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Steve Jobs has passed....

Discussion in 'General Open/Public Discussion' started by Lunar, 5 Oct 2011.


  1. Lunar

    Lunar Development Officer Officer

    Officer
    http://www.apple.com/

    The world has lost one of the most influential people in history....RIP :love:
     
  2. Hamma

    Hamma Commanding Officer Officer

    Officer
    Indeed a true visionary that has improved technology across the board, not only for Apple Products but for everyone else they forced to improve to compete.

    He will be missed.
     
  3. Brokentusk

    Brokentusk DragonWolf

    I worked at an Apple OEM when he came back to Apple. My boss said it was the worst thing that could ever happen to Apple. I said, it couldn't be any worse than it already was. Folks forget that Apple was really on the ropes back then. There was a real chance they were going under.

    Hard to realize, but that guy is personally responsible for my career and hobbies. First computer I ever touched was the Apple IIe. Affectionately known as the Spit. (Appa-too-eee)

    How many gamers and programmers got their start seeing, "You have died of dysentery"?
     
  4. Hamma

    Hamma Commanding Officer Officer

    Officer
    :rofl:

    Oregon Trail FTW!
     
  5. Yup, OTrail, and the first time I played SimCity was on an Apple. Monochrome screen at that!

    I thought I played Minesweeper for the first time on one at college too. But did Apples come with MSweeper?
     
  6. His presentations were inspirational and funny. He will be missed.
     
  7. Hamma

    Hamma Commanding Officer Officer

    Officer
    No doubt there, dont think that was ever in question. He made his way to the top by taking no prisoners :lol: Dude was passionate if nothing else about his brand.

    My favorite was when he said he couldn't have fathered a child because he was sterile :lol:

    Although I think that article has a little slant to it.
     
    Last edited: 11 Oct 2011
  8. No more slanted than the articles which paint him as a saintly figure who bestowed electronic gadgetry upon the public. The tributes which portray him as a defining figure of the 20th century, or that he somehow gave us the modern day are repulsive at best. He was a guy who ran a company to make money. All of the hipsters and rabid followers seem to forget that fact, and somehow the consumerism they hold in such contempt doesn't count when you're buying things with an apple logo on them.

    Compare this asshole to Jonas Salk. The Polio vaccine was accessible to everyone, because there was no patent and thus no additional cost to produce and distribute it. Apple, on the other hand, sues anyone they even think could compete with them. Not in an effort to save the world from inferior, less aesthetically pleasing devices or from evil corporations, but to protect their profits. And I'll skip the parts about abusing Chinese and child labor.

    The world is pretty much the same as it was before and after he died. The only ones who noticed were shareholders. Where is the greatness in that?
     
  9. Hamma

    Hamma Commanding Officer Officer

    Officer
    :rolleyes:

    My bad.. he did nothing then. :lol:

    Every article in Today's media is skewed one way or the other especially "Blogger" sites like Gawker and Gizmodo. I guess if you want to deny that he did ANYTHING at all for today's technology that's your prerogative.

    He isn't a saint for sure and he isn't a perfect hero and source for all technology the past 30 years. But he isn't the devil either.
     
    Last edited: 11 Oct 2011
  10. Brokentusk

    Brokentusk DragonWolf

    Yeah I'm with Hamma on that one. You don't have to like the guy, but you have to give him props for having an environment that encourages that kind of thinking.

    Look at the phones that came out right before the iPhone. It was like alien technology compared to it. Before it was released there were articles on places like Gizmodo that swore you couldn't make a phone like that. Now 4/5's of the phones look like an iPhone.

    No one could get traction with a tablet for years. They have actually been around since the 90's. Now everyone is trying to make theirs the next best.

    He botched products too. I bet he would have taken the MacTV back if he could have. Was the Pippen on his watch? The Newton wasn't, but I think it started development with him. The first iMac were plain silly.

    You can defile the guys grave if you want, but you can't argue he moved tech forward when he got it right.
     
  11. symen

    symen DragonWolf

    The two aren't necessarily exclusive. One can be a world-changing, defining figure and make money doing so at the same time. In a way, he did give us the modern world of computing, though -- at the time he started Apple, computers were something that came as a big box of integrated circuits, transistors, capacitors, resistors, empty printed circuit boards, and wire. The purchaser needed a lot of patience and electrical engineering skill to put it together and use it. That Apple sold computers already put together and in a usable state for the everyman was seen as a novel, silly idea without a real market. Hell, in the late 1970's, there were still thermionic valve-based computers in use that took up a city block worth of space for about the computing power of a PC-XT or something -- computers were still seen as serious tools for highly-paid scientists and engineers.

    In my opinion, the computing industry is the market's greatest triumph. I remember, not long after I started to get into computers, reading an article somewhere about the Cray XMP supercomputer and thinking it was the coolest thing. It cost several million dollars, and required about $20,000/day for electricity and liquid nitrogen to keep it cool. Fast forward a few years, and I read another article about making movie special effects on SGI Origins, which were the size of a refrigerator and cost about a quarter of a million dollars. The Cray was 2x100 MHz, had 512MB of RAM, and 4.3 GB of storage. The SGI had up to 8 400MHz processors, up to 16GB of RAM, and, I think, 512GB of storage. Today, I can buy a computer that will run rings around either of those for a few days pay. The average cell phone probably has more processing power than the Cray. Hell, people give away computers more powerful than the SGI.

    For what it's worth, I don't think you're wrong about Jobs' flaws. From all accounts, he was an egomaniac who was very difficult to work with.

    The Apple fanboys are pretty strident, but, in my experience, no less so than those who dislike Apple. I say, use what works for you, haters gonna hate. I have a Macbook Pro that I use for audio production and some programming, and an AMD box built from Newegg parts that I play games on. One isn't necessarily better than the other, they're just tools. Windows 7 is just as stable as FreeBSD, er... OS X; neither will screw up unless there's a hardware problem.

    Though I do think Microsoft should run a commercial that is a parody of Apple's Mac-guy, PC-guy commercials, and goes something like this:

    PC-guy is using a computer, facing the camera, so the audience can't see his screen. Sounds of explosions, spaceships, whatever can be heard. Mac-guy enters from stage left.

    Mac-guy: "Hey, PC, what are you doing?"
    PC-guy: "Oh, hey Mac, I'm playing a game."
    Mac-guy: "Oh, cool. What game?"
    PC-guy: "Any game."

    Turnabout is fair play, after all.

    Yeah, if you have to install nets around your dormitories to prevent suicides (they really do this!), then some examination of working conditions is probably in order.

    The world is pretty much the same before and after anyone dies, no matter what their impact, because they have already made whatever impact they were going to. The more interesting question is what the world would have been like without them, which is just a matter of speculation.
     
  12. symen

    symen DragonWolf

    I repaired computers for a living when those were new. I remember hating them because they were so dangerous to service (opening the case exposed the CRT circuitry, which included filter capacitors with several thousand volts on them even when the thing was unplugged). I also remember thinking, computers in different colors, who would fall for a stupid gimmick like that?

    They sold millions of the things, though.
     
  13. My comments are directed at his character, not his ability to churn out nifty gadgets. Not sure if I personally would be able to look at myself in the mirror every day with the knowledge that the success enjoyed by my company came partially out of working some foreigners to death. I certainly won't give him any props for that.
     
  14. Brokentusk

    Brokentusk DragonWolf

    Any large corporation is going to do some pretty heinous things. Usually because someone is trying to cover it up or because where/when they are doing it, it isn't illegal.

    Very few board rooms have a guy making the argument for child labor. Never assume evil when incompetence is FAR more likely.

    I worked for Coleman. We illegally dumped extremely toxic chemicals for years straight into the ground. Actually that's hyperbole. We dumped extremely toxic chemicals into the ground because it was completely legal and no one knew about ground water contamination in the 40's and 50's. We had a trench that paint, thinner, coolant and God knows what was dumped because that was what we were supposed to do. Then we buried it because that was what we were supposed to do. Then we had to dig it back up because that was what we were supposed to do. Now they refuse to let anyone buy the land to develop it. Because they don't know what will change next.

    Now, I laugh every time I hear some local idiot talk about how the evil Coleman intentionally polluted the environment.

    The only people more rabid than Apple Fanboys are Linux Penguinheads.

    I'll see your commercial Symen and raise you another.

    PC sitting at a desk using a computer, Mac walks up.
    Mac: What are you doing PC?
    PC: This is how non-artists earn a living.
     

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