計(jì)算機(jī)發(fā)明人杰夫拉斯金去世英語(yǔ)文章
Jef Raskin: He Thought Different
美國(guó)蘋果Macintosh計(jì)算機(jī)發(fā)明人杰夫·拉斯金2月26日因病在家中去世，享年61歲。提起蘋果公司的大名，或許大家都會(huì)將目光集中在公司現(xiàn)任CEO斯蒂夫·喬布斯的身上，然而又有誰(shuí)清楚蘋果今天輝煌業(yè)績(jī)的真正締造者——杰夫·拉斯金先生的名字呢?
Until his Feb. 26 death at 61, the creator of the Macintosh led the rallying cry for easy-to-use computers, leaving an indelible mark on Silicon Valley and helping to revolutionize the computer industry.
美國(guó)蘋果Macintosh計(jì)算機(jī)發(fā)明人杰夫·拉斯金2月26日因病在家中去世，享年61歲。說(shuō)到杰夫·拉斯金這個(gè)名字，或許大多數(shù)人并不十分清楚。確實(shí)他并不像比爾蓋茨那樣，是世界聞名的巨型集團(tuán)的CEO，他也不曾擁有動(dòng)輒千萬(wàn)美元的資產(chǎn)，他只是一個(gè)默默無(wú)聞的高科技工作者。提起蘋果公司的大名，或許大家都會(huì)將目光集中在公司現(xiàn)任CEO斯蒂夫·喬布斯的身上，然而又有誰(shuí)清楚蘋果今天輝煌業(yè)績(jī)的真正締造者——杰夫·拉斯金先生的名字呢?
據(jù)美國(guó)《商業(yè)周刊》3月1日?qǐng)?bào)道，蘋果公司知名產(chǎn)品Macintosh計(jì)算機(jī)就出自拉斯金之手，而拉斯金先生在電腦產(chǎn)品易用性方面作出的貢獻(xiàn)幾乎貫穿了整個(gè)硅谷的發(fā)展歷史。我們可以這樣說(shuō)，拉斯金先生改變了當(dāng)前電腦產(chǎn)品的操縱方式。2月26日，這位勤勤懇懇的老人因?yàn)橐认侔┩砥谠诿绹?guó)家中去世，享年61歲。
去世之前的半年時(shí)間中，拉斯金先生將他的全部精力投入到一款名為Archy的操作系統(tǒng)軟件研發(fā)中，根據(jù)項(xiàng)目中的合作伙伴提供的信息，此款操作系統(tǒng)將會(huì)大大提高用戶易用性，并且有望將電腦用戶溝通技術(shù)引入一個(gè)新的紀(jì)元。去年夏天，拉斯金先生的最后一個(gè)項(xiàng)目正式啟動(dòng)，然而也就是在同一時(shí)間，他被查出患有嚴(yán)重的胰腺癌。拉斯金先生并沒(méi)有被疾病束縛住，他堅(jiān)持在半年的時(shí)間內(nèi)完成了軟件工程的大體框架設(shè)計(jì)工作。
在蘋果公司的發(fā)展史上，拉斯金先生可謂是戰(zhàn)功顯赫。拉斯金先生以蘋果公司第31號(hào)員工的身份加入了公司，在接下來(lái)的時(shí)間里，拉斯金的產(chǎn)品設(shè)計(jì)天賦得以體現(xiàn)，Macintosh以及iPod等蘋果知名產(chǎn)品先后誕生在拉斯金先生的旗下。當(dāng)拉斯金先生帶領(lǐng)團(tuán)隊(duì)研發(fā)蘋果Macintosh產(chǎn)品的時(shí)候，他手下僅有4至5名工作人員。Macintosh在市場(chǎng)上取得的熱烈反響幫助蘋果打響了進(jìn)軍IT產(chǎn)業(yè)的第一槍，并最終躋身為美國(guó)頂級(jí)個(gè)人電腦制造商的行列。
拉斯金的構(gòu)想在當(dāng)時(shí)的IT領(lǐng)域可謂是獨(dú)樹(shù)一幟，在他的眼中電腦產(chǎn)品應(yīng)該是以一種低廉價(jià)格的`形式出現(xiàn)在市場(chǎng)上，并且應(yīng)該擁有簡(jiǎn)單易用的特性來(lái)吸引那些非科技用戶。在拉斯金的大力倡導(dǎo)下，蘋果公司一直走在家用個(gè)人電腦領(lǐng)域的技術(shù)最前沿。他創(chuàng)造了“點(diǎn)擊”和“拖拉”的鼠標(biāo)選項(xiàng)，Macintosh正式推出后，圖形界面的出現(xiàn)徹底改變了人機(jī)對(duì)話的方式。最終其他絕大部分的軟件都開(kāi)始走上圖形界面之路，其中也包括微軟的Windows操作系統(tǒng)。
不過(guò)就在Mac計(jì)算機(jī)推向市場(chǎng)的兩年前，蘋果公司現(xiàn)任CEO斯蒂夫·喬布斯先生接手這一項(xiàng)目，而因?yàn)楸舜说拿芾菇鹱罱K離開(kāi)了公司。不過(guò)，他一手打造的研發(fā)團(tuán)隊(duì)還是沿著他的構(gòu)想，最終設(shè)計(jì)出了具有劃時(shí)代意義的Macintosh計(jì)算機(jī)。
在離開(kāi)蘋果公司后，拉斯金自己創(chuàng)辦了一家名為Information Appliance的公司，并與佳能公司聯(lián)手推出另一款小型電腦產(chǎn)品Canon Cat。此款產(chǎn)品中整合的搜索功能甚至還要高于現(xiàn)在Windows中整合的搜索功能。然而因?yàn)樯虡I(yè)運(yùn)作方面的失誤，拉斯金先生品嘗到了失敗的痛苦。不過(guò)也有人將產(chǎn)品的失敗歸咎于佳能公司市場(chǎng)推廣方面的失職。最終的結(jié)果是Canon Cat僅僅賣出了不到2萬(wàn)臺(tái)，并且在不久之后就淡出了消費(fèi)者的視線。
2000年，拉斯金出版了一本名為《人本界面》(Humane Interface)的著作，書中闡述了界面設(shè)計(jì)的基本原理。這本書還被翻譯成多種文字出版發(fā)行。另外，拉斯金還建立了一個(gè)名為“拉斯金中心”的非盈利性用戶界面理論研究中心，上文提到的Archy就是研究中心最新的一個(gè)項(xiàng)目。
有很多事情可以讓拉斯金激情澎湃，他的家庭、音樂(lè)、藝術(shù)等等……然而，致力于讓電腦更容易使用的工作占據(jù)了他大部分時(shí)間。用戶總是在尋找應(yīng)用程序以及相關(guān)文件上耗費(fèi)大量的精力。而拉斯金先生感到自己有義務(wù)幫助世界上成千上萬(wàn)的電腦用戶節(jié)省大量不必要浪費(fèi)的時(shí)間。
現(xiàn)在這位傳奇性的蘋果天才已經(jīng)離開(kāi)了人間，他的理想何時(shí)才能得以實(shí)現(xiàn)?
(國(guó)際在線獨(dú)家資訊 李遠(yuǎn))
Jef Raskin wasn"t the typical tech industry power broker. He was never a celebrity CEO, never a Midas-touch venture capitalist, and never conspicuously wealthy (although he was wealthy). Yet until his Feb. 26 death at 61, the creator of the Macintosh led the rallying cry for easy-to-use computers, leaving an indelible mark on Silicon Valley and helping to revolutionize the computer industry.
The tech world won"t know the final impact of Raskin"s work until several more months, perhaps years. At the time of his death, he was working on what he hoped would be his biggest mark yet: a new type of operating system called Archy. Friends and co-workers describe it as his longtime vision of easy-to-use computing brought to life.
Last December, funding from an unnamed international company came through at almost the same time his pancreatic cancer was discovered, and Raskin threw himself into completing the framework of the system in his final months, says David Burstein, who"s making a film about Raskin"s life and did dozens of interviews with him late last year and early this year.
Raskin was programming up until he could no longer type, about a week ago, says his 21-year-old son, Aza Raskin, who worked with him on Archy for six years. "Jef largely ignored being sick," he says. "He thought it was more important to keep his work going. The only thing that happened was he worked harder if that"s possible." Raskin"s death came as the last in a series of untimely exits that circumstances forced Raskin to make just as he was hitting his stride on a project. He had several bittersweet successes.
The first, and most famous, was his role in developing the Macintosh. Raskin was employee No. 31 at Apple (AAPL ) before the launch of the Macintosh, iMac, iPod, or any of the other ubiquitous brands that have made the company famous. He headed the Macintosh project back when it consisted of just four or five people, says former co-worker Bruce "Tog"
Tognazzini, who was employee No. 66 at Apple and hired by Raskin. Raskin"s vision: to build an affordable computer designed for nontechy consumers -- a radical idea at a time when using a computer required memorizing complex codes and commands. Raskin"s credits include "drag and drop" capability and introducing Apple"s founders to much of the work at Xerox"s XRX ) Palo Alto Research Center, which made such innovations as the the mouse and the basic structure for the windows and folders still prevalent on operating systems today. And Raskin bestowed the project with the name Macintosh, after his favorite kind of apple.
Raskin then took time to do what he loved most: teaching and thinking. He studied how people used computers for 10 years, writing the book The Humane Interface.
About four years ago, still disgusted by the difficulty of computer use, he decided to give his vision another try. He founded the Raskin Center for Humane Interfaces, a nonprofit that"s developing Archy. He had already been working on the concept for two years with Aza, a math whiz who published his first writings on physics at the age of 19.
Raskin had many passions: his family, music, art, and archery among them. But making computers simpler to use dominated his creative time. Friends quote words of wisdom he would use over and over again. He liked to say, "How much work does a user get done on a desktop?" The answer is none, that it"s wasted time trying to find an application or file -- a problem he was trying to solve with Archy.
Raskin is survived by his children, Aza, Aviva, Aenea, and Rebecca, and his wife of 23 years, Linda Blum. The family hasn"t announced a memorial service yet. No doubt he"ll be missed, but his contributions to the Information Age will not be forgotten. (：夏根建)
【計(jì)算機(jī)發(fā)明人杰夫拉斯金去世英語(yǔ)文章】相關(guān)文章：
3.贊美喬布斯的文章