Jef Raskin, Apple's Macintosh Initiator, Passed Away

at the age of 61 according to this AP article. Raskin, often called the "Father of the Macintosh," died from pancreatic cancer at his home on Saturday. He began his career at Apple Computer in 1978 as employee number 31 with the responsibility for creating Apple's manuals. He was the original leader of the Macintosh project which stemmed from his ideas in 1979 but left Apple over differences with Apple-founder Steve Jobs before it was completed. Curiously, Steve Jobs survived a bout with a form of pancreatic cancer after surgery last summer. [Dana Baggett]