Jef Raskin, Macintosh Creator, Dies at 61

**g-smooth2k** · February 28th, 2005, 04:04 PM

Source: PC World

As Apple Computer employee number 31, Raskin advanced the design of user interfaces.

James Niccolai, IDG News Service
Monday, February 28, 2005

Jef Raskin, the lead designer of the first Macintosh computer and a pioneer in the development of user interfaces, died Saturday at age 61. He had been diagnosed recently with pancreatic cancer, his family says in a statement.

Raskin joined Apple Computer in 1978 as employee number 31 and headed the company's Macintosh development team from its inception until 1982. He named the project after his favorite type of apple, changing the spelling for copyright reasons.

He is credited with significantly advancing the design of user interfaces, which in the early 1980s were largely text-based and required users to memorize complex commands. Raskin convinced his peers at Apple that to reach a wider audience, the Macintosh needed an interface that was elegant and easy to use.

"Up to that time, at Apple and most other manufacturers, the concept was to provide the latest and most powerful hardware, and let the users and third-party software vendors figure out how to make it usable," he wrote later on his Web site.

Raskin left Apple in 1982, two years before the Macintosh went on sale, but he continued to influence the design of computers through his writing, lectures, and consulting work. Soon after leaving the company he founded Information Appliance, where he designed the Canon Cat computer for Canon USA, although the product was not a commercial success.

His consulting clients have included Intel, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and many other big names in computing. In 2000 he published a book, "The Humane Interface," that is widely assigned at universities.

Recent Projects
Raskin was currently at work on a project called Archy, where he hoped to put many of the ideas expressed in his book into software. Archy uses simple commands for common operations in word processing and e-mail, but "doesn't work like anything else on this or nearby planets," meaning users would have to learn it from scratch, he wrote on his Web site.

His son, Aza Raskin, will continue to develop the project, a preview version of which is due out later this year, his family says in the statement.

Raskin's interests were not restricted to computers: He taught the recorder, harpsichord, and music theory at San Francisco Community College in the 1970s, and his family described him as an orchestral soloist and composer. He also founded a company that designed and sold radio-controlled model aircraft.

Along with Aza, he is survived by his wife, Linda Blum, and his other children, Aviva and Aenea. Raskin lived most recently in Pacifica, California.

More information about Jef Raskin is available at his Web site, www.jefraskin.com. More information about Archy is at www.raskincenter.org.

R.I.P. Jeff Raskin
Age: 61
March 9, 1943 - February 26, 2005

Yotie1572l · March 17th, 2009, 03:33 PM

Read

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**El Comandante** · March 17th, 2009, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by Yotie1572l

Downstairs, the doctor left three different medicines in different colored capsules with instructions for giving them dvd copy. One was to bring down the fever, another a purgative, dvd copy, the third to overcome an acid condition. The germs of influenza can only exist in an acid condition dvd ripper, he explained dvd burner. He seemed to know all about influenza and said there was nothing to worry about if the fever did not go above one hundred and four degrees dvd copy. This was a light epidemic of flu and there was no danger if you avoided pneumonia .

You've got no skills kid:

Tara's eyes rolled back in her head as she rolled the rubber down my throbbing 7.5" dvd ripper. "Let me do it," she said, and suddenly this sweet girl shoved me down and climbed on top of my dvd burner. The scorching heat from the pyrotechnics drenched us with water and sweat. Suddenly... I was inside her. Noise disappeared. I lay on my back, bucking frantically. Her dvd copy clung to me. It smacked my dvd copy. Her thick red hair burned like the sun above me. Tara's fingers probed my dvd burner, my dvd copy, my neck. Thump Thump Thump Thump. The snare drum crackled with our rhythm. And then, like a rocket, we dvd copy.

THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT!:icon_thum

**Hath** · March 17th, 2009, 05:23 PM

Fucking awesome!

EDIT: Not the dead guy, I meant El Commandente's post. :)

**shawners** · March 17th, 2009, 06:32 PM

Just proves Apple computers causes Cancer.. Steve jobs.. And now this guy.

**Signa** · March 17th, 2009, 07:03 PM

Sorry RD, El C's post was so epic, I had to unbury it. If Jorge wont do anything about the spam, then the least we can do is have a little fun with it.

**Hath** · March 17th, 2009, 09:58 PM

To be honest, I really don't mind the spam. It's kind of amusing... in a way.

**wapazoid** · March 17th, 2009, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by shawners

Just proves Apple computers causes Cancer.. Steve jobs.. And now this guy.

How daaaaaaaare you. I love Steve Jobs... and Apple.

Besides, we'll all be diagnosed with some funky tech related cancer by the time we're 65.

**El Comandante** · March 18th, 2009, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by Hath

Fucking awesome!

EDIT: Not the dead guy, I meant El Commandente's post. :)

Originally Posted by Signa

Sorry RD, El C's post was so epic, I had to unbury it. If Jorge wont do anything about the spam, then the least we can do is have a little fun with it.

So you guys think I have a career as a spammer? :icon_pira