building was off campus and there wasn't any of the Tech-Bro culture. This was Apple, and this was Unix. And between the two of those, if you knew what you were doing, you were a member of the team, and that's all that mattered.
books.by/john-buck #apple #unix
Rod Perkins recalls ATG in '87
"We laid out what users would want from ‘Spider’, adding live audio capability gave rise to voice calls between Macs, like what we have now with Teams and FaceTime, and we saw the need to leave a Voice Message if the respondent was busy or away."
books.by/john-buck
"We laid out what users would want from ‘Spider’, adding live audio capability gave rise to voice calls between Macs, like what we have now with Teams and FaceTime, and we saw the need to leave a Voice Message if the respondent was busy or away."
books.by/john-buck
August 1, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Rod Perkins recalls ATG in '87
"We laid out what users would want from ‘Spider’, adding live audio capability gave rise to voice calls between Macs, like what we have now with Teams and FaceTime, and we saw the need to leave a Voice Message if the respondent was busy or away."
books.by/john-buck
"We laid out what users would want from ‘Spider’, adding live audio capability gave rise to voice calls between Macs, like what we have now with Teams and FaceTime, and we saw the need to leave a Voice Message if the respondent was busy or away."
books.by/john-buck
Chris Crawford, pioneer game designer:
"With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to see the Apple II's success but that wasn't clear in 79. Computer junkies bought the less expensive TRS-80 and PET. The II's color display advantage was shattered by the Atari 800's debut"
books.by/john-buck
"With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to see the Apple II's success but that wasn't clear in 79. Computer junkies bought the less expensive TRS-80 and PET. The II's color display advantage was shattered by the Atari 800's debut"
books.by/john-buck
July 29, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Chris Crawford, pioneer game designer:
"With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to see the Apple II's success but that wasn't clear in 79. Computer junkies bought the less expensive TRS-80 and PET. The II's color display advantage was shattered by the Atari 800's debut"
books.by/john-buck
"With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to see the Apple II's success but that wasn't clear in 79. Computer junkies bought the less expensive TRS-80 and PET. The II's color display advantage was shattered by the Atari 800's debut"
books.by/john-buck
SuperMac’s Steve Edelman recalls Apple in 87:
That Steve (Jobs) was in exile and not able to resist or even kill an expandable platform was crucial. It allowed the development of products allowing functionality over costs, coming from individuals, inside the company and outside.
books.by/john-buck
That Steve (Jobs) was in exile and not able to resist or even kill an expandable platform was crucial. It allowed the development of products allowing functionality over costs, coming from individuals, inside the company and outside.
books.by/john-buck
June 24, 2025 at 11:12 PM
SuperMac’s Steve Edelman recalls Apple in 87:
That Steve (Jobs) was in exile and not able to resist or even kill an expandable platform was crucial. It allowed the development of products allowing functionality over costs, coming from individuals, inside the company and outside.
books.by/john-buck
That Steve (Jobs) was in exile and not able to resist or even kill an expandable platform was crucial. It allowed the development of products allowing functionality over costs, coming from individuals, inside the company and outside.
books.by/john-buck
Should chyron read ‘assassination’ rather than shooting? @msnbc.com @nicollewallace.bsky.social #deadlinewhitehouse
June 18, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Should chyron read ‘assassination’ rather than shooting? @msnbc.com @nicollewallace.bsky.social #deadlinewhitehouse