乔布斯传 第85期:丽萨的出世(3)

 "We are inventing the future," Jobs told him at the end of a three-hour pitch.

“我们正在创造未来，”乔布斯在长达3个小时的劝说接近尾声时表示，

"Think about surfing on the front edge of a wave. It's really exhilarating.

“想象一下在海浪的最前端冲浪是什么感觉，一定很兴奋刺激吧；

Now think about dog- paddling at the tail end of that wave. It wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun.

再想象一下在浪的末尾学狗刨游泳，一点儿意思都没有。

Come down here and make a dent¹ in the universe."

来苹果吧，你可以吸引全世界的目光。”

Atkinson did. With his shaggy hair and droopy moustache that did not hide the animation² in his face, Atkinson had some of Woz's ingenuity³ along with Jobs's passion for awesome⁴ products.

阿特金森入伙了。蓬松的头发和长长的胡子并不能掩盖阿特金森脸上的活力，他有着沃兹的创造天赋和乔布斯追求卓越产品的热情。

His first job was to develop a program to track a stock portfolio⁵ by auto-dialing the Dow Jones service, getting quotes, then hanging up.

他的第一份工作是开发一个程序，该程序可以自动拨打道琼斯的服务热线，获取报价，然后挂断电话，以此来追踪股票投资组合。

"I had to create it fast because there was a magazine ad for the Apple II showing a hubby at the kitchen table looking at an Apple screen filled with graphs of stock prices,

“我必须尽快完成，因为一本杂志刊登的Apple II广告上出现了这样的场景：丈夫在厨房的餐桌旁盯着满是股价图表的Apple II屏幕，

and his wife is beaming at him--but there wasn't such a program, so I had to create one."

而妻子正对着他微笑--实际上根本就没有这样的程序，所以我必须创造一个。”

Next he created for the Apple II a version of Pascal, a high-level programming language.

接下来他又成功地将Pascal语言移植到Apple II上，这是一种髙级编程语言。

Jobs had resisted, thinking that BASIC was all the Apple II needed, but he told Atkinson, "Since you're so passionate⁶ about it, I'll give you six days to prove me wrong."

乔布斯起初很抵制Pascal，因为他觉得Apple II有BASIC就足够了，但他告诉阿特金森：“既然你对这个有这么大的热情，我就给你66天时间来证明我是错的。”

He did, and Jobs respected him ever after.

阿特金森做到了，从此乔布斯对他很是尊敬。

By the fall of 1979 Apple was breeding three ponies⁷ to be potential successors to the Apple II workhorse.

到1979年的秋天，Apple II的潜在继任者已经有了三种机型。

There was the ill-fated Apple III. There was the Lisa project, which was beginning to disappoint Jobs.

有命运凄惨的Apple III，还有已经开始让乔布斯失望的丽萨项目。

And somewhere off Jobs's radar⁸ screen, at least for the moment, there was a small skunkworks project for a low-cost machine that was being developed by a colorful employee named Jef Raskin, a former professor who had taught Bill Atkinson.

另外一个是乔布斯当时还不知道的一个小项目。这个项目致力于制造一款廉价的电脑，研发代号为“安妮”，开发者名叫杰夫·拉斯金,他曾是个教授，还教过比尔·阿特金森。

Raskin's goal was to make an inexpensive "computer for the masses" that would be like an appliance--a self-contained unit with computer, keyboard, monitor, and software all together—and have a graphical interface⁹.

拉斯金的目栋是制造价格低廉、就像家用电器一样的“大众电脑”--整合了电脑、键盘、显示器和软件的全功能设备--并且拥有图形界面。

He tried to turn his colleagues at Apple on to a cutting-edge research center, right in Palo Alto, that was pioneering such ideas.

他试图让苹果的同事们关注一家优秀的研究中心，这家研究中心就坐落在帕洛奥图，是图形界面技术的先驱。

1 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

2 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

3 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。

4 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

5 portfolio   

n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位

参考例句：

• He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
• He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。

6 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

7 ponies   

矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑

参考例句：

• They drove the ponies into a corral. 他们把矮种马赶进了畜栏。
• She has a mania for ponies. 她特别喜欢小马。

8 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

9 interface   

n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系

参考例句：

• My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
• This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了，适用范围广。