Mistake in AP story about Steve Jobs...

[Computer Collector E-Mail Newsletter]

Hi all... I just read this AP story about Jobs having surgery for a non-fatal
form of cancer.  The story is here:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040802/ap_on_bi_ge/steve_jobs_cancer&cid=509&ncid=716

I called the AP's office to report the mistake that you'll all notice: in the
story's next-to-last paragraph, it says "In 1984, the company released the
Macintosh, which was the first computer to have a graphical user interface that
mimicked a physical desktop."

I ** cringed ** when I read that.  As most of you know by now, I'm a tech
reporter for a living, and a collector, and thus HATE when the mainstream media
doesn't even make an attempt to get this shit right.  So I explained to an AP
editor what the mistake is.  I explained to him that the distinction is NOT a
tiny technical loophole, but rather a glaring error that anyone who knows
anything about computer history will laugh at (after they finish crying).

I could understand a weekend reporter making this mistake, but in the story's
byline it says the writer is a technology reporter.  You'd think he would know
the difference...

 - Evan