Did Apple Rip Off Xerox, and Other Questions?

Answer a series of forehead-slapping anecdotal factoids. It's up to you to weigh each fact in each anecdotal factoid. They're tricky. One might seem like total B.S. until it's revealed to be strangely and disturbingly "True." Another anecdotal factoid might seem to contain all solid and verifiable facts until it's revealed to be yet one more big fat garden variety "Bald-Faced Lie." And here's the trickiest part: an anecdotal factoid might even be "Half-True"; in other words, a mishmosh of truths and bald-faced lies, where you don't know where one ends and the other begins, much like the usual slop served by Madison Avenue, Washington D.C., and the Internet in its entirety.

Category: "This Apple has no worm" trivia quiz

Decide for yourself, and mark "T" for "Truth", "F" for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" for "Half-Truth" in the blank slot next to each factoid.

The answers will be revealed on the next page.

1) __ In 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne co-founded Apple Computer. A few months later, partner Ronald Wayne sold out his shares in the company for $800 and became a lost name in Silicon Valley history.

2) __ In 1979, when Steve Jobs visited Xerox Parc, Xerox's research facility, he saw the Xerox Alto, the first personal computer to have a graphical user interface and a mouse. Unfortunately for Xerox, they didn't think that a personal computer would be a viable commercial product at the time. Jobs told his partner Woz about the Alto and they incorporated the innovations into the Lisa, the first Apple product with a mouse and a graphical user interface. While the Lisa was a market flop, its unique design evolved into the Macintosh.

3) __ In 1985, Steve Jobs left Apple after he was stripped of his powers during a corporate dispute. He then sold all but one share of his company stock.

4) __ In 1975, Steve Wozniak dropped out of UC Berkeley engineering school to co-found Apple Computers. In the eighties, he returned to Berkeley to complete his engineering degree, receiving a B.S. under the name Rocky Raccoon Clark.

5) __ In 1988, Steve Jobs left Apple to start NeXT Computers, a venture that lost $250 million. The current Apple OS X operating system is actually based on Steve Jobs' failed NeXT computer's operating system.

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Here are the answers for "This Apple has no worm" trivia quiz

Answers:

A reminder: "T" is for "Truth", "F" is for "Bald-Faced Lie" or "TF" is for "Half-Truth".

1) T: It's true that Ronald Wayne was one of the three original Apple partners. Also true, he sold out his shares in the company for $800. This was because he didn't want to bear any responsibility for any debt incurred by the company. In fact, Wayne was brought in to be a deciding vote if the two Steves had a dispute. He was given a 10% share of the company.

In all fairness to Ronald Wayne, he did design the first Apple logo and wrote the manual for the Apple I. His current whereabouts is unknown.

2) T: It's true that Jobs visited Xerox Parc, and wound up incorporating the Xerox Alto's features into the Lisa, the first Apple product with a mouse and a graphical user interface.

When Jobs accused Bill Gates of ripping off the Macintosh's graphical user interface for the Windows operating system, Gates reminded Jobs of the Xerox Alto.

3) T: It's true that Steve Jobs sold all but one share of his company stock when he left the company.

4) T: It's true that Woz returned to Berkeley and received a B.S. under the name Rocky Raccoon Clark. "Rocky Raccoon" was his dog's name and a Beatles song. "Clark" was his first wife's maiden name.

5) T: It's true that the current Apple OS X operating system is based on the NeXT computer's operating system.

SOURCES:

"Apple Confidential", Owen W. Linzmayer, URL: (http://extras.denverpost.com/books/chap0411h.htm)

"20 great moments in Apple history", David M. Ewalt, Forbes, URL: (http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/30/apple-history-jobs_cx_de_0331APPLEHISTORY.html)

http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?ID=337

"The five biggest computer failures", Martin Sargent, G4TV, URL: (http://www.g4tv.com/techtvvault/features/29772/The_Five_Biggest_Computer_Failures_pg2.html)

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200611/20061117_wozniak.html