RIP Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

[TopJimmyCooks]

Get a linux desktop for your grandma and see how much she uses it.  Give her an iPad and she will use the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of it.

True dat.  I'm so freaking happy my mother in law has an Imac and ipad--tech support calls and visits to resuscitate their crap emachines virus target phish pond scum POS are a thing of the past.  Now if I can just get MY mother off her 10 year old Dell . . . 

[Ed_McCarron]

Get a linux desktop for your grandma and see how much she uses it.

Last year called.  They want their argument back.   

This used to be valid, when Linux meant text and a bash prompt.  Now, my 70 year old mother uses a netbook with Ubuntu on it and the only way she knows it's not her old windows machine is that it crashes a lot less.

[amendonz]

never liked steve jobs after hearing the story about ripping off wozniak, the true brains of the operation at the time. if either of the 2 should have fans its woz by far.

[Howard_Casto]

Exactly. Its easy to improve on something when someone else already did the work, he just took the risk of making his face synonomous with the brand. I dunno, I dont get why people are going to apple stores and lighting candles and that he "changed the world". Cmon.  

Actually I think it is a very good comparison.  If you know the REAL Edison.  

Edison, in his early years actually did invent a few things, a few things that were fairly impressive.  As soon as he started to turn a profit from it though, things changed.  Edison "invented" products that flat out didn't work.  The lightbulb is one of these inventions.  Sure an electric light is a great idea, so long as it burns for more than 10 minutes.    Edison hired hundreds of inventors and engineers for his lab and once he "invented" a non-working prototype he threw it at them, the real talent, and they worked on it until it was actually functional.  Of course once it was, he got all the credit and royalities, because he was an ass.  

Once in a while he hired someone with real talent, like Tesla, and they quickly butted heads.

Years later Tesla invented alternating current, the only practical way to power as large a nation as the US, Edison was furious as it would cut into his lucrative DC power contracts with New York.  Edison started a (almost completely false) smear campaign on Telsa and AC the likes of which had never been seen.  He even went as far as electrocuting elephants with AC to show how "dangerous" it was.  


So yeah, replace "Edison" with "Jobs"  replace "Tesla" with "Gates" or "Waz" and picture the smear campaign as those damn mac commercials and you've pretty much told the apple history.  

I'm just saying... many "great men who changed the world" aren't all that great, it isn't just Jobs.  

[Howard_Casto]

I had a science teacher that just went on and on about how his grandfather invented the modern lightbulb.  He had won a Nobel prize for something about surface tension of liquids.  I've googled it to death and all I can figure was the guy had -something- to do with the coiled tungsten filament.  Point being that reality is complex and boring and it's a lot easier to assign credit to one person and get on with our lives.

You obviously haven't watched "Flash of Genius" then, or if you did, you didn't understand it's message.  Giving people proper credit is EVERYTHING, because, let's face it, about the only way a human being can make a lasting impact on society that will be remembered after their death is through invention.

[Dervacumen]

I had a science teacher that just went on and on about how his grandfather invented the modern lightbulb.  He had won a Nobel prize for something about surface tension of liquids.  I've googled it to death and all I can figure was the guy had -something- to do with the coiled tungsten filament.  Point being that reality is complex and boring and it's a lot easier to assign credit to one person and get on with our lives.

You obviously haven't watched "Flash of Genius" then, or if you did, you didn't understand it's message.  Giving people proper credit is EVERYTHING, because, let's face it, about the only way a human being can make a lasting impact on society that will be remembered after their death is through invention.

Or mass murder.  Those types tend to get a lot of attention too.

[Dervacumen]

So I was talking and having popcorn with a friend who works at Apple HQ, and she said the security was going crazy because they were overwhelmed withl all the people coming to Apple HQ just because they felt like they needed too.  She said there were flowers and memorials everywhere, and it was basically nuts.  Then her mother added that a lot of people so identified with Steve Jobs that they are having the same reaction as those who followed and lost John Lennon, and I trust her voice because she grew up at that time...  That surprised me a bit because it seemed out of place, but I guess for many the reaction is the same.  Steve Jobs married computing and self like no other just as some feel John Lennon did with music and self.
That's just beyond my experience with Apple.  I work 7 miles from Apple HQ and I have no compelling reason to deal with or take part in that chaos.

[jimfath]

His inspired words at Stanford in 2005 are a great read. It's a speech that's been referred to a lot this week and IMO lives up to the hype.  It is better to read it than to see the video though. I will try to remember him that way. His story, his message, and especially his closing wishes/remarks are what I will try to remember about him. He was able to accomplish quite a lot in his short time on this earth.

Jobs was an American success story with very few contemporaries. A lot of the fawning and hyperbole you are hearing from people this week are, at times, obnoxious. But they are also just reflections of the energy more over the marketing of products he helped create. While he didn't have as big an impact as Edison, he certainly shared the qualities AND the flaws of the man. I understand the desire some people might have to make the comparison. I will say that Jobs was WAY better at understanding his customers but Edison has him beat in many departments. Hands down.

So while I've been rolling my eyes quite a bit, (flowers and candle light vigils at the Apple store??... c'mon! Really?!) I will still, unbegrudgingly, tip my hat to the man that was the driving force behind all of it. His force is still here. However annoying I may find it at times.  He was able to get non computer people excited about computers and push the envelope of what tech can do and how you can use it.

[smalltownguy]

You obviously haven't watched "Flash of Genius" then, or if you did, you didn't understand it's message.  Giving people proper credit is EVERYTHING, because, let's face it, about the only way a human being can make a lasting impact on society that will be remembered after their death is through invention.

Huh?

What did these people 'invent?'

Jesus?

Ghandi?

Mother Theresa?

Hitler?

Saddam?

Bin Laden?

[Blanka]

if either of the 2 should have fans its woz by far.

He was in the Hague last year. Very cool guy! Loved his speech there.

[t3design]

Last year called.  They want their argument back.  

This used to be valid, when Linux meant text and a bash prompt.  Now, my 70 year old mother uses a netbook with Ubuntu on it and the only way she knows it's not her old windows machine is that it crashes a lot less.

I don't even have to comment on that.

Now, Im not fully educated in Jobs backgroud, but did he actually create any of the technology used in his devices, or does he have a R&D department within Apple? REAL genius/innovation to me, is actually creating those things. If he did, then Ill agree with the masses, that he was in fact a genius.

Innovation is not limited to the creation of something completely new. The vast majority of 'new' products, ideas or processes are simply slightly improved versions or combinations of older ideas. What makes someone genius is the ability to see connections in the world around you that no one else sees and then create a new direction, product or process from that vision. Jobs was not a God. He might not have even been a very good person. He was a genius. What he did with Apple is something that is rarely seen in business and technology. Of course he took the ideas and technology that were around him and incorporated them into Apple's products. Only a fool would spend resources duplicating work that had already been done. The way he saw technology intertwined into daily life was not a vision anyone else had or championed. Looking back now it is easy for naysayers to sit around and say "it would have happened sooner or later", but it didn't. Jobs made it happen when no one else was thinking about it.

And for all the non-apple fans out there. If it weren't for Apple and Jobs you wouldn't have your Windows that crashes a lot less. (I'll keep my Macs that don't ever crash at all)

[bishmasterb]

Dismissing the importance of what Jobs did in leading the original Macintosh team as merely "stealing from Xerox" is simplistic and inaccurate.

Here are a couple of brief accounts of the visits to PARC:

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_Progress.txt

http://www-sul.stanford.edu/mac/parc.html

[yotsuya]

(I'll keep my Macs that don't ever crash at all)

I do enough Mac tech support at work to verify that this isn't completely true.

[Ed_McCarron]

(I'll keep my Macs that don't ever crash at all)

I do enough Mac tech support at work to verify that this isn't completely true.

Yup.  Awful lot of hits on google for 'kernel panic...'

[jimfath]

(I'll keep my Macs that don't ever crash at all)

I do enough Mac tech support at work to verify that this isn't completely true.

Ditto. I found at work that, proportionately, they averaged about the same amount of trouble tickets as the PC's. Heavy lifting on both from graphics with macs to massive data queries with PCs.  The claims of mac infallibly is more a result of marketing based perceptions. I've had to clean up my parents PC and macbook for a not so computer savvy comparison.

[yotsuya]

Ditto. I found at work that, proportionately, they averaged about the same amount of trouble tickets as the PC's. Heavy lifting on both from graphics with macs to massive data queries with PCs.  The claims of mac infallibly is more a result of marketing based perceptions. I've had to clean up my parents PC and macbook for a not so computer savvy comparison.

I honestly find that's it's less the platform and more the user that is the source of most issues. 

[leapinlew]

Name a person from another company that

Exactly... try to name another person from another company who has the same level of influence as Jobs. This makes Apple unique. You may not see the impact he has had on technology, obviously others have.

Of course, if you use a smart phone, tablet or computer - Steve Jobs has had an impact either directly or indirectly on the device you are using.

Henry Ford didn't invent the assembly line, but you've benefited from him improving the process.

[saint]

Steve Jobs wasn't a great innovator. He was a great capitalist. He had the vision to see great innovation and the implications thereof, and turn those into marketable items. There is nothing wrong with that, the world needs both, and both are worthy of due accolades. Without Jobs, the Apple could have been the Altair or Osborne of the computer world instead of the Apple giant it became, with all the impact on consumer technology that brought with it. I will be equally sorrowful when Woz dies, for similar but unique reasons as to why I'm sorrowful at the death of Jobs.

[Ed_McCarron]

Steve Jobs wasn't a great innovator.

 

Who exactly made you god?  Yeesh.

Dunno, it made sense to me...

[saint]

Steve Jobs wasn't a great innovator.

 

Who exactly made you god?  Yeesh.

Don't hate me because I'm right

[jimfath]

It just wouldn't be a Steve Jobs tribute be without a potential flame war.

[danny_galaga]

I had a science teacher that just went on and on about how his grandfather invented the modern lightbulb.  He had won a Nobel prize for something about surface tension of liquids.  I've googled it to death and all I can figure was the guy had -something- to do with the coiled tungsten filament.  Point being that reality is complex and boring and it's a lot easier to assign credit to one person and get on with our lives.

You obviously haven't watched "Flash of Genius" then, or if you did, you didn't understand it's message.  Giving people proper credit is EVERYTHING, because, let's face it, about the only way a human being can make a lasting impact on society that will be remembered after their death is through invention.

Or mass murder.  Those types tend to get a lot of attention too.

Or flying to the moon. Or discovering a new continent. Or writing beautiful prose...

[Malenko]

Apple products give you cancer.


All (bad) joking aside, I wish I could see what the big deal is. A really good marketing guy died. I feel for his family, but not for the people who purchased his company's products. Candle light vigils at Apple Stores is way over the top, its almost like the fanbois are making a mockery of his passing.

I was saddened more by the passing of the "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

[leapinlew]

Apple products give you cancer.


All (bad) joking aside, I wish I could see what the big deal is. A really good marketing guy died. I feel for his family, but not for the people who purchased his company's products. Candle light vigils at Apple Stores is way over the top, its almost like the fanbois are making a mockery of his passing.

I was saddened more by the passing of the "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

-Sent from my iPad

[Malenko]

 

sent from my Iphone 3GS, but you were close! I have a Dell Streak 7 for a tablet

[Mikezilla]

Apple products give you cancer.


All (bad) joking aside, I wish I could see what the big deal is. A really good marketing guy died. I feel for his family, but not for the people who purchased his company's products. Candle light vigils at Apple Stores is way over the top, its almost like the fanbois are making a mockery of his passing.

I was saddened more by the passing of the "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- Malenko said it perfectly. Thanks mang.  I feel the same way as to what he was, a really good marketing guy. I think people are just taking it over the top. Its not like he was some amazing humanitarian or something. I just dont get it but whatever...

And regarding his commencement speech, isnt that the one that basically said "hey, look at me, I didnt go to college and Im richer and more famous than any of you ever will be". Was that the Harvard one, or a different one?

[TopJimmyCooks]

sent from my Iphone 3GS, but you were close! I have a Dell Streak 7 for a tablet

Droid 3 FTW!  Did consider hanging around to see what the 4s looks like, but just too heavily invested in the Googage right now. 

[end thread derailment]

[Blanka]

Droid 3 FTW! 

[end thread derailment]

I wanted to reply here, but to not hijack the thread I made a new topic:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=115251.0

[Vigo]

  I don't know what to say to this one:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-02-games-industry-votes-apple-as-biggest-influence?

Steve Jobs was voted the most influential man in video game history. Voted on by people working within the video games industry.

Nolan Bushnell didn't even make the cut....and Mark Zuckerberg did.

Who the heck did they survey for this steaming piece of BS?

[Hoopz]

I don't know what to say to this one:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-02-games-industry-votes-apple-as-biggest-influence?

Steve Jobs was voted the most influential man in video game history. Voted on by people working within the video games industry.

Nolan Bushnell didn't even make the cut....and Mark Zuckerberg did.

Who the heck did they survey for this steaming piece of BS?

What's the criteria?  If it's numbers, how many people play games on Facebook?  Farmville, Mafia Wars and xxx?  I think a lot.  Same with little apps on their phones.  That's gaming so why wouldn't they be considered?

If the criteria is people who make video games then it's different story.  Bushnell, everyone who ever worked at Mattel or the Blue Sky Rangers for Intellivision, of course, Carmack, Gabe Newell, etc. 

[Malenko]

good news is that he is still dead.


PANTIES! Now stop your effin bumpin

[Blanka]

Steve Jobs was voted the most influential man in video game history. Voted on by people working within the video games industry.

Well if they leave Duke Nukem out of the shortlist, anyone can win.