NeXT Computer Inc was founded by Steve Jobs in 1985. Most people know
Steve Jobs as being from Apple, but in 1985 he lost favour at Apple
and left, along with 5 board members to form NeXT. At the time
Jobs thought NeXT would be the next big thing, it turned out to
be a good study of failure.
Timeline:
- 1985: Steve Jobs founds NeXT computer with his own money. ($7 million)
- End of 1986: Jobs is almost out of money, by coincidence Ross Perot
finds out about NeXT, likes what he sees and buys a 16% stake in the
company for $20 million.
- Autumn 1988: The black cube NeXT systems finally ships. Originally
promised for Spring 1987, it's now ready. The system is more powerfull
than any PC or Mac on the market, uses optical storage, and really stands
out. But, it had problems.
- Problems:
- Price tag of $6000.
- No software support. When Microsoft came to visit Steve Jobs let them
sit the the lobby for 30 minutes. Bill Gates is latter quoted as saying
"Develop for it? I'll p!ss on it."
- A final version of the Opearting System wasn't available until the end
of 1989.
- Early 1990's: Tim Berners-Lee works on NeXT systems while developing
an indexing and linking method for acedemic instutions using hypertext.
This became the html which forms the foundation of the web.
- 1993: NeXT pulls out of the computer hardware industry.
- 1993-1996: NeXT continues doing software development. They develop
NeXTStep, available for both Unix machines and PCs. NeXT refuses to die.
- 1996: Apple has been looking for a new OS. They haven't been able
to reach agreement with BeOS, so they buy NeXT for $400 million.
A nice article about NeXT and Steve Jobs is available at:
This is a multi cache. You'll need a car (or maybe a boat?) to get between
the 2 major points.
-
Location #1: N37 30.095 W122 12.737 this is in the same office complex
as NeXT headquarters. They used to be at 300 Chesapeake Dr. Can you find the old buiding? At the first point you will see many masts in the harbor.
But that's not what you are interested in, there's some "masts" very close. Take
note of how many there are.
- Cache location:
- N 37° 30.629
- W 122° 11.XY6
- XY = Number of Masts + 41
For the final location there's parking N37° 30.845 W 122° 11.753 (these are coordinates for the old geocache) It's about a half mile hike.
Initial contents (first cache):
- Log+Pen
- Where's George dollar
- 2 AA batteries (for finding location #2)
- Camera (let me know when it's used up)
- QIC-100 backup tape
Inital contents of the new cache:
- Log+pen
- Canadian Tire 1$ bill
- Geocaching letter
I didn't have much to pout in a new cache. :(