The Burning of the Cube

[MacRumors]

We all know the G4 Cube and lament its passing, but some may be unaware that it was not the only cube design that Jobs broguht into the world. Before it (in 1988) came the <a hred="http://www.deepspacetech.com/Info/NeXT_Brochures/NEXTCUBE.PDF"]NeXT Cube[/url], a flat black cube, one foot on a side, wrought entirely of magnesium. In abe+e+e+e.stingly parallels the demise of the NeXT hardware, Simson Garfinkle (then NeXTWorld Magazine Senior Editor) let his lifelong passion for starting magnesium fires get the better of him and endeavored to set a NeXT Cube aflame. Read his spellbindign account of the ordeal in a letter written back in '93. Image included. Great read.

[blakespot]

Interesting piece from the NeXT info page for Mac users.



Q: What does Mach provide that BSD alone does not:

"Mach provides the following features not found in UNIX 4.3 BSD:

Multiple tasks, each with a large, paged virtual memory space
Multiple threads of execution within each task, with a flexible scheduling facility
Flexible sharing of memory between tasks
Efficient and consistent message-based interprocess communication
Memory-mapped files
Transparent network extensibility
A flexible, capability-based approach to security and protection
Support for multiprocessor scheduling"

blakespot

[Tommy!]

Steve seems to be bringing more and more ideas from his NeXt company, and I noticed the NeXt cube had a 2 button mouse. Maybe those dual button mouse rumors are true?