Steve Jobs has died

Tyson · « **Reply #20 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 03:35 am »

Holy crap - I knew he was ill but didn't know he was this sick. One of the true icons of our age gone, just like that. Damn.

CSI · « **Reply #21 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 03:36 am »

It will be very hard to overstate the impact Steve Jobs had on the world. For the combination of vision, inventiveness, and determination in creating and nurturing products that changed the way we live he will be compared to the only other two who have done something similar - Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. The comparison is apt. It's where he belongs.

Mikeinsacramento · « **Reply #22 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 03:56 am »

Last week I finished a biography of Edwin Land. And I just watched that commencement address linked above. Jobs was a disciple of Land. It's amazing how that commencement speech mirrors Land's philosophy and public statements. Land said, in order to be a successful inventor, you had to anticipate what the public wants, before they know they want it. Sound familiar?

orthobiz · « **Reply #23 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 04:12 am »

Awful. Sucks.

Paul

wilsynet · « **Reply #24 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 04:19 am »

People often talk about his very successful recent accomplishments, including the iconic iPod, re-inventing the Smart Phone with the iPhone, making digital music downloads a commercial success in iTunes, bringing computer animation into theatres with Pixar, etc.

But it's the early contributions which I think were the most important, most meaningful.

The Apple II was the first consumer accessible computer, something you could just take home and plug-in. In my mind, it was the very first PC, and he had a big hand in that. Woz made the Apple II possible, but Jobs was the designer that saw who the target audience needed to be.

The Macintosh was the first commercially viable GUI, and if anyone was its singular creator, that would have to be Jobs. Xerox may have invented the GUI, but make no mistake that the Macintosh was considerably more refined and commercially viable in a way that Xerox could never have been able to achieve.

golfugh · « **Reply #25 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 04:26 am »

Sad news, a tech genius

TrungT · « **Reply #26 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 04:40 am »

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
Steve Jobs

planet10 · « **Reply #27 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 07:28 am »

jimdgoulding · « **Reply #28 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 07:44 am »

I believe he is or was one of the good guys. We need em now more than ever. A pity.

bpape · « **Reply #29 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 10:28 am »

One of the great visionaries of our time. Others may run the business but that kind of creativity and ability to create entire classes of things that we 'need' are tough to replace.

RIP

Bryan

JLM · « **Reply #30 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 12:49 pm »

He made the world a better place, but Xerox invented WYSIWYG and tracker balls (mouse) in the 70's. Steve saw their potential.

I've always liked the renigade/quality/slick path he led.

saisunil · « **Reply #31 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 01:31 pm »

Sad, very sad ...

My wife was sharing an article which said something to the effect that how he knew he had terminal disease and life span was shortened ... hence he lived his life with that perspective that he is going to die soon ... he did the best he could ... completely focused ....

It reminds me of a quote from a source I cannot remember - live as if you are going to die tomorrow ...

May his family and loved ones have courage and comfort to deal with this loss ...

Hugh · « **Reply #32 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 01:38 pm »

Vey sad indeed.

Pez · « **Reply #33 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 01:43 pm »

One of my favorite moments in Tech:

Quote

In 1997, shortly after Mr. Jobs returned to Apple, the company he helped start in 1976, Dell's founder and chairman, Michael S. Dell, was asked at a technology conference what might be done to fix Apple, then deeply troubled financially.

"What would I do?" Mr. Dell said to an audience of several thousand information technology managers. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

On Friday, apparently savoring the moment, Mr. Jobs sent a brief e-mail message to Apple employees, which read: "Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve."

Apple is now the most valuable tech company in the world and Dell is struggling to stay relevant. Apple is more valuable than Asus, HP, Samsung and yes even Microsoft. True vision vs following the crowd/design by committee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/technology/16apple.html

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #34 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 01:52 pm »

Quote from: Pez on 6 Oct 2011, 01:43 pm

One of my favorite moments in Tech:

Apple is now the most valuable tech company in the world and Dell is struggling to stay relevant. Apple is more valuable than Asus, HP, Samsung and yes even Microsoft. True vision vs following the crowd/design by committee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/16/technology/16apple.html

Fantastic point Pez.

It's because Steve Jobs, 'stayed hungry and he stayed foolish,' while others followed pre-existing dogmas, and he, paved his own.

Anand.

headshrinker2 · « **Reply #35 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 01:55 pm »

Sad indeed. One can only imagine making an impact so deep on so many. Amazing.

jaspal kallar · « **Reply #36 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 03:20 pm »

Came as shock for me, I'd hoped he a few more year in him. A sad day for sure.

jparkhur · « **Reply #37 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 03:25 pm »

iSad

iVery Sad

iMiss Him

wilsynet · « **Reply #38 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 04:28 pm »

Quote from: JLM on 6 Oct 2011, 12:49 pm

He made the world a better place, but Xerox invented WYSIWYG and tracker balls (mouse) in the 70's. Steve saw their potential.

I think that would diminish Apple's contribution here. Of course, I do not mean to diminish Xerox's contribution either of course, but we should note that these concepts existed before even the founding of Xerox PARC.

For example, the IBM SAGE Project had a windowing system in the late 50s and early 60s. The Evans and Sutherland Sketchpad was developed in 1963 and had what you would recognize as a graphical user interface. Finally, Douglas Englebart's NLS system developed in the 1960s at SRI had a mouse, a mouse cursor, windowing, etc. In fact, some of the people who formed the core of the Xerox PARC team came from SRI.

Xerox's invention was inspired by and the natural consequence of inventions at Evans and Sutherland and SRI. What Xerox did was take it the next level. What Steve Jobs did was also to take Xerox's development to the next level. If you look at demos of the Xerox Alto, you can see how primitive it is compared to the Macintosh circa 1984.

The Macintosh 1984 was, in my opinion, an order of magnitude refinement over the Xerox Alto, and the Alto was an order of magnitude refinement over the Sketchpad and NLS.

Even if Xerox had realized what they had in their hands, it's not clear to me that they would have been able to ship a commercially successful, long term viable product. By way of analogy, there were plenty of portable digital music players like the iPod that were around before the iPod. It's the iPod which is the iconic embodiment of the portable digital music player.

Steve Jobs not only saw the potential of the Xerox Alto, he also executed his own vision of how it needed to be to move the mere idea successfully to market.

Pez · « **Reply #39 on:** 6 Oct 2011, 05:07 pm »

This is the constant 'controversy' that people argue about Apple. Apple didn't invent the mouse, Apple didn't invent the MP3 player, Apple didn't invent the smartphone, etc etc etc etc. All true, but Apple made ALL those products usable and great.