(2004-12-24) Graphic Calculator

The Subversive story of the creation of the Graphing Calculator app for MacOS. I was frustrated by all the wasted effort, so I decided to uncancel my small part of the project. I had been paid to do a job, and I wanted to finish it. My electronic badge still opened Apple's doors, so I just kept showing up... Apple at that time had a strong tradition of SkunkWorks projects, in which engineers continued to work on canceled projects in hopes of producing demos that would inspire management to revive them... Once we had a plausible way to ship, Apple became the ideal work environment. Every engineer we knew was willing to help us. We got resources that would never have been available to us had we been on the payroll... Our recognition made life interesting in other ways since we could no longer remain a well kept secret. After a demo to outside developers, one person called Apple claiming that we infringed his Patent, causing a fire drill until I could show Prior Art. Another company, the makers of Mathematica, simply demanded that our product be pulled. Apple very politely declined. One week we were evading security, the next week Apple is rising to our defense... I view the events as an experiment in subverting power structures. I had none of the traditional power over others that is inherent to the structure of corporations and bureaucracies. I had neither budget nor headcount. I answered to no one, and no one had to do anything I asked. Dozens of people collaborated spontaneously, motivated by loyalty, friendship, or the love of craftsmanship. We were Hacker-s, creating something for the sheer joy of making it work.