January 2009 – littlecircles

January 24, 2009

The Bicycle errr,,, Macintosh turns 25.

Interesting post over on ZDNet about the 25th Anniversary of the Macintosh. What we all know as a Mac* could very well have been a ‘bike’.

How the Mac Was Almost a Bicycle

The name Macintosh was originally selected because it was Jef Raskin’s favorite type of apple, but the Mac almost wasn’t an Apple at all. When Raskin took a leave of absence in February 1981, Steve Jobs and Rod Holt made the decision to change Apple to something else. They felt that the name Macintosh was just a code name and that a name change was in order to reflect the change in regime.Holt decided on Bicycle as the new name that would replace Raskin’s Macintosh for the duration of the project and presented it to his design team. When they balked, Holt insisted that all references to Macintosh be changed to Bicycle, telling them that it shouldn’t really matter “since it was only a code name.” The Bicycle name originated from an ad that Apple had placed in Scientific American magazine. The ad featured quotes from Steve Jobs about computers, including one about how personal computers were “bicycles for the mind.”** The logic was that humans could run as fast as other species, but a human—on a bicycle—could beat them all. Rod’s edict was never obeyed. Somehow, Macintosh just seemed right.

The above quote comes from Apple Inc. (Corporations that Changed the World), cited in the ZDNet article.

Perhaps the bicycle will still change the world – but it will be the pedal kind, not the desktop variety.

*anxiously waiting until early next month when I most likely upgrade to a MacBook Pro. I’ll still be running XP on the BootCamp side for some stodgy CAD apps…

**Alan @ EcoVelo has posted vid of the ‘bicycles of the mind’ clip.

January 19, 2009

Hard Fall

Took a hard fall on my way to the Sunday ride. 15mph or so heading downhill on the slick slick snow and ice. Even with the studs and knobbies the front wheel washed out in the car tire snow wake. Once it started there was no recovery. I got out of my pedals and landed clear of the bike in the lane on my left side. Elbow bashed and I have a football sized bruise on my left hip. No traffic behind me so I popped up, did the mental systems check, snagged the bike which slid 10′ down the road, slipped on the ice in my cleats and was slowly moving again. Sat with the boys sipping coffee and we stayed warm inside for most of the morning. When we finally hit the road we climbed up to UVM and then I decided to headed home… content that I got out and thankful that I escaped with only some serious soreness and bruising. Bike seems fine, front wheel has the slightest wobble – but the Surly is covered in grime – so I need to do a quick cleaning and have a look and see if anything is out of alignment.

January 11, 2009March 2, 2009

Fluffy

Fluffy Sunday ride. When the sun was out it was gorgeous. 1/2 of the Sunday crew took off on the XC skis – so we enjoyed the coffee at City Market and slopped and slid through town. I broke off to cruise the side streets in the neighborhood after a slog on the lakefront MUP. The Nokian 35’s did OK in the snow… wish I had a Pugs with really wide tires for the deep stuff. Battery on the camera went dead – maybe due to the cold + my lack of remembering to charge it – so no fluffy pics with blue sky.