<p>Geeks who brought the Macintosh computer to life became Silicon Valley rock stars, with people asking for autographs or photos while celebrating the Apple desktop machine's 30th birthday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Members of the original "Mac" team got the star treatment yesterday for passionately building a home computer "for the rest of us" at a time when IBM machines dominated in workplaces.<br /><br />The friendly desktop referred to as the Mac and, importantly, the ability to control it by clicking on icons with a "mouse," opened computing to non-geeks in much the way that touchscreens later allowed almost anyone to get instantly comfortable with smartphones or tablets.<br /><br />The birthday party was held in a performing arts centre in the Californian city of Cupertino, where legendary late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs first introduced the Mac to the world on January 24, 1984.<br /><br />"Ever since I can remember I've been entranced with how these Macs work," 16-year-old Tom Frikker told AFP as he worked his way through the crowd, getting original team members to autograph the vintage Mac he brought from home.<br /><br />"It seems like a work of art," the teenager continued. "I thought it would be cool to come out and see all these people that I've heard about."<br /><br />Prior to the Mac, with its "graphical user interface," computers were commanded with text typed in what seemed like a foreign language to those who were not software programmers.<br /><br />"The effect the Mac had on the world and on computing is really fascinating," said Warren Sande, a fiber optic telecom company manager who was a school boy when the Apple desktop debuted.<br /><br />Sande's 14-year-old son was eager to hear inside stories from those who made the Mac.<br /><br />"The Mac had no video hardware, a tiny amount of RAM and a floppy drive, and it did stuff that my computer with eight gigabytes of RAM and dedicated video hardware has trouble doing," Carter Sande said.<br /><br />"I need to figure out why," the teenager said. "It is so amazing that they did so much with a tiny amount of hardware."<br /><br />The original vision of launching a Macintosh with 64 kilobytes of RAM and a USD 1,000 price gave way to introducing one with 128 kilobytes of RAM at USD 2,500.<br /><br />Members of the Mac team told of being crushed when they got word of the higher price because they had been driven by a belief that they were making a machine that typical people could afford as well as easily use.<br /><br />Applause erupted from the audience as members of the original Mac team stepped on stage to share memories. Video clips, many starring a young Steve Jobs, were played. </p>
<p>Geeks who brought the Macintosh computer to life became Silicon Valley rock stars, with people asking for autographs or photos while celebrating the Apple desktop machine's 30th birthday.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Members of the original "Mac" team got the star treatment yesterday for passionately building a home computer "for the rest of us" at a time when IBM machines dominated in workplaces.<br /><br />The friendly desktop referred to as the Mac and, importantly, the ability to control it by clicking on icons with a "mouse," opened computing to non-geeks in much the way that touchscreens later allowed almost anyone to get instantly comfortable with smartphones or tablets.<br /><br />The birthday party was held in a performing arts centre in the Californian city of Cupertino, where legendary late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs first introduced the Mac to the world on January 24, 1984.<br /><br />"Ever since I can remember I've been entranced with how these Macs work," 16-year-old Tom Frikker told AFP as he worked his way through the crowd, getting original team members to autograph the vintage Mac he brought from home.<br /><br />"It seems like a work of art," the teenager continued. "I thought it would be cool to come out and see all these people that I've heard about."<br /><br />Prior to the Mac, with its "graphical user interface," computers were commanded with text typed in what seemed like a foreign language to those who were not software programmers.<br /><br />"The effect the Mac had on the world and on computing is really fascinating," said Warren Sande, a fiber optic telecom company manager who was a school boy when the Apple desktop debuted.<br /><br />Sande's 14-year-old son was eager to hear inside stories from those who made the Mac.<br /><br />"The Mac had no video hardware, a tiny amount of RAM and a floppy drive, and it did stuff that my computer with eight gigabytes of RAM and dedicated video hardware has trouble doing," Carter Sande said.<br /><br />"I need to figure out why," the teenager said. "It is so amazing that they did so much with a tiny amount of hardware."<br /><br />The original vision of launching a Macintosh with 64 kilobytes of RAM and a USD 1,000 price gave way to introducing one with 128 kilobytes of RAM at USD 2,500.<br /><br />Members of the Mac team told of being crushed when they got word of the higher price because they had been driven by a belief that they were making a machine that typical people could afford as well as easily use.<br /><br />Applause erupted from the audience as members of the original Mac team stepped on stage to share memories. Video clips, many starring a young Steve Jobs, were played. </p>