Comment by wglass
1 day ago
Oh man. Both love and hate this video. It’s so slick, which seems the opposite of the late 70s homebrew backer culture.
The video is designed to appeal to nerd nostalgia. However it has problems right from the start when it emphasizes Jobs not Woz (the true nerd hero), including a stylized ascii art.
According to the video, this item is exceptional because it’s fully operational. However paradoxically that’s because it’s never been used. The video praises the owner who bought it and stuck it in a closet, never turning it on. It implicitly puts down the actual users who actually used the machine (burning the paint) and especially those who tinkered with and modifying the machine.
As someone who grew up in the 80s hacking my Apple II+ doing everything from playing Lemonade Stand to building custom coprocessor boards, I salute those who actually used their Apple machines to the max, destroying the collector value.
> it emphasizes Jobs not Woz (the true nerd hero), including a stylized ascii art.
I rewatched it: https://youtu.be/XdBKuBhdZwg?si=nywGYWzsB5HmW2AB&t=184
Woz appears first, then Jobs shortly, then the Apple logo. Arguably Woz's face even appears slightly longer because there's a short pause whereas Jobs just flies by to the Apple logo.
Later there's both "Woz and Jobs holding Apple I".
The video description explicitly calls out "The Steve Wozniak-designed computer".
The by-name callouts in the video are:
- "hand-built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak"
- "in Steve Job's mom's garage."
- Jobs acting as a salesman
I'm not really sure how Jobs is emphasised at all.
There's a certain type of nerd that just can't stand Jobs and seems to have a complex about the archetypes that Jobs and Woz represent.
Fair enough! Guilty of that attitude, no doubt. I note the corrections in the message above re emphasis on Woz/Jobs.
I think mostly I was annoyed at the emphasis on how the computer is untouched and unused, which seemed the antithesis of the spirit of those early days.
Having said all that, I really felt an urge to bid, though no doubt it's 10x what I can afford.