A Behind the Scenes Look at a Steve Jobs Keynote

[MacRumors]

Former Apple employee Don Melton has been sharing a unique look behind the scenes of the Safari development team. Melton was the team leader on both the Safari and WebKit products that are now used by millions of users on iOS, the Mac, and Windows.

Previously, Melton explained how the Safari name came about, and the tale of Safari's User Agent string and the strategies his team used to keep the project under wraps.

Today, he shared details of the launch of Safari some ten years ago at the Macworld Expo in 2003. One of the more revealing sections of the piece looks behind the scenes at Steve Jobs' rehearsals for his presentation and some of the things that could have gone wrong.

Of course, thanks to Jobs' impeccable preparation, the Safari presentation -- and everything else that was revealed that day -- went off without a hitch.

Until I watched that video I found and posted of the Macworld keynote, I had completely forgotten what else was announced that day. Which is pretty sad considering I saw Steve rehearse the whole thing at least four times.

But you have to realize I was totally focused on Safari. And Scott Forstall, my boss, wanted me at those rehearsals in case something went wrong with it.

There's nothing that can fill your underwear faster than seeing your product fail during a Steve Jobs demo.

One of my concerns at the time was network reliability. So, I brought Ken Kocienda, the first Safari engineer, with me to troubleshoot since he wrote so much of our networking code. If necessary, Ken could also diagnose and duct tape any other part of Safari too. He coined one of our team aphorisms, "If it doesn't fit, you're not shoving hard enough."

[...]

Most of the time during those rehearsals, Ken and I had nothing to do except sit in the then empty audience and watch The Master Presenter at work -- crafting his keynote. What a privilege to be a spectator during that process. At Apple, we were actually all students, not just spectators. When I see other companies clumsily announce products these days, I realize again how much the rest of the world lost now that Steve is gone.

The full article is worth a read for anyone who wants a peek behind the Apple curtain.

Article Link: A Behind the Scenes Look at a Steve Jobs Keynote

 

[mankar4]

This would have been a great episode of punk'd (sarcasm)

 

[thelink]

Miss you Steve......

 

[crossifixio]

10 years ago! Wow. Birth of Safari!

 

[jayducharme]

He coined one of our team aphorisms, “If it doesn’t fit, you’re not shoving hard enough.”

Love it! One of my own maxims.

 

[iRCL]

I was excited about reading this article, until I realized it was another Don Melton story with zero content in it.

SUMMARY: I SAT IN AN EMPTY AUDITORIUM 4 TIMES WATCHING STEVE JOBS, WITHOUT ANY SPECIFIC COMMENT ON WHAT HAPPENED, AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT WENT ON OR WHAT OTHER PRODUCTS WERE THERE.

I'm not joking when I say -- are you even sure it's Don Melton making these comments, or are you being trolled? Literally anyone could have written these 3 stories, there are absolutely no details in any of them

I've read MacRumors for years now and these are probably the lamest stories I have ever seen run

 

[unobtainium]

I was excited about reading this article, until I realized it was another Don Melton story with zero content in it.

SUMMARY: I SAT IN AN EMPTY AUDITORIUM 4 TIMES WATCHING STEVE JOBS, WITHOUT ANY SPECIFIC COMMENT ON WHAT HAPPENED, AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT WENT ON OR WHAT OTHER PRODUCTS WERE THERE.

I'm not joking when I say -- are you even sure it's Don Melton making these comments, or are you being trolled? Literally anyone could have written these 3 stories, there are absolutely no details in any of them

I've read MacRumors for years now and these are probably the lamest stories I have ever seen run

Cool story bro.

 

[mrxak]

I was excited about reading this article, until I realized it was another Don Melton story with zero content in it.

SUMMARY: I SAT IN AN EMPTY AUDITORIUM 4 TIMES WATCHING STEVE JOBS, WITHOUT ANY SPECIFIC COMMENT ON WHAT HAPPENED, AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT WENT ON OR WHAT OTHER PRODUCTS WERE THERE.

I'm not joking when I say -- are you even sure it's Don Melton making these comments, or are you being trolled? Literally anyone could have written these 3 stories, there are absolutely no details in any of them

I've read MacRumors for years now and these are probably the lamest stories I have ever seen run

Yeah, I was actually hoping to get to read about those keynote rehearsals.

 

[RobertD63]

I was excited about reading this article, until I realized it was another Don Melton story with zero content in it.

SUMMARY: I SAT IN AN EMPTY AUDITORIUM 4 TIMES WATCHING STEVE JOBS, WITHOUT ANY SPECIFIC COMMENT ON WHAT HAPPENED, AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT WENT ON OR WHAT OTHER PRODUCTS WERE THERE.

I'm not joking when I say -- are you even sure it's Don Melton making these comments, or are you being trolled? Literally anyone could have written these 3 stories, there are absolutely no details in any of them

I've read MacRumors for years now and these are probably the lamest stories I have ever seen run

Woah, who spit in your coffee? I thought the article was interesting. Also it's a good look into how things happened.

But I guess if it isn't exactly what iRCL likes, no one should.

 

[mrsir2009]

10 years ago! Wow. Birth of Safari!

Death of Internet Explorer for Mac *shudder*

 

[iRCL]

Cool story bro.

Cool, I remember when people used to say that like 2 years ago

 

[mamcx]

SUMMARY: I SAT IN AN EMPTY AUDITORIUM 4 TIMES WATCHING STEVE JOBS, WITHOUT ANY SPECIFIC COMMENT ON WHAT HAPPENED, AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT WENT ON OR WHAT OTHER PRODUCTS WERE THERE.

That is because is not the angle of the history. The angle is about safari, not about steve jobs presentations, that part is there as anecdote and look like is for show the anxiety of demo a very unlikely piece of software (KHTML), and that Apple is betting on it, instead of go to the most "safe" route.

As a developer myself, I can relate to the fear of showcase a product for first time, one that is very visible, on top of something technically good but non-battle-tested.

And can relate to with not pay much attention to anything else. What matter what was Steve doing, exactly, except that the software WORK!!!

 

[unobtainium]

Cool, I remember when people used to say that like 2 years ago

Cool, I remember when I couldn't give less of a ******* what dorks on the Internet were saying when.

 

[MBHockey]

MR -- why do you guys keep posting "stories" from this guy?

They are uninteresting, uninformative, and are constantly misrepresented by the story's title.

 

[Alfred.Woodden]

I was excited about reading this article, until I realized it was another Don Melton story with zero content in it.

SUMMARY: I SAT IN AN EMPTY AUDITORIUM 4 TIMES WATCHING STEVE JOBS, WITHOUT ANY SPECIFIC COMMENT ON WHAT HAPPENED, AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT WENT ON OR WHAT OTHER PRODUCTS WERE THERE.

I'm not joking when I say -- are you even sure it's Don Melton making these comments, or are you being trolled? Literally anyone could have written these 3 stories, there are absolutely no details in any of them

I've read MacRumors for years now and these are probably the lamest stories I have ever seen run

I found the story interesting and entertaining to read. I love these ex-apple employee stories working on Apple projects and around Steve JObs like a fly on the wall.

I'd like more stories like these.

 

[CaptainPrice01]

Death of Internet Explorer for Mac *shudder*

Thanks Goodness. Hated IE for Mac.

 

[Porco]

This reminds me of the old joke:

Knock knock

Who's there?

A new web browser

A new web browser who… ?

A new web browser based on KHTML!

Oh, well Ok, I was expecting it to be Gecko, that's all. I admit it, you really fooled me you crafty sneaky joker.

 

[chocolaterabbit]

Cool, I remember when I couldn't give less of a ******* what dorks on the Internet were saying when.

Yet only the dorks on the internet used the phrase "cool story bro"

 

[wonderspark]

I thought this was more amusing, myself.

 

[mrsir2009]

Thanks Goodness. Hated IE for Mac.

Although when I used it when I was little it didn’t actually seem that bad. It is of course beyond monsterous now, but maybe that’s just because the internet has advanced so much since then

 

[Rocketman]

When I see other companies clumsily announce products these days, I realize again how much the rest of the world lost now that Steve is gone.

I totally agree. The RDF was rehersed not fictional. Not a Safari user.

 

[CaptainPrice01]

Although when I used it when I was little it didn’t actually seem that bad. It is of course beyond monsterous now, but maybe that’s just because the internet has advanced so much since then

True that, I preferred using Netscape at the time though. I felt IE was too "foreign" on Mac OS 7 and 8.

 

[a0me]

I was excited about reading this article, until I realized it was another Don Melton story with zero content in it.

SUMMARY: I SAT IN AN EMPTY AUDITORIUM 4 TIMES WATCHING STEVE JOBS, WITHOUT ANY SPECIFIC COMMENT ON WHAT HAPPENED, AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT WENT ON OR WHAT OTHER PRODUCTS WERE THERE.

For completeness sake, here's the summary of the 2 other articles.
Article 1: Safari Developer Doesn't Remember Where the Name 'Safari' Came From.
Article 2: Safari Developer Used a Fake User Agent String Before Safari's Official Release

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Article is nothing more than a boring humble brag.

 

[lordofthereef]

Although when I used it when I was little it didn’t actually seem that bad. It is of course beyond monsterous now, but maybe that’s just because the internet has advanced so much since then

What is beyond monstrous? The current form of IE is quit capable. I would say safari (which was also terrible for a while up until the last year or so) go toe to toe. The difference is that IE was never good, up until recently.