計算機發(fā)明人杰夫拉斯金去世英語文章
Jef Raskin: He Thought Different
美國蘋果Macintosh計算機發(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，然而又有誰清楚蘋果今天輝煌業(yè)績的真正締造者——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.
美國蘋果Macintosh計算機發(fā)明人杰夫·拉斯金2月26日因病在家中去世，享年61歲。說到杰夫·拉斯金這個名字，或許大多數(shù)人并不十分清楚。確實他并不像比爾蓋茨那樣，是世界聞名的巨型集團的CEO，他也不曾擁有動輒千萬美元的資產(chǎn)，他只是一個默默無聞的高科技工作者。提起蘋果公司的大名，或許大家都會將目光集中在公司現(xiàn)任CEO斯蒂夫·喬布斯的身上，然而又有誰清楚蘋果今天輝煌業(yè)績的真正締造者——杰夫·拉斯金先生的名字呢?
據(jù)美國《商業(yè)周刊》3月1日報道，蘋果公司知名產(chǎn)品Macintosh計算機就出自拉斯金之手，而拉斯金先生在電腦產(chǎn)品易用性方面作出的貢獻幾乎貫穿了整個硅谷的發(fā)展歷史。我們可以這樣說，拉斯金先生改變了當前電腦產(chǎn)品的操縱方式。2月26日，這位勤勤懇懇的老人因為胰腺癌晚期在美國家中去世，享年61歲。
去世之前的半年時間中，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)項目中的合作伙伴提供的信息，此款操作系統(tǒng)將會大大提高用戶易用性，并且有望將電腦用戶溝通技術引入一個新的紀元。去年夏天，拉斯金先生的最后一個項目正式啟動，然而也就是在同一時間，他被查出患有嚴重的胰腺癌。拉斯金先生并沒有被疾病束縛住，他堅持在半年的時間內(nèi)完成了軟件工程的大體框架設計工作。
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號員工的身份加入了公司，在接下來的時間里，拉斯金的產(chǎn)品設計天賦得以體現(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。當拉斯金先生帶領團隊研發(fā)蘋果Macintosh產(chǎn)品的時候，他手下僅有4至5名工作人員。Macintosh在市場上取得的熱烈反響幫助蘋果打響了進軍IT產(chǎn)業(yè)的第一槍，并最終躋身為美國頂級個人電腦制造商的行列。
拉斯金的構(gòu)想在當時的IT領域可謂是獨樹一幟，在他的眼中電腦產(chǎn)品應該是以一種低廉價格的`形式出現(xiàn)在市場上，并且應該擁有簡單易用的特性來吸引那些非科技用戶。在拉斯金的大力倡導下，蘋果公司一直走在家用個人電腦領域的技術最前沿。他創(chuàng)造了“點擊”和“拖拉”的鼠標選項，Macintosh正式推出后，圖形界面的出現(xiàn)徹底改變了人機對話的方式。最終其他絕大部分的軟件都開始走上圖形界面之路，其中也包括微軟的Windows操作系統(tǒng)。
不過就在Mac計算機推向市場的兩年前，蘋果公司現(xiàn)任CEO斯蒂夫·喬布斯先生接手這一項目，而因為彼此的矛盾拉斯金最終離開了公司。不過，他一手打造的研發(fā)團隊還是沿著他的構(gòu)想，最終設計出了具有劃時代意義的Macintosh計算機。
在離開蘋果公司后，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。然而因為商業(yè)運作方面的失誤，拉斯金先生品嘗到了失敗的痛苦。不過也有人將產(chǎn)品的失敗歸咎于佳能公司市場推廣方面的失職。最終的結(jié)果是Canon Cat僅僅賣出了不到2萬臺，并且在不久之后就淡出了消費者的視線。
2000年，拉斯金出版了一本名為《人本界面》(Humane Interface)的著作，書中闡述了界面設計的基本原理。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項目。
有很多事情可以讓拉斯金激情澎湃，他的家庭、音樂、藝術等等……然而，致力于讓電腦更容易使用的工作占據(jù)了他大部分時間。用戶總是在尋找應用程序以及相關文件上耗費大量的精力。而拉斯金先生感到自己有義務幫助世界上成千上萬的電腦用戶節(jié)省大量不必要浪費的時間。
現(xiàn)在這位傳奇性的蘋果天才已經(jīng)離開了人間，他的理想何時才能得以實現(xiàn)?
(國際在線獨家資訊 李遠)
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)
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