As the Apple Turns: Scene 67: Pink Slips & Closed Doors (10/9/97)

Pink Slips & Closed Doors (10/9/97)

thessaSOURCE reports that, as rumored, Apple is indeed laying off employees in preparation for its fourth-quarter results, to be announced next Wednesday. (Have you entered our "Beat the Analysts" contest yet?) In addition, it states that the long-rumored shutdown of the Advanced Technology Group is a confirmed reality. Some ATG engineers will be reassigned to different Apple departments, and others will be laid off. AtAT is saddened by the loss of the group that engendered such technologies as Newton and Quicktime, as well as not-yet-ready-for-prime-time stuff like the 3D Finder and other nifty stuff that you can read about here. (Our favorite is MacHeadroom, which allows the synchronization of Plaintalk text-to-speech with Quicktime movie playback.)

The closing of the ATG gives us a sense of deja vu: Yours Truly lives in the area of Cambridge, MA, where Apple used to have a research lab in Kendall Square. This group worked on technologies like Dylan, a new object-oriented dynamic programming language. In one of Apple's six gazillion reorganizations, the Cambridge lab got shut down. In "celebration" of that event, the employees there produced some snazzy looking t-shirts featuring a Mac dialog box that said something like, "Warning! You are about to cancel the entire Cambridge Lab." with the mouse cursor positioned over the "Cancel" button. The shirt bore the phrase, "Apple: The Power to Cancel Our Very Best." (If anyone out there knows where we could get an image of this shirt design, let us know via the Feedback page.)

SceneLink (67)

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The above scene was taken from the 10/9/97 episode:

October 9, 1997: (Sorry—this was before we started writing intro text for each episode!)

Other scenes from that episode:

66: Permanent Jobs (10/9/97) Remember when we told you that Steve Jobs was getting further and further entrenched in his "Apple Saviour" role? Well, it appears that he may not be content with "interim CEO," so we may have him on the show for another season or two after all...
68: Set Rumors on "Stun" (10/9/97) Those MacOS Rumors guys keep coming up with the good dirt. With heavy caveats about a possible intentional misinformation campaign, they are whispering about the return of an Apple project from beyond the grave...
69: To Hell With Dell! (10/9/97) This just in... Remember Mike "Grouchy" Dell's nasty comment about Apple? Then you should visit Patrick Taylor's website. It made us feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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