Happy birthday Macintosh – This Geek in Review for 25 Jan 2019

Sure, the mother of all demos celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, but yesterday was the 35th anniversary of the debut of the Macintosh.

Most people only remember the Macintosh Super Bowl ad, but it cannot be understated the effect the release of the Macintosh had on the world. At a time when most computers were difficult to use, the Macintosh showed us a world where a simple mouse with one button could control the whole machine.

The Macintosh opened the door for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga the next year, and the initial release of Microsoft Windows, also in 1985.

Technology moments like this are pretty rare. After the Macintosh release in 1984 came the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the Microsoft Hololens demo in 2015. Yes, the Hololens was announced prematurely, but it has potential.

Although I’m not a big fan, it will be sad not to see the Sweethearts candy this Valentines day.

Finally, an esports league where my years of farming will finally pay off!

Millions of people have become addicted to the smartphone, bordering on addiction, but how many would sell their kidney for one? I know the new iPhone is expensive, but selling body parts really isn’t a long term solution.

If you have kids, you’ve had those moments where the darling child hasn’t responded to a text. Well, a dad got tired of getting the cold shoulder so he created an app that locks the kid’s phone until they respond.

To demonstrate the flexibility Microsoft’s Azure DevOps, Tony Landi set out to develope for the Commodore 64 with it.

Isaac Asimov was way off in his optimism for the pursuit of space when asked to predict 2019 back in 1983.

Do you think you’re good at Tetris? What about a version of Tetris that selects the worst possible piece to give you on each round?