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How I learned to break in to Apple and Code for them without Permission.

pacifict.com — One man was so determined to finish his project, he broke into Cupertino every day, to code for them without pay or permission. Six months later, he sneaked the app into the final version of Mac OS 9, without Apple ever knowing.

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  • jdkane, on 10/12/2007, -9/+248I've read this story before but I never get tired of it. Please Digg it if you like it, so everybody can get a feeling of the pioneering days of the personal computer, well of the Mac's story in particular.
    This is a story of people who truly loved their work and believed in it. It's severely motivational if nothing else. That's worth a lot in and of itself. It's also funny.
    • ThinkBox, on 10/12/2007, -6/+156So, I guess he was the first Macintosh Trojan that didn't need administrator privileges!
    • tmarcV2, on 10/12/2007, -7/+266it really was a good story, great ending: "We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security."
    • UrlorJkron, on 10/12/2007, -12/+58I found that line hilarious.
    • bobbknight, on 10/12/2007, -197/+7Hey cool another article that was on slashdot last year.
    • ShrimpCrackers, on 10/12/2007, -2/+34Yeah thats what I call dedication. Its interesting how he would've been unable to create such a wonderful piece of software had he been on payroll and under someone.
    • netgoddess, on 10/12/2007, -3/+64Greg Robbins is now at Google, and helped get Ron an invitation to tell the story for Google Video a couple of weeks ago:

      http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7497796873809571567
    • dubbin, on 10/12/2007, -53/+3(c) 2004 ... more olds than news
    • chesterjosiah, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17If you haven't read this story, do yourself a favor and read it. Unique, remarkable, must-read for engineers and non-engineers alike.
    • willynilly, on 10/12/2007, -19/+18This should also be a lesson in the futility of trying to move Apple out of the '80s, though. "Think different", my ass. Apple is not interested in new ideas; most of them are rejected with the excuse that all their current ways "behave correctly."

      Read this story and then ponder that OS X shipped with a calculator that inexplicably didn't even have hexadecimal or a scientific mode.

      *****.
    • calambrac, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20Maybe when it first came out, but when it first came out, OS X sucked in many more ways than "no decent calculator". Now it comes with a great calculator that has scientific and hex modes, as well as with Grapher, which is similar to Graphing Calculator.
    • simpleid, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5"We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security."

      Great ending.
    • theuber1337, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2To bad he wasn't malicious and didn't release a timebomb trojan :P

      *note to self* Cupertino.. trojan.. make it happen
    • anchorman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Boy was I wrong! I thought Microsoft had nothing that was secure!
    • simpleid, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7now the application is being sold for $100, and $60 to students. Hmmmmmmmm.
    • splendidbob, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4so, hang on, two people sneak into an organisation, and produce a quality app which they then give to the company and get NO reward for their efforts? isnt that kinda stupid? Im not just talking on a selfish (if you do work you should get payed) level, giving the code away at the end gives no incentive for the company to change their ways and reward talent rather than overpaid managers and beaurocrats. IT who are underpaid but more valuable than overpaid middle managers and pro ***** should do absolutely no more than the minimum until their true worth is noted and compensated.
    • kertap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8He was a loose cannon with a heart of gold
    • Amart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I first heard this story via an on-line interview through NPR's This American Life and its one of my favorites.
      I actually found the interview for you. Its really good. http://wbez-tal.streamguys.us:8020/content/284.mp3

      Here is the link to his graphing calculator too.
    • infobeat234, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0I read the footnote with a great deal of suspicion. Why are so many words devoted to describing the labor of writing stealth software and so few ("we made everything retroactively legitimate") used to describe the settling of accounts? Corporations own the work of their employees. It is the corporation's intellectual property, not the employee's. Imagine a world in which IP ownership was not so arranged. The individual would be motivated to get hired by highest tech company with the largest R&D budget in order to get his hands on the best equipment. Then would leave at first opportunity to cash in on the idea made possible by the company's equipment. Think about this for a moment. Would investors or the government (who is is responsible for development policies that make the country as a whole competitive) let this happen?
      http://qqbq.info/sitemap.htm
  • Dradis, on 10/12/2007, -4/+56Really amazing, these guys are pretty inspirational.
    • Hugues, on 10/12/2007, -32/+12True. So inspirational that we're all following the lead, "working" to add content to Digg for free... and loving it !
    • whisk3rs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10"At 1:00 a.m., we trekked to an office that had a PowerPC prototype. We looked at each other, took a deep breath, and launched the application. The monitor burst into flames."

      Funny too! Dugg!
  • robbh66, on 10/12/2007, -3/+43Great story. Shows how hardwork and dedication can even manage to break a big corporation's rigidness.
    • lazydrumhead, on 10/12/2007, -4/+36How unfortunate that such occurances are rare.
    • Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -6/+68Yeah, too bad more people don't work for big corporations for free.
    • pintomp3, on 10/12/2007, -11/+10urusai: i'm sure some CEO's would love that too.
    • vhold, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14"Yeah, too bad more people don't work for big corporations for free."

      This was my first thought.. the fact he says that it's common for engineers to work on canceled projects in their own time, and that such canceled projects are also very common leads me to believe that this is potentially nothing more then a management technique to get their employees to work more for free.
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+47That happened a lot with the original Mac. Jobs wanted to limit things so much. RAM was an example, but the engineers kept working so later models could accept higher RAM.

      One of my favourites concerned the floppy. Originally the Mac was going to have the flaky drive from the Lisa, but the engineers preferred the then new Sony 3.5". An engineer from Sony was there, when Jobs made a sudden visit, and they hid the Sony guy in a closet...
    • morcheeba, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8tony - that's pretty funny! I've had the pleasure of working with japanese engineers, but I don't think I could bring myself to hide one in the closet. My language skills aren't good enough!
  • sheinypoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22this american life did an episode on this story. truly amazing.
    http://207.70.82.73/pages/descriptions/05/284.html
    • rqwhitaker, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Thanks I was wondering why this title sounded familiar, now I remember hearing it.
  • deadbaby, on 10/12/2007, -9/+22Old story but still fun to read. This is the type of stuff that makes Apple special.
    • dizzledaking, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Apple willingly let him in? Funny, I thought he was breaking in. This makes the guy special, not apple.
    • drewthaler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Correction: This is what makes Apple's *engineers* special. The rest of the company (legal, HR, security, etc) of those days would have kicked him out posthaste.

      If the same thing happened today, the engineers are much less in control, and the rest of the company would probably have him arrested and prosecuted. C'est la vie.

      I remember the story of Graphing Calculator quite well. It happened just a bit before my time, but it was always retold with fondness by the guys I knew who were there. And the engineers who worked with Ron kept fighting to get the newer versions licensed and distributed. It finally stopped shipping with the machines years later, and they never replaced it. OSX these days has "Grapher", which is a sad imitation that wishes it was half as cool as even the original Graphing Calculator -- let alone the modern versions.
  • rgov, on 10/12/2007, -11/+63digg++ for using "sneaked" instead of "snuck."
    • NoozeHound, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12So how you stand on 'dove and dived'?
    • lordjafar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1dove and dived is unbelievably different to 'sneaked' and 'snuck'

      Sigh
  • gaius_baltar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9This is a pretty classic story. Yes I've heard it before but more people should read it.
    • fadedwranglers, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6First time I have ever heard this........just Awesome!
  • Cattttt, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5Highly motivational. And how many companies, when someone realized what the stealth programmers were doing, would sign them up as "no dollar contract" vendors?
    • elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18It wasn't really 'the company' that did it. The people at the top had no idea what was going on.
    • Cattttt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I see your point, but the company is in essence the people in the company. The honchos and Legal were not in the know, but a bunch of engineers and managers were in on it. I like this quote:

      "They laughed, until they realized I was serious. Then they told me, "Don't repeat this story.""

      One more thing - IIRC, the Graphic Calculator wasn't touted much - it was just there. I remember finding it, wondering what it was, and using it. It would have come in handy when I took Calculus and numerical analysis, during the dark ages (well, not quite). :)

    • moofree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I found it on the macs at school in middle school. I loved that program.
    • tonyspencer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4In the UK it certainly was touted. It was used in Apple Stores, and maybe ads too, to illustrate the speed of the PowerPC chips. Awesome at the time.

      Probably the best example of the power, since with a Photoshop filter you still had time for a coffee although it was much faster. With a 68040 you could have gone shopping as well waiting for a PS filter.
    • richardiscool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4...but the first UK Apple store didn't open until November 2004.
  • FBMGriever, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5This is a great article. Just finished reading it. I never imagined how possible this could be!

    Dugg.
    • ttkgeek, on 10/12/2007, -14/+12This is an amazing article, I enjoyed reading it so much, I bookmarked it in Del.icio.us and read it twice.

      Dugg.
    • captainbluebear, on 10/12/2007, -7/+8don't bury dfick, he was just pointing out the obvious in the post above him, lmao
    • neko, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4don't bury me, I'm telling you not to ;)
    • wufenshu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1http://www.ppef.info
      I read the footnote with a great deal of suspicion. Why are so many words devoted to describing the labor of writing stealth software and so few ("we made everything retroactively legitimate") used to describe the settling of accounts? Corporations own the work of their employees. It is the corporation's intellectual property, not the employee's. Imagine a world in which IP ownership was not so arranged. The individual would be motivated to get hired by highest tech company with the largest R&D budget in order to get his hands on the best equipment. Then would leave at first opportunity to cash in on the idea made possible by the company's equipment. Think about this for a moment. Would investors or the government (who is is responsible for development policies that make the country as a whole competitive) let this happen?
    • avitzur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4wufenshu, emadsen, and infobeat234: that's the fifth time this identical negative comment was posted from yet a third alias. Who are you? (And in reply to the substance of your criticism - you're way off base. 1. I had been working on the software for ten years before setting foot in Apple. 2. I was not employed by Apple. 3. It is my intellectual property. 4. Apple agrees with points 1, 2 and 3.)
  • Mambo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+54I love how as soon as the managers were out of the way, a lot of work got accomplished in a very short time frame.
  • dooraque, on 10/12/2007, -57/+2OLD
    • Ibox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+60Uhm... yeah it''s old, dumb ass, it is a story about things that happened in 1994.
      You must really get frustrated in History class
    • RBotros, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@Ibox: ur comment is the funniest one i've ever read on digg ..
    • dooraque, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2OLD meaning "been on nearly every geek 'news' site at least 20 million times", my friend. So STFU.
    • NedreN, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Maybe it's old for you.. Obviously not for a lot of us though.
  • Kerr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9awesome story...is this the Grapher that is in OS X.4 today?
    • LoungeActx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8not the same one I don't think. But in Applications>Utilities you'll find a program called Grapher, which is a Graphing Calculator.
    • grayapple, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Must be the OSX update to it, sounds like it anyway.
    • newbill123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Grapher 1.0 included on Mac OS X is a Cocoa user interface built atop a Unix executable (grapher). The more traditional, accounting, and hex calculators are part of Calculator.app in Applications (but don't look for graphing here).

      While there's a version of Graphing Calculator included in the Mac OS 9 Classic disc, the modern "Graphing Calculator" in this article is actually a product on the site where this article was hosted. It's called Graphing Calculator by Pacific Tech. It has a Windows version, but it doesn't appear to have a Universal binary available for MacIntel users.
      http://www.pacifict.com/Products.html
    • vandy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3the grapher application in mac os x isn't the same app as graphing calculator in mac os 9. grapher is an apple re-branded version of curvus pro x, which apple purchased a few years back to release with os x.
      http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=652
    • drewthaler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Grapher is just a shadow of the original Graphing Calculator. The guys who wrote it did a decent job packing it with roughly the same number of features ... but the features are less obvious and harder to get to than in GC, and it has chunkier graphics.

      You can download the latest Graphing Calculator demo (link at the bottom of the article) and play with the "Examples" menu, or run through one or more of the items in the "Demos" menu for a few suggestions of the things Graphing Calculator can do.
    • pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's completely unrelated.
  • maddox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Good story, makes you realise just how fast the industry has advanced in the last decade or so
  • darkecho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Quite a good read. I give props to these guys doing this, spending their money to develop an app.

    Dugg.
  • steveng, on 10/12/2007, -0/+38My new favorite saying is "That doesn't suck."
  • Linkage155, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Awesome story, love the ending: "We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security."
    • lykathea, on 10/12/2007, -3/+76I never thought I'd see "Microsoft" and "effective security" in the same sentence.
    • MasterDwarf, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6don't forget the word 'building' in that statement.
  • johneffort, on 06/06/2008, -1/+2Very inspiring!
  • CDX74, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2long read, but very cool :)
  • geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14I assume he didn't get hired at Apple. That's corporate america for you, a smaller company would see him as a motivated and hard working addition to their staff.
    • spitfire6006006, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4he did work for them, and then lost his job
  • macross9321, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3nuff respect
  • grayapple, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Fantastic story to read :) - Wonder what their up to now?
    • Cattttt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Mr. Avitzur has his own company, Pacific Tech: http://www.pacifict.com/Products.html

      Does anyone know what became of Greg Robbins?
    • smkelly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Greg Robbins appears to work at Google now. At least, that is what this Google blog entry would have one believe:
      http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/its-all-about-photoson-mac.html
    • jragon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Greg Robbins worked at RealNetworks for a long time, which explains a lot of the reason why the Mac OS X RealPlayer doesn't suck as much as it could have.

      When I realized that the story referred to THAT Greg Robbins, the guy down the hall that was always so nice and helpful troubleshooting issues, I got star struck.

      When I told other people about the story, they all cracked jokes about how pathetic it is to work for free. It felt like Greg and I were the only two people in the slowly dying company that realized how great it is to believe in something. Even software.
  • altjeringa, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6This was a thing of beauty.
  • tehgooch, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I read this story a long time ago, but it never gets old. Thanks :)
  • do0m2, on 10/12/2007, -37/+4Whaddya know? More PowerBooks blowing up:
    http://digg.com/apple/Another_PowerBook_Mel_Gibsons
  • veritech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11This is why i wanna be a software developer, unlimited commitment to something that you love, there can be no better job in the world.

    It's not always about the money, sometimes it just about creating some damn good software
  • kilps, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Seems the one guy is now working for google - http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/its-all-about-photoson-mac.html (read down a bit)
  • antny, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19"It is a cliche in our business that the first 90 percent of the work is easy, the second 90 percent wears you down, and the last 90 percent - the attention to detail - makes a good product"

    he should try putting those figures into his graphing calculator...
    • hobbesmaster, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26Makes perfect sense to me...
      First 90%: 90%
      Second 90%: 99%
      Third 90%: 99.9%

      And no software project is ever 100%...
  • JustinGN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I still love reading this article. And as for geronimo's comment, you have to keep in mind company politics, and the potential legal issues that could've arisen had they been hired (sued for backpay, etc).

    You can't really blame Apple as a whole for something only a few people were responsible for, you know?
    • geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Yes I see the legal issues, but take away everything else and you have a dedicated and motivated person who could help your organization if you shape their dedication positively. Unfortunately the legal stuff and bureaucracy clouds things.
  • 5555, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Great read. For more interesting first-hand accounts behind the scenes at Apple (original Macintosh days), check out Andy Hertzfeld's site http://www.folklore.org. Some of the stories featuring Steve Jobs are hilarious.
  • Tsujigiri, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Awesome. Thank you for sharing this.
  • brianmost, on 10/12/2007, -13/+1Who needs open source when you've got this story plus http://digg.com/mods/Simple_Key_Mod_Makes_Most_All_Current_Locks_Obsolete ? :)
  • LoadStar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6The one thing I'm still a little unclear about - how did the authors manage to maintain ownership of the program? While they were not employed by Apple, they produced the program using Apple resources, including, but not limited to, computer resources, office space, human resources, etc.

    They end off the article by saying they made everything legitimate by giving Apple a license for the software. Gee, awfully generous, considering if they didn't, Apple probably would've just sued claiming full ownership.
    • avitzur, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18I'd been working on the software for ten years prior to setting foot at Apple, and as the programmer, own the copyright unless I sign it to someone else. Now, they could have charged me with criminal trespass....
    • sstidman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Okay, who are the nimrods digging down the guy that the story is about? ^^^

      No more digging for you people. Security, take away their shovels!
  • torbar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4It wasn't OS 9, but still worth the read.
    • scootinger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yeah, this was back around the time that the PowerPC first came out - definitely not OS 9. OS 7.5 probably?
  • uberwaffle, on 10/12/2007, -21/+1Old story is ollllllllllllllllllllllllld.
  • brad3378, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15LOL
    This is my favorite part - how true!!

    ......"Since that left no managers in the loop, we had no meetings and could be extremely productive. ".....
    • NoozeHound, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7In fairness, that's exactly the point of management - making sure the people are doing the right work on the right projects and also making sure that less well-focused individuals stay on task. Technically the people offering their services as resources were acting as management in ensuring the project had sufficient resource. Finally, the guy who got the orange badges made what could only be called 'a management decision'.

      Just a few thoughts.
    • brad3378, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Noozehound
      I must concede. You are right.
      In previous jobs I have had, I often thought of my managers more as obstacles than empowering. Only recently have I come to realize that not all Mgrs. are filthy scum :)
  • gsnedders, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2It was on OS 7.5, IIRC, on the first PPC computer, not OS 9 (well, still included as of OS 10.4 with Classic, but the description makes it sound like OS 9 was the first it came with).

    It also wasn't unknown, because if you read the article, _he had an Apple contract_, and it was the guy in charge of the GM disk who decided to let it on (like with the rest of the system software).
  • acea, on 10/12/2007, -4/+810's of thousands of devs do this every day - but not to profit a money-making company - but for the benefit of all for 'free' - long live FOSS!
  • HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2Inaccurate. Apple knew the app was in there. An Apple employee approved putting it in there.

    Also, this is an old story.
  • DeMarko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I don't think the app on the website has been converted to a Universal Binary
  • PayneX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23"I believe you have my stapler..."
  • arizonagroove, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7"Six months later, he sneaked the app into the final version of Mac OS 9..."

    No he didn't. It says in the article "We finished in January 1994." Mac OS 9 was released in 1999.
  • Odo08, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23I'm sick of the people commenting with the "old story" s#!t. If it is a good story it bears repeating because maybe, just maybe, someone has not seen it yet and would enjoy it.

    Maybe the people commenting with "old story" have not yet entered into high school where they teach a whole hour a day about "old stories". It's called "history".
  • hifiDesign, on 10/12/2007, -21/+1Old story, featured on Wired.com a long time ago.
  • kubudubudubuntu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3really good story, digg
  • Toop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Great Story!
  • theunderground5, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3great story, my favorite part is "We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security"
  • djhworld, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3"I believe you have my stapler..."

    My sentiments exactly, this story reminded me of Office Space.
  • lordTalus, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4Ummmm...Several months without pay to write a graphing application...not something I would do.
  • jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -12/+2I find this story hard to believe... can anyone back this up? or is it just am urban myth?
  • Lilbrittle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3that was a badass story, How can it be a myth when it's so detailed? If you have love and devotion for something your willing to sacrifice it all!
    • jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2only because I've read many urban myths and many who seemed just as credible

      read stories from this bbs oldies site for a while, and you'll know what i mean ;) http://textfiles.com/
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