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Insanely Great

The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything

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Insanely Great

By: Steven Levy
Narrated by: Steven Levy
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About this listen

The creation of the Mac, in 1984, catapulted America into the digital millennium, captured a fanatic cult audience, and transformed the computer industry into an unprecedented mix of technology, economics, and show business. Veteran technology writer and Newsweek senior editor Steven Levy zooms in on the great machine and the fortunes of the unique company responsible for its evolution. Loaded with anecdote and insight, and peppered with sharp commentary, Insanely Great is the definitive book on the most important computer ever made. It is a must-have for anyone curious about how we got to the interactive age.

©1994, 1995 Steven Levy (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Professionals & Academics Science & Technology Technology Programming Business Software Computer Science
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Really enjoyed this. I'm a techie anyway and have a general interest in computing and the Mac. I especially like it when the author narrates their own work as they don't misinterpret the text and how it is inferred.

This book is not another Steve Jobs biography but more an in-depth examination of what it took to build something new from scratch (apart from the results of the raid on Xerox PARC). Some good decisions were made and also some really bad ones. Indeed, the greatest cause of the problems for the first Mac was Apple's own Lisa project.

Moreover, this book uncovers the emotion and personal toll experienced by the development team. A really nice addition is the interview with two of them at the end including Andy Hertzfeld - System software.

You will definitely look at a computer display (especially a Mac) in a different way and then you will know why rounded rectangles remain.

What really happened

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Written by an Apple/MAC zealot which means it twists and distorts history. Also the narration is bad, sometimes I could not understand what was being said, the guy reading the book has a thick American accent which I struggled with.

Reality distortion book

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