Macintosh is 30 and Other Fascinating News on the Web

This is 30

“There were no tech blogs, no Facebook, no Twitter, and certainly no Mac rumor websites. There were no websites at all. So Jobs had to generate his own campaign to tell the world about the computer that he would announce on January 24, 1984, 30 years ago today.” Happy Birthday to my old friend. From Steven Levy in Wired: The Macintosh is 30, and I was there for its birth.

+ When I told her it was time to talk about converting, she thought I was talking about religion. A NextDraft Original: I Made This on a Mac.

+ Here’s a look back at Steve Jobs introducing the original Mac, along with some of the comments made by early reviewers.

+ While we’re on the topic of early computing leaders, it’s probably worth noting that Microsoft is still pulling in some pretty impressive revenues.

The Bucks Stop Here

Coffee is pretty popular. Especially from Starbucks. Consider these numbers: During the last quarter, Starbucks customers put $1.4 billion onto their Starbucks cards. And according to Quartz, 10% of American adults received a Starbucks gift card over the holidays.

Weekend Reads

“Asra Nomani spent a decade chasing her friend’s killer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Then she went to go see him at Guantanamo Bay.” This is Danny Pearl’s Final Story.

+ How a supposedly safe drug turned lethal: There’s something about Molly.

+ New Yorker: A journey to the end of the world (of Minecraft).

+ PandoDaily: How Silicon Valley’s most celebrated CEOs conspired to drive down 100,000 tech engineers’ wages.

+ NYT Magazine: Technology is not driving us apart after all. (I read this on a laptop in a dark room behind a locked door as my friends and family clamored for me to come outside and get some sunlight and see how much my children have grown over the years.)

Ingredients for Disaster

“Increased droughts, more unpredictable variability, 100-year floods every two years … When we look at our most essential ingredients, we see those events as threats.” If you don’t want to believe what the scientists or polar bears think about climate change, maybe you’ll believe big business. The quote above comes from a vice president at Coke.

A Big (Data) Mistake

Last week, less than a year after their daughter died unexpectedly, Ashley Seay’s parents received a promotional mailer addressed to: “Mike Seay/Daughter Killed in Car Crash/Or Current Business.” In addition to being upsetting for those parents, this story should be upsetting to you as it paints a troubling picture of how much of our personal data is gathered and shared by data brokers.

Not Paid on Commission

In the last year, JPMorgan Chase got about $20 billion in fines. What did CEO Jamie Dimon get? A raise.

+ Upward mobility still possible? That, in part, depends where you live. Derek Thompson on the geography of the American dream.

From the Archives

The @HistoryInPics feed is massively popular. In many ways, it is a new media phenomenon — it’s just photos and captions, the photographers are never credited, and the brand was built entirely on Twitter (until now, pretty much anonymously). And it’s run by a couple of teenagers.

Book ‘Em

According to the latest numbers from Pew, a lot of folks didn’t read a book last year. (On the other hand, you’ve now made it all the way to item number eight, so that’s not bad.) Here’s The Atlantic on the decline of the American book lover, and why the downturn might be over.

Sounds of Silence

Syndicated from Kottke: The search for absolute silence –
Mostly because of jet aircraft, there are very few places in the world free of man-made noise. “For the past 30 years, Hempton has made it his mission to discover what he calls the last great quiet places, areas that clock in at audible human noise-free intervals of 15 minutes or more.”

The Bottom of the News

“That’s what she said.” The rise and fall of the 2000s’ best bad joke. (It definitely grew bigger than I expected.)

+ Princeton says Facebook will lose most of its users in the next few years. So Facebook predicts the gradual demise of Princeton.

+ Burial plots now cost as much $70,000 in some parts of China. (The key is to buy them on  a layaway plan.)