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VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin: From killer app to iPhone app
Mac Daily News ^ | 12/7/2009

Posted on 12/07/2009 11:03:42 PM PST by Swordmaker

"In the classroom at Harvard Business School where Dan Bricklin came up with the idea for an electronic spreadsheet, there now hangs a plaque that designates the resulting software program as the 'original killer app of the information age,'" Scott Kirsner reports for Boston.com.

"Bricklin and his colleague Bob Frankston formed a company in 1979, Software Arts, which would eventually sell the VisiCalc spreadsheet program for $99. It ran on a new 'personal computer' called the Apple II," Kirsner reports.

"Thirty years later, Bricklin is now selling a $1.99 app for the iPhone called Dan Bricklin's NoteTaker," Kirsner reports. "It debuted last Friday on Apple's iTunes Store, and is climbing up the list of most-popular productivity apps sold through the online store."

Direct link via YouTube here.

Kirsner reports, "Bricklin told me he has been interested in developing a mobile app for some time; his last big project was SocialCalc, a collaborative online spreadsheet that is being marketed by Palo Alto-baed SocialText and may soon be included on the One Laptop Per Child initiative's low-cost laptops. He considered developing for the Palm Pre and Google's Android operating system, but instead chose the iPhone since Apple's customers had already proven their willingness to pay for all kinds of software."

Full article here.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
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To: Swordmaker

All things in time.

Snob.

But if I stay here with you, then I will lead them to their doom. Eventually, all things merge into one.


41 posted on 12/08/2009 1:16:04 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (Hope rides alone.)
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To: freedumb2003

dBASE II on a Kaypro 40 lbs portable, running C/PM.


42 posted on 12/08/2009 1:41:03 AM PST by blackd77
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To: freedumb2003
Everyone who USED Visicalc raise your hand.

Got the t-shirt, too!


43 posted on 12/08/2009 2:20:58 AM PST by WVKayaker (www.wherezobama.org / Obama's Excellent Adventure ...)
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To: freedumb2003

On a Trash 80 Oh so many years ago...


44 posted on 12/08/2009 2:46:51 AM PST by dalight
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To: freedumb2003
I started with Visicalc then migrated to Lotus123 and then Quattro Pro, it was so much better than Lotus. It took me a while to move on to Excel from Quattro Pro but I eventually had to make the move to be compatible with the rest of my company.
45 posted on 12/08/2009 3:17:40 AM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: Red_Devil 232

lol


46 posted on 12/08/2009 3:33:11 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream.)
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To: Swordmaker
He ... chose the iPhone since Apple's customers had already proven they're like Lemmings with their adolescent willingness to pay for all kinds of over priced useless crap that 98% of the people don't want and can't use.

I *once* considered buying an Apple computer until it came out that they were charging a 100% markup on its cost. Well I may have born at night. But not last night. Screw them Steve Jobs, fricken pot head.

47 posted on 12/08/2009 3:53:50 AM PST by Condor51 (The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits)
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To: freedumb2003
DBase 2? :) Actually, ahead of its time...

I programmed in Dbase 2 in the early 80's, God, a lifetime ago.
I wrote a quite a few new commands for it, that appeared in Dbase3, that Wayne Radcliffe(sic) bought for $200.00 a pop.

A trivia quote, from a conversation I had with Wayne in 1984:

Fedupjohn: "Wayne, why can I only open 17 files at one time?...
Wayne Radcliffe: "I wrote Dbase to handicap football games, and that all that I needed."

A very nice man.

48 posted on 12/08/2009 3:55:49 AM PST by fedupjohn (If we try to fight the war on terror with eyes shut + ears packed with wax, innocent people will die)
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To: Swordmaker

I bet there aren’t many Freepers who actually used Visicalc. But I did. It was, at the time, simply amazing. A revolution in computing.


49 posted on 12/08/2009 4:33:53 AM PST by InterceptPoint
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To: InterceptPoint
I bet there aren’t many Freepers who actually used Visicalc. But I did. It was, at the time, simply amazing. A revolution in computing.

Plain old word processing was a revolution in the sense of being very very useful to people who need to write a lot
We take word processing for granted these days and have done so for years

Circa 1983 I visited some relatives who were college professors and they had a Stanford connection.
Stanford offered every prof an Apple computer either free or very discounted
They were beyond thrilled to be able to write and type and be able to cut and paste and rearrange pages
Obviously none of this existed prior to the personal computer

50 posted on 12/08/2009 4:44:05 AM PST by dennisw
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To: happinesswithoutpeace
All things in time. Snob. But if I stay here with you, then I will lead them to their doom. Eventually, all things merge into one.

Dude... Decaf.

51 posted on 12/08/2009 4:51:40 AM PST by SlowBoat407 (Achtung. preparen zie fur die obamahopenchangen.)
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To: SlowBoat407

Blah...


52 posted on 12/08/2009 4:52:26 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream.)
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To: dennisw

Hey!


53 posted on 12/08/2009 4:53:26 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream.)
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To: happinesswithoutpeace

Hey Ho the Derry-O


54 posted on 12/08/2009 5:02:09 AM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw

How are things :)


55 posted on 12/08/2009 5:02:55 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream.)
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To: happinesswithoutpeace

...as well as can be expected given that puke in the white house dictating cap and trade via the EPA.

Krauthammer got it right and called it cap without the trade


56 posted on 12/08/2009 5:22:55 AM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw

Well thanks to all the morons who stayed home last election cycle :(


57 posted on 12/08/2009 5:28:09 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream.)
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To: Swordmaker

Invented VisiCalc —> smart.
Consciously declined to get a patent —> stupid.


58 posted on 12/08/2009 5:31:46 AM PST by Petronski (Global warming is indeed man-made: it was created by man-made manipulation of the data.)
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To: happinesswithoutpeace

Stompie & Winnie was our topic last time. You will be overjoyed to learn that Clint Eastwood’s movies ...each one is more liberal than the last.

Just in time for Christmas he has a Mandela pic coming out with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman. So clear your busy holiday schedule,, make time to see it. I wonder if Winnie is in it. Mandela was disgusted with that P-I-G and divorced her


59 posted on 12/08/2009 5:32:41 AM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw

I didn’t see that Gran..tur..something whatever flik...A good flik would be about the Rhodesian Troopies :)


60 posted on 12/08/2009 5:35:56 AM PST by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream.)
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