Cold Fusion Presents by Dagogo Altraide

Author:Dagogo Altraide [Altraide, Dagogo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633537514
Publisher: Mango Media
Published: 2018-12-09T03:04:32+00:00

Apple II Computer

In 1979, the Apple II’s killer app arrived in the form of VisiCalc. It was essentially an Excel spreadsheet for business users. VisiCalc was originally envisioned as a “magic blackboard.” Instead of accountants making one change in a spreadsheet and being forced to recalculate everything (sometimes taking days), now the computer could do it instantly.

When accountants saw the program in action, they exclaimed that their whole job had just become a thousand times easier. There were reports of some individuals crying and shaking at the magnitude of what this software meant. VisiCalc ended production in 1985, but Microsoft picked up the torch with Excel in the same year.

After this, Apple was off exponentially. Jobs was worth over a million dollars when he was twenty-three, and over $10 million when he was twenty-four. By his twenty-fifth birthday, Jobs was worth over $100 million. With the Apple II, Jobs went from working in a garage to being worth over $100 million in just two years.

The future of Apple would not be all smooth sailing, and a PC war involving IBM and Microsoft would take place in the 1980s. We’ll be catching up with Apple in the next chapter.

Before DVDs and CDs, There Was the Laser Disc (1978)

We’re all aware of the compact disc. It’s harder to realize what a remarkable invention it was in the post-physical-media age. But when the CD initially came out, it was nothing short of revolutionary. Unlike records or cassette tapes, your music now wouldn’t get worn out when you played it back, and the quality didn’t deteriorate over time. Sound could technically be stored forever. Digital sound was brought to life by lasers (another AT&T/Bell Labs invention) in 1982. It was the stuff of science fiction. Even as a kid in the mid-’90s, I remember being amazed by the concept.

What many younger people today may also not realize is that the CD was actually based on an earlier technology that was extremely advanced for its time: the laser disc (originally called Disco Vision). I find this odd format fascinating. It should have taken the world by storm, but today it only remains a forgotten quirk of the past.

What Is a Laser Disc?

The Laser Disc was a home-video format, and the first commercial optical disc storage medium.

It was basically the DVD of the late 1970s. There were laser disc players from Phillips, Magnavox, and Pioneer. The year of release: 1978, two years after the introduction of the VHS VCR, and four years before the introduction of the CD. The discs were huge at 12 inches (30.5 cm) in diameter.

The first mass-produced, industrial laser disc player was the MCA DiscoVision PR-7820. This unit was used in many General Motors dealerships for training videos and presentations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first movie released on laser disc was Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, followed by more than 10,000 titles between 1978 and 2001.

VHS was the main competitor to the laser disc format. The laser disc had the advantages of displaying still images without wearing out a tape on a rotating video drum.

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