Steve Jobs Dead At 56

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2011 Oct 06, 01:41

Curing pancreatic cancer- guess there's no app for that...

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2011 Oct 06, 03:25

R.I.P.
...
A Life/Death attitude he shared.

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2011 Oct 06, 16:24

... and an IEEE Spectrum article:
Steve Jobs in Four Easy Steps

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Oct 06, 21:46

Never being one to listen to hype, and not to speak ill of the dead, but having paid attention to the milieu for more than a few years now, I'm a little lost on why he seems to evoke so many accolades. As the Apple II was not the first programmable home computer, he didn't invent it. As (contrary to popular belief) Apple didn't invent the mouse, that's a non-starter. As the iPod is just a walkman with more modern hardware, he didn't invent that either. And as the iPad has no discernible purpose, it's just another over-priced shiny thing for rich people to show off to their friends, so designing it doesn't seem so laudable (to me).

Aside from designing some pretty aluminium cases for other people's hardware to go into, exactly what has he done that's so wonderful? (I even read his Wikipedia page, and still don't see anything other than an over-abundance of marketing-savvy and an odd ability to appeal to people's love of shiny baubles.

)

While he's had an undeniable presence in the industry for a rather long time, nothing indisputably "new" has come of it. This seems like little more than evidence of the odd American habit of either celebrating (or denigrating) captains of industry, more than anything else.

He wasn't even a philanthropist, so I just don't get it.

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2011 Oct 06, 21:54

Kilmatead wrote:He wasn't even a philanthropist, so I just don't get it.

And as he lays there dying he muses... "Perhaps I should have donated to cancer research instead of hoarding money."

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Oct 06, 22:00

"Hoarding money" is not too far off the mark, as there's no evidence he did anything worthwhile with it.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Oct 07, 17:23

So Apple has vacant Jobs now?

IneedHelp · Post by **IneedHelp** » 2011 Oct 07, 18:06

So you think it's funny to make jokes about the dead? iDon't.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Oct 07, 18:11

Steve Jobs' right to die in peace and dignity is not respected anyway. All there thousands of articles about what a god he was. Blah.

So why should I be the first to be different and let him rest in pieces, ehm, peace?

Srsly, I don't care. Many workers in Apple's Chinese factories killed themselves because they were treated like slaves. And now Steve Jobs' death is so much more depressive? Come on.

Another dead tyrant.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Oct 14, 07:32

Now, in the somewhat distasteful world of one-upmanship in recent deaths, Dennis Ritchie had more influence than Jobs ever could have dreamed of in the computer industry - but I doubt presidents and statesmen will pay his passing any mind. A pity.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Oct 14, 08:21

That's because they don't have Unix on their iPhones.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Oct 14, 08:58

They do, actually, after a form... iOS is based on Darwin, which is POSIX by way of Single UNIX Specification. However, the important thing is he created the C language that virtually every other modern so-called language syntax is based upon, if not simply borrowed from wholesale, by virtue of being written in it.

When I was 14, I think I must have spent more time poring over his book than any other... with the exception of Albert Camus, of course.

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Oct 14, 09:40

UNIX is not Unix. Even Windows NT is, to some extent, UNIX.

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2011 Oct 14, 10:15

Do all Germans have such excess follicular activity on their heads that they can engage in the practice of splitting-hairs? Jobs himself came from the Unix world, so he never forgot it, even when he decided to arrogantly privatise it.

Besides, I thought you didn't do real languages... just this flippant web-stuff that seems so popular nowadays. (And yes, I'm aware that the pot is calling the kettle black, me and my silly scripting nonsense. Eh, what can you do...

)

Tuxman · Post by **Tuxman** » 2011 Oct 14, 10:40

Kilmatead wrote:Do all Germans have such excess follicular activity on their heads that they can engage in the practice of splitting-hairs?

Mostly yes. But we do this for fun, actually.

Kilmatead wrote:Besides, I thought you didn't do real languages...

... nor do you, Irish friend!