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."
Dennis I think It is said that only you and I remember little Stompie. Jean Bertrand Aristide used the same tactics.
bah send me a music link plz
“said that only you”
Sad”
Visicalc enabled me and my right hand associate to bid, get, followup, manage, order products, maintain delivery schedules for a complex construction project on the far side of the world requiring thousands of different sizes and types of products.
We were absolute low cost because two did what five or ten would have been required .
We had a radio shack model 3 and Visicalc
Probably so
But when Stompie actually happened me and a friend would often discuss it......
Because it was so bizarre and hard to explain. with what we knew about the world back then
Winnie Mandel was living large and living very crazy.
She lived in a huge mansion in Soweto and who doubts she wasn't having sex with her so called soccer team.
She lived a mad life while Nelson Mandela was supposed to project a dignified image
Everyone else lived in shacks in Soweto
She was the queen just by being married to Mandela
I purposely skipped that Gran Torino movie....too PC for me
: (
I hope Bibi remembers Yonni.
The west is dying old FRiend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiV-jsdGNd0
I looked at the demo video of Bricklin's NoteTaker. It may not be a killer app for the iPhone, but it's sure is a fun app, from what I can see.
I mean..., to be able to write and scrawl on your note page with your finger, "writing" things out seems to be fun to me. There are certain instances where I might want to do that -- or simply to "draw" a picture or diagram. That would be useful.
Yep, I'm going to take a look at it (I understand that he has a free version, too, so I'll check it out there first...).
or you could try this for the iPhone....Currently free at the App Store.
Dragon Dictation App, spoken words are instantly transcribed using the world-renowned power of Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition, giving anyone the power to simply “say anything” up to five times faster than typing.
Wow - it took till post 47 for a full-blown troll post came in. I am impressed...
I toyed with a Commodore 64, too. As a matter of fact, yes, I actually did write a program using punch cards in college.
Now look at us. The internet is linking brains around the world. I don't happen to think that's a good thing.
There'll be no "la difference" to "viva" soon enough...
But, now, speaking of spreadsheets...I think they are — specifically, Excel is — the coolest thing in the world — absolutely the most useful piece of software written. It is to business what the Model T was to transportation, or something like that. Pays my bills (when I work), fuels my creativity...I’m so grateful for it.
I was still using Pong back then.
Excel is way cool, although I’ve forgotten 90% of what I once knew!
Ed
That BS... the profit margin for Apple is approximately 31%
Software Patents were not allowed until 1981...
On the other hand, copyrights on software were not too useful, either.
Thanks for that.
He ought to have sought out whatever protection he could, as soon as it was available (IMHO).
I used VisiCalc on my Atari computer. I later met Dan Bricklin when I was the product manager for SuperCalc4 at Computer Associates. He’s a funny and likeable guy. Mitch Kapor? Not so much. Lotus 1-2-3 was a terrible product. I left CA when they refused to start work on a Windows version of SuperCalc. I showed them Excel on a Mac and said if you don’t think MS is working on a Windows version of this you’re nuts. History shows I was right.
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