atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories Steve Jobs resigns

Perhaps we don't know what he has done as far as phalanthropy. But assuming your words are correct; I wonder how many of those in the "occupy wallstreet" grieved his passing, not as a person, but because he was a really cool guy that was one of the people.

I've spent a decade working in the industry that Jobs had impacted, and had *never* heard about him being "one of the people"...quite the opposite, from a variety of people who knew him personally.

The "people" don't get on waiting lists for liver transplants in two different states...


One thing that you can not deny, he was one helluva marketing pioneer.

Agreed 10001%.

Respectfuly RIP Mr. Jobs. I hope you have no regrets, and know that you made a difference in the world. [/QB][/QUOTE]

Amen.

Last post from me on this topic:

First, I apologize to those who were offended by my strong language. I'll leave it that I have met him, have friends who work for him, spent time at DeAnza College when Jobs and Woz were there, was once a personal friend of Woz AND lived through the whole damn thing. My opinion counts big time, but I'm aware that I may have come off half-cocked...especially after saying what I said and then having experienced his passing so shortly thereafter.

I'm sorry.

Having said that, let's get a couple things clear about history.

• Steve Jobs nor Apple invented the mouse, the laser printer or the "windows" operating system...XEROX did. End of story. Apple licensed it from XEROX, which is the reason they had no grounds against HP or Microsoft at the time when the "look and feel" arguments came to light in court.

• Steve Jobs nor Apple had much to do with Pixar (other than a cash infusion). The company was started by George Lucas back in 1984. It was called "The Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project" and was headed by Bill Reeves (programmer), John Lasseter (ex-Disney animator), Eben Ostby (a personal friend who WROTE the damn software...now called 'Renderman' and is an industry standard), Rob Cook and Alvy Ray Smith. If those names don't ring a bell, then you have absolutely no room to comment about Pixar. End of story.

They originally sold computer "medical imaging" equipment that was put out in cubed-shaped boxes they called Pixars. Two sides of the unit had "dimples" in the sheet metal, which I personally saw manufactured, and that square with dimple in the middle became Pixar's first logo. Only later after 'research and development' in the animation industry did the logo change to the Luxor lamp. I was also privvy to Pixar's involvement with rendering 3D models of landscape (created from early satellite images) for the U.S. Government. They were fed into flight sims for practice runs over no-fly zones. Shut up, now.


• Steve Jobs could NOT have done it without Wozniak, the ugly stepchild of the computer industry. Yes he's fat and he's a big ol' nerd, but I've spent time with him AT HIS HOUSE and find that he's a pretty down-to-Earth guy. I've played video games with him. I've also stood there in his living room and watched the fish go by in his underground pond while he played acoustic guitar. Please don't tell me about Apple.

• Steve Jobs had plenty of failures...the "Lisa" being just one of them. What a piece of shit.

• The iWhatever interface WAS NOT invented by Jobs or Apple, it was invented by a Japanese man named Hahn. Those things you call "gestures", the concept of an accelerometer, the intuitive GUI interface...none of this is new.


Did Gates make anything new? Absolutely not. He stole more from Peter Norton, XEROX/Apple, Kildall, IBM, etc than you could shake a stick at. He is the modern day Thomas Edison--not an original thought, but collects all the bread anyway.

Jobs is no different. Yet somehow he is seen as the poor underdog that had all the innovative ideas. Ain't so. And I guess I'm just bitter because I saw it all and I'm tired of the Apple religious "right" telling me that what I grew up with is wrong. That's why I make my point about philanthropy...it's the one thing that distinguishes these men for me. Some are greedy and some choose to share after they've stolen everything. Jobs chose to be greedy, which is why I'm pissed at him.

Go ahead and be excited about innovation. Just PLEASE remember where it came from and give it the appropriate kudos. Jobs did not change this century. Many people did but Jobs got the credit for it. I'll stand as the ass to correct that thinking if I have to.

Didn't Vertex make semi conductors (programmable eternet chips) for Apple? That is before or after Mitel bought them out? Or am I thinking about some other silicon valley company? I met someone just the other day who retired from there and now travels around in his motor home. He met Jobs on the job or so he says.

You're talking about what is now Xilinx, I think. I could tell you a story about how a chip got cloned by being taped on the bottom of a Frisbee and sent to the adjacent building with the flick of a wrist. The "other building" was a competitor back in the Xilinx daze.

My college roommate Jason, a super smart Jewish kid, had an attorney father who was instrumental in all this crap. The stealing, cloning and reaching for the top was absolutely crazy at that time.

And it WAS a time. One of my college mates went to work for IBM...another at HP (for nearly 80K a year, mind you). I was so lost as to where I was supposed to be that it was all I could do to keep my feet on the ground.

Simulation and modeling dictated whether "three in a line" at Alberson's made economic sense. I wrote code to help San Jose airport bring their planes in on time, but my other buddy upstanded me with some cool ray-tracing shit for the movie biz.

How the hell did I get into the phone world? My UNIX experience landed me a job at a high-end garment company in L.A. where I actually had no interest in working for. But the owner was impressed and offered me some AT&T training in Denver. It's all downhill from there....

Speaking of Unix....I once had a friend named Durwood who many years ago used to work for Bell Labs and while there he created this vary stable yet impossible to understand operating system.

Durwood Kressler?

Durwood H. Neuse. He worked for the Mitre Corp and was behind the COLINGO (Complile ONline and GO)Design Philosophy back in 1964. He worked for NASA for awhile and in was in England years ago where he helped build some kind of national defense network located in underground bunkers. He retired to Williamsburg Va, where he designed his own Unix based reservation system for the Williamsburg Hotel Motel Association. That is where I worked with him.