[Serial Midget]

Steve Jobs was not Jesus Christ. Steve Jobs did not die for your sins.

I am not religious in anyway... its just seems creepy, this messianic devotion that floods the web.

 

[denjen]

Thank you, someone had to say it. If I hear him compared to Thomas Edison one more time Im going to puke

 

[eaterofdog]

Steve Jobs ate live puppies when no one was looking.

 

[Serial Midget]

Thank you, someone had to say it. If I hear him compared to Thomas Edison one more time Im going to puke

Agreed - creating a technology is different from exploiting an existing technology to a (perceived) higher potential.

 

[Pesqueeb]

Thank you, someone had to say it. If I hear him compared to Thomas Edison one more time Im going to puke

Fo rizzle. Remember the Walkman? The iPod, as much as I love mine, was not new or earth shattering. I keep hearing "father of the PC" bandied about too. Um, yea he was around/had a role at the beginning, but father of the PC, that's open to interpretation. I can't figure out what the big deal is myself.


Commence fan boi attack!

 

[zdubyadubya]

Agreed - creating a technology is different from exploiting an existing technology to a (perceived) higher potential.

He and Woz invented the personal computer. Pretty sure that is "creating a technology".

 

[The Toninator]

Thank you, someone had to say it. If I hear him compared to Thomas Edison one more time Im going to puke

He envisioned a LOT of pretty cool **** that allows young and old alike to kill people behind the wheel of a two ton killing machine.

 

[eaterofdog]

He and Woz invented the personal computer. Pretty sure that is "creating a technology".

Jesus Christ. Do the tiniest bit of research. Altair 8800, IBM 5100, Xerox etc.

 

[The Toninator]

They did NOT invent the PC.

 

[Iridemtb]

Ironic that you are making a thread about how dumb he is, giving more publicity to Mr. Jobs. Well, I have managed not to comment on one of these threads, but Syndasti or whatever his name is has a point. He is an idiot. He stood in the face of proper medical treatment and denied it early on. Not knocking his beliefs, but proof is in the pudding. I am a Christian and really take the evidence here on earth that is solid in ground to consideration, even if I have to change my certain beliefs or forethoughts.

 

[The Toninator]

Did NOT say he was dumb/

 

[RUFUS]

I am a Christian

Well there is your problem.

 

[stevew]

Well there is your problem.

would it be a problem if he was a jew?

 

[Pesqueeb]

would it be a problem if he was a jew?

Kind of splitting hairs aren't you?

 

[Serial Midget]

My first experience with a personal computer was an Apple II that recorded / executed commands from a cassette tape... that was in 1980 and I wanted one badly. My dad, who had been a computer programmer for UAL since 1968, thought the machine was a novel waste of money.

"The Alto, introduced in 1973, but never commercially produced, was perhaps the most innovative design in computer history: it had a mouse, a GUI, an object-oriented OS and development tools, and fast networking with the first ethernet cards. These are features that wouldn't be common until 10 years later, and even 20 years later some of them were still cutting edge."

Milestones...

Steve Jobs was a brilliant marketer, part of the brains behind the first commercially successful desk top computer. Combining existing computer technology with a CRT resulting in an interface that people already knew and understood - the keyboard and tiny television screen - that changed they way consumer viewed technology.

He and Woz invented the personal computer. Pretty sure that is "creating a technology".

View attachment 108308

 

[syadasti]

Right, Apple really didn't invent much of anything.

Portable HDD MP3 Players - Compaq spinoff Remote Solutions in 1999, not Apple in 2001
MP3 broadcasting (podcasting) - Nullsoft in 1998, not Apple in 2004
First 64-bit PC - DEC a decade before Apple had a 64-bit PC designed as a "cheap" PC to run the new then WinNT OS (and second run from DEC again before Apple - 1997 and AMD after that)
First touchscreen smartphone - IBM Simon in 1993, not Apple in 2007
First multitouch commercial product - Jazzmutant Lemur in 2004, not Apple in 2007

Those are just the major ones, Apple's PR is full of sh*t.

 

[zdubyadubya]

Jesus Christ. Do the tiniest bit of research. Altair 8800, IBM 5100, Xerox etc.

maybe it was you who should have done the research.

looking at the list in the below link, which one qualifies as a "personal" desktop computer as it is known today? the only one prior to the apple that is remotely consumer friendly and small enough to fit on a desk is the IBM 5100. but as the article says, priced out of the reach of most people. hence, looking at what i posted and without involving Christ, the Apple I and II are arguably the first "personal computers". I did my research and I stand by my statement.

Milestones...

 

[syadasti]

They are PCs, your fitting on a desk criteria is arbitrary (tower PCs, Apple still makes them today even) and so is your budget. PCs were much more expensive back then. Apple did not invent them or a huge list of other things people incorrectly assign to them, they made an improved version - evolutionary incremental improvements - nothing revolutionary.

 

[zdubyadubya]

Right, Apple really didn't invent much of anything.

Portable HDD MP3 Players - Compaq spinoff Remote Solutions in 1999, not Apple in 2001
MP3 broadcasting (podcasting) - Nullsoft in 1998, not Apple in 2004
First 64-bit PC - DEC a decade before Apple had a 64-bit PC designed as a "cheap" PC to run the new then WinNT OS (and second run from DEC again before Apple - 1997 and AMD after that)
First touchscreen smartphone - IBM Simon in 1993, not Apple in 2007
First multitouch commercial product - Jazzmutant Lemur in 2004, not Apple in 2007

Those are just the major ones, Apple's PR is full of sh*t.

Actually, it sounds like their PR department is quite successful. Nobody except you and possibly tech nerds has ever heard of any of those other devices/services. Jobs/Apple succeeded where they failed. PR and marketing department did a pretty damn good job. Besides, you can market the hell out of something but if it sucks, it sucks--people won't buy it after the novelty wears off. Apple backed up the marketing/PR campaign with products that worked.

 

[Pesqueeb]

 

[zdubyadubya]

but wouldn't a cripple fight need more than one crip... hey!

 

[syadasti]

Actually, it sounds like their PR department is quite successful. Nobody except you and possibly tech nerds has ever heard of any of those other devices/services. Jobs/Apple succeeded where they failed. PR and marketing department did a pretty damn good job. Besides, you can market the hell out of something but if it sucks, it sucks--people won't buy it after the novelty wears off. Apple backed up the marketing/PR campaign with products that worked.

Truly revolutionary ideas/products and being the early adopter never have anything to do with the mainstream. This is the way it always has been. Marketing/propaganda will never change that fact.

 

[sanjuro]

Calling Steve Jobs the inventor of the PC is like calling Gary Fisher the inventor of the mountain bike.

They both were critical in the formation of their technologies, though.

 

[syadasti]

Calling Steve Jobs the inventor of the PC is like calling Gary Fisher the inventor of the mountain bike.

They both were critical in the formation of their technologies, though.

The basic design of the modern mountain bike was created long before GF by the British (in commercial form even) as were 29" MTBs. Again being the best known marketer doesn't change history.

1966 first known use of mountain bicycle in print
Random MTB from 1968:

1979 Production Jack Taylor Rough Stuff Model:

First 29er:

 

[Iridemtb]

Well there is your problem.

NSFW

View attachment 108309

 

[eaterofdog]

I did my research and I stand by my statement.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

He and Woz invented the personal computer. Pretty sure that is "creating a technology".

"The first successfully mass marketed personal computer was the Commodore PET introduced in January 1977."

 

[MMike]

"The first successfully mass marketed personal computer was the Commodore PET introduced in January 1977."

Hmmph. i didn't realize they had one before the VIC 20

 

[MMike]

Look, Apple came up with very good products; arguably "better" than microsoft. At the same time, they succeeded in making computers "cool"...the whole I'm a Mac and I'm a PC thing. He made the power of the home PC accessible to many who would not otherwise have bothered to learn DOS 3.3.

So he had a profound impact on modern culture and pretty much everyone's day to day life.

Thomas Edison...maybe...maybe not. Either way, it's not really a fair comparison. Visionary? Absolutely.

 

[eaterofdog]

Jobs best skill was refining current technologies and marketing them. Apple, under Jobs, did not have a bunch of dumbass suits screaming "Let's add moar features that don't work right!" and rubbing pudding in their hair. Sometimes they were slow with the features, but when you did get it, it generally worked pretty damned well. The engineers did as much of the end user work as possible. Apple is turning the personal computer into a portable appliance. That's what the average person wants.

 

[syadasti]

Eaterofdog exactly but they also intentionally incremental advance their product lines and rapidly force obsolesce. Excessive consumption might be good for business but its not for the end-user or society. People shouldn't be compelled/need to buy a new version every year, its not sustainable.

Companies unfortunately look up to Apple when its in the best interests of end-users/society to go in the other direction. Gaming consoles in consumer electronics have had a much more reasonable model and that industry easily surpassed Hollywood, so its possible to do profitably and deliver good experience like Sony (PS3) or MS (Xbox).

Apple also regularly makes design decisions that favor form/profit over function - it should never be this way. Glossy screens and touchscreen are huge ergonomic steps backward (QWERTY was bad enough to begin with a shortcut for the lazy when transitioning from typewrites). Touchscreen designs are also much cheaper and easier to design and manufacture. Woz (who actually created the first Apple, Jobs was a businessman first and foremost, not an engineer) has stated various times in interviews that Apple and the like have yet to make any real effort to actually improve the computing experience.

LAPTOP: You were recently quoted as saying that a lot of the intuitiveness had gone away from Apple's programs. Do you think Leopard might change that?
SW: Early on with the first Apples, we had these dreams that the computer would let you know what you wanted to do. The idea was that little icons or words would suggest what you wanted to do, but now I have to find my way around to odd little icons that aren't positioned in the prominent places. When conducting a common task, I have to go searching around in folders or the bottom of the screen. I don't think any of it will be solved with Leopard because I don't think there is incentive to. They want to make things easy, and if it seems easy and it can be demonstrated quickly then it's okay. The real dreams of how it will work for someone who knows nothing about the computer have been lost and don't get addressed anymore.

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/19/140606661/coeds-cope-with-technology-induced-thumb-pain

 

[MMike]

....and I don't think "marketing genius" should be minimized......as technical people (such as myself) often do.

You can create the greatest doohickey in the world. But if no-one sees it, needs it.....or is successfully convinced that they NEED it, then the doohickey fades into obscurity.

 

[syadasti]

....and I don't think "marketing genius" should be minimized......as technical people (such as myself) often do.

You can create the greatest doohickey in the world. But if no-one sees it, needs it.....or is successfully convinced that they NEED it, then the doohickey fades into obscurity.

Again, abusing workers and creating a generation that is quickly wasting away financial and environmental resources for false needs/luxury is reprehensible. Do you also admire your area's best car salesman?

 

[johnbryanpeters]

....and I don't think "marketing genius" should be minimized......as technical people (such as myself) often do.

You can create the greatest doohickey in the world. But if no-one sees it, needs it.....or is successfully convinced that they NEED it, then the doohickey fades into obscurity.

Which would be a good thing. Mass marketing and attendant overproduction have driven much of our shared destructive behavior.

 

[jonKranked]

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip> or is successfully convinced that they NEED it,

Am I the only one that thinks this is retarded? If you have to be *convinced* that you need something... I'd argue you DON'T "NEED" IT.

 

[Serial Midget]

View attachment 108312

You're on my retard list.

 

[blackohio]

Again, abusing workers and creating a generation that is quickly wasting away financial and environmental resources for false needs/luxury is reprehensible. Do you also admire your area's best car salesman?

Im fairly certain you purchase/use/consume many products as bad if not worse, making you sound like an asshole.

 

[syadasti]

Im fairly certain you purchase/use/consume many products as bad if not worse, making you sound like an asshole.

Anyone in society from the mindful consumer to the leading activist isn't perfect that doesn't mean the status quo is acceptable. I'm certain people with attitudes like your own are far worse.

 

[sanjuro]

Not to resurrect old threads, but I just finished a FB argument about Jobs and how important his contributions were to OS/X and the Ipod.

To claim Jobs was some sort of glorified marketer really doesn't understand how technology is harnessed.

I pointed out something as simple as raising the fees for dvd rentals could be a huge disaster.

There were other garage PC companies back then, and Apple took a very decent computing unit with fancy case/monitor design and became the leader in technology today.

Or take NeXT. Who knew a workstation o/s company would be the backbone for the Mac? Was that good marketing.

Even the Ipod, which definitely benefits from great design and marketing, is a very stable and solid product. Decisions were made to make it so. Guess who was in charge?