Jef Raskin: He Thought Different
摘要：美国苹果Macintosh计算机创造人杰夫拉斯金2月26日因病在家里过世，享年61岁。提起苹果企业的大名，可能大伙都会将目光集中在公司现任CEO斯蒂夫乔布斯的身上，然而又有哪个了解苹果今天辉煌营业额的真的缔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 Silicon1 Valley and helping2 to revolutionize the computer industry.
美国苹果Macintosh计算机创造人杰夫拉斯金2月26日因病在家里过世，享年61岁。说到杰夫拉斯金这个名字，可能大部分人并不十分了解。确实他并不像比尔盖茨那样，是世界闻名的巨型集团的CEO，他也不曾拥有动辄千万USD的资产，他只不过一个默默无闻的高科技工作者。提起苹果企业的大名，可能大伙都会将目光集中在公司现任CEO斯蒂夫乔布斯的身上，然而又有哪个了解苹果今天辉煌营业额的真的缔造者杰夫拉斯金先生的名字呢？
据美国《商业周刊》3月1日报道，苹果公司知名商品Macintosh计算机就源于拉斯金之手，而拉斯金先生在电脑商品易用性方面作出的贡献几乎贯穿了整个硅谷的进步历史。大家可以如此说，拉斯金先生改变了目前电脑商品的操纵方法。2月26日，这位吃苦耐劳的老人由于胰腺癌晚期在美国家里过世，享年61岁。
过世之前的半年时间中，拉斯金先生将他的全部精力投入到一款名为Archy的操作系统研发中，依据项目中的合伙人提供的信息，此款操作系统将会大大提升用户易用性，并且有望将电脑用户交流技术引入一个新的纪元。去年夏季，拉斯金先生的最后一个项目正式启动，然而也就是在同一时间，他被查出患有紧急的胰腺癌。拉斯金先生并没被疾病束缚住，他坚持在半年的时间内完成了软件工程的大体框架设计工作。
在苹果企业的进步史上，拉斯金先生可谓是战功显赫。拉斯金先生以苹果公司第31号职员的身份加入了公司，在下面的时间里，拉斯金的商品设计天分得以体现，Macintosh与iPod等苹果知名商品先后诞生在拉斯金先生的旗下。当拉斯金先生带领团队研发苹果Macintosh商品的时候，他手下仅有4至5名员工。Macintosh在市场上获得的热烈反响帮助苹果打响了进军IT产业的第一枪，并最后跻身为美国顶级个人电脑制造商的行列。
拉斯金的构想在当时的IT范围可谓是独树一帜，在他的眼中电脑商品应该是以一种低便宜格的形式出目前市场上，并且应该拥有简单易用的特质来吸引那些非科技用户。在拉斯金的大力主张下，苹果公司一直走在家用个人电脑范围的技术最前沿。他创造了点击和拖拉的鼠标选项，Macintosh正式推出后，图形界面的出现彻底改变了人机对话的方法。最后其他绝大多数的软件都开始走上图形界面的道路，其中也包含Microsoft的Windows操作系统。
不过就在Mac计算机推向市场的两年前，苹果公司现任CEO斯蒂夫乔布斯先生接手这一项目，而由于彼此的矛盾拉斯金最后离开了公司。不过，他一手塑造的研发团队还是沿着他的构想，最后设计出了具备划年代意义的Macintosh计算机。
在离开苹果公司后，拉斯金自己创办了一家名为Information Appliance的公司，并与佳能公司联手推出另一款小型电脑商品Canon Cat。此款商品中整理的搜索功能甚至还要高于目前Windows中整理的搜索功能。然而由于商业运作方面的失误，拉斯金先生品尝到了失败的痛苦。不过也有人将商品的失败归咎于佳能公司市场营销方面的失职。最后的结果是Canon Cat仅仅卖出了不到2万台，并且在不久之后就淡出了买家的视线。
2000年，拉斯金出版了一本名为《人本界面》（Humane3 Interface4）的著作，书中讲解了界面设计的基本原理。这本书还被翻译成多种文字出版发行。另外，拉斯金还打造了一个名为拉斯金中心的非盈利性用户界面理论研究中心，上文提到的Archy就是研究中心最新的一个项目。
有不少事情可以让拉斯金激情澎湃，他的家庭、音乐、艺术等等然而，致力于让电脑更容易用的工作占据了他大多数时间。用户一直在探寻应用程序与有关文件上耗费很多的精力。而拉斯金先生感到自己有义务帮助世界上成千上万的电脑用户节省很多非必要浪费的时间。
目前这位传奇性的苹果天才已经离开了人间，他的理想何时才能得以达成？
（国际在线 李远）
Jef Raskin wasn't the typical tech industry power broker5. He was never a celebrity6 CEO, never a Midas-touch venture capitalist, and never conspicuously7 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 computing8 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 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 affordable9 computer designed for nontechy consumers -- a radical10 idea at a time when using a computer required memorizing complex codes and commands. Raskin's credits include drag and drop capability11 and introducing Apple's founders12 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 folders13 still prevalent on operating systems today. And Raskin bestowed14 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 decided15 to give his vision another try. He founded the Raskin Center for Humane Interfaces16, 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 deskTOP17? 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.
