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Original Apple CEO talks about most creative use of Apple II

7 pointsby jeffwidmanalmost 14 years ago
...I guess the best example was that we had a contest very early on at Apple where we awarded an extra Apple for the unusual use of the machine.<p>The winner, and what we never realized then, and what we don't think is still true now, is you don't realize how many different ways it can impact you.<p>The first use was the person that swore by it, a new father who had a new son that the colic, and took the original Apple II, did his own software, hooked up a washing machine motor, the tilt mechanism from a pinball machine, a microphone to the crib. So when the kid was getting restless, the machine would come on and rock the bed.<p>He actually had statistics to show how much more sleep he and his wife were getting because the kid would partly wake up, then go back to sleep. And that won first prize for a different use of the Apple, and I think that's still true today. People are still finding uses. You put it out in one area, and then it gets out into a lot of others...

1 comment

jeffwidmanalmost 14 years ago
...we had a contest very early on at Apple where we awarded an extra Apple for the unusual use of the machine.<p>The winner, and what we never realized then, and what we don't think is still true now, is you don't realize how many different ways it can impact you.<p>The first use was the person that swore by it, a new father who had a new son that the colic, and took the original Apple II, did his own software, hooked up a washing machine motor, the tilt mechanism from a pinball machine, a microphone to the crib. So when the kid was getting restless, the machine would come on and rock the bed.<p>He actually had statistics to show how much more sleep he and his wife were getting because the kid would partly wake up, then go back to sleep. And that won first prize for a different use of the Apple, and I think that's still true today. People are still finding uses. You put it out in one area, and then it gets out into a lot of others.