Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

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Commanderraf
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Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by Commanderraf »

Greetings,

Fuelled by the video Andy posted in viewtopic.php?f=15&t=11343 and the story I remembered of Steve Jobs, I decided to ask in 4chan's /g/ about it. Some anon there told me that the image of the keyboard is at the flickr of the guy whose keyboard was signed (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/841771/) and there I read that the story appears in the book "The Second Comming of Steve Jobs", by Alan Deutschman. Poking in Amazon I found the book and the part in the "Look Inside" visualization app -as the flickr page instructed. Here is the account as it appears on the book:
Another moment that revealed Steve's strong emmotional attachment to Apple came when he was giving a talk to the Stanford Graduate School of Business's High Tech Club at the home of a student. For three hours he sat in the lotus position on the floor in front of the living-room fireplace, answering questions good-naturedly. Afterward, the host, a young MBA candidate named Steve Jurvetson, asked the legendary figure to autograph his Macintosh keyboard, which had already been signed by Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak.

Steve Jobs said that he'd do it, but only if first he could remove all the unneccessary keys that his successors had added in a foolish effort to make the Mac more like a Microsoft-Intel PC. He despised the long row of so-called function keys (like "F1") and the cluster of navigational arrow keys, which were clunky alternatives to the more intuitive process of using a mouse to explore menus and icons. So Steve Jobs pulled his car keys out of his pocket and began scoopinginto the computer keyboard, violently disgorging all the keys that offended him. "I'm changing the world one keyboard at a time," he said with a straight face. Only then, when he had mutilated the apparatus, did he take a pen and scribble his autograph on it. [...]
Ok, the F-keys I can kind of understand (never used most of them, besides F5, F2 and F8), but the directional keys? I sometimes find the mouse more clunkier to use in menus than these keys!

And here's the "Battleship" as dubed by his owner:

Image

Too bad there isn't an image of the missing keys.

-Commanderraf
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spunker88
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by spunker88 »

F1 is the help key, LOL. Nowadays the F keys are really only for shortcuts that can be found using a mouse. Its only the power users that will be using them regularly. Sometimes I wonder why they are still around on netbooks. They could merge them with the number row keys and have a separate button to initiate the F keys over the # keys.

The directional keys are still very useful, I would never get rid of them. When I am designing in Coreldraw I use the arrow keys to nudge an object slightly up down, left, right. Thats really hard to do with a mouse. In Excel, I navigate between cells a lot faster using the diectional keys. In Word, I move between words and lines using the arrows quite a bit. My hands are already on the keyboard and its quicker and easier just to use the arrows instead of getting the mouse.

RacerX
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by RacerX »

Interesting story... I wonder when it took place though.

The Apple Extended Keyboard was introduced in January of 1987, but by Spring of 1988 the first of the NeXT test systems were being assembled with keyboards that included the arrow keys (but not the function keys). Seems odd that he'd pull off keys from an Apple Keyboard that would be included on a NeXT keyboard of the same period.

Gmod1001
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by Gmod1001 »

[quote="spunker88"] Sometimes I wonder why they are still around on netbooks.[quote/]
well different programs use different keys for different stuff, so, would you be pissed of if a program called for the F1 button but you didnt have it!

merty
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by merty »

It's funny that Job's claimed the F-keys are pointless, but apple right to this very day still produce keyboards with F-Keys on them.

spunker88
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by spunker88 »

Gmod1001 wrote:
spunker88 wrote: Sometimes I wonder why they are still around on netbooks.
[quote/]
well different programs use different keys for different stuff, so, would you be [censored] of if a program called for the F1 button but you didnt have it!
No, i didnt mean get rid of them, i meant make them secondary buttons and have a button just like a shift button to press them. So if u wanted F1, you would hold the "F" key and then press the #1 key. If you want F2, you would use the F key and #2. F11 and F12 would have to be - and = The only thing is it would get a bit messy since there are already secondary keys on the #s. This would be a good idea only on netbooks and small devices running windows where there isnt enough room for a keyboard.

My laptop like many others uses an Fn key to allow the F row keys to have multifunctions like dimming the screen, and controlling media players. So they are serving a purpose and on a laptop the size i have, 15.6", there is plenty of room for them and my suggestion above doesnt apply.

21stcenturyrahi
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by 21stcenturyrahi »

merty wrote:It's funny that Job's claimed the F-keys are pointless, but apple right to this very day still produce keyboards with F-Keys on them.
The reason apple still make keyboards with the 'F' keys on them is because that macs can run windows and the F keys play a large part in that.
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linuxlove
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by linuxlove »

Why would iMac G3 keyboards have F# keys? The iMac came around when Steve Jobs came back to Apple and also a G3 can't run Windows...
Goodbye.

21stcenturyrahi
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by 21stcenturyrahi »

Well, my guess would be that 1. the imac g3 ran os X so there would be special keys to do expose and the other eye candy, also it would be easier for software developers to port applications to the mac os.
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Ensign Joe
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Re: Steve Jobs and an Apple Keyboard

Post by Ensign Joe »

When re-enventing the keyboard the first thing that has to be removed is the Scroll-Lock key, followed by NumLock. I don't know why people are complaining about CAPSLOCK?! This key is much more useful than stupid ScrollLock/NumLock. I luckily was able to make the numbers work even though the light is off. That stupid Num light sucks.

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