goodbye old archnemesis

Somehow I knew they would break their M-W-F publishing schedule for this.

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Tony Leggett
I don't think Jobs should be compared with the "you can have any colour you like as long as it's black" assembly line ethos of Henry Ford (unless you want to be deeply cynical about foxconn etc)

He was an artist as much as an inventor. Hence why I say Da Vinci.

Oh, come on - Ford's passion for bringing personal transportation to the masses with an affordable, easy to operate device, built by people paid twice the prevailing wage, finds a very close analogue in Steve Jobs. And given the number of people on this board (including you) who constantly railed against Jobs' inflexible design decisions, I'd say "any color you like as long as it's black" fits him to a "T".

I think James is right on that one. It was a different era. Back in the day, Woodrow Wilson called the automobile "the symbol of wealth's new arrogance" and railed against it. He wasn't an extremist really. After all, he was elected President relatively soon after. Ford understood this and set out to create an automobile for everyone. Plus, his behavior toward Edsel (destroying an engine Edsel had built publicly) seems vintage Steve. That said, Steve's politics was refreshing and he had a much better sense of adaptability (Ford had the Model T, the Fordson tractor, and chemical fertilizer… that was about it…Model A wasn't bad but way too late) and aesthetic.

As people compare Steve Jobs to DaVinci, Einstein, et al., I think it would also be fitting to add Guttenberg to the list of comparisons here.

Think about it. Jobs has really been the Carey Mahoney of the technology world. The misfit cadet who began with nothing more than a holistic understanding of the world around him. He used that understanding to take control and shape his fellow misfits into leaders.

Oh, yeah, there's that other Gutenberg, too. I guess you could make a comparison there as well with the whole "bringing-knowledge-to-the-masses" thing.

And fonts are what Jobs credited with starting his obsession with style.

Sen Chris Dodd's statement says he's known Jobs for 40 years. Since Jobs was 16? Any other written cites for this?

That number came from the same team of MPAA analysts who determine how much money their industry loses to piracy each year.

Rest in peace, Steve.

From Isaacson’s upcoming Essay in Time Magazine:

A few weeks ago, I visited Jobs for the last time in his Palo Alto, Calif., home. He had moved to a downstairs bedroom because he was too weak to go up and down stairs. He was curled up in some pain, but his mind was still sharp and his humor vibrant. We talked about his childhood, and he gave me some pictures of his father and family to use in my biography. As a writer, I was used to being detached, but I was hit by a wave of sadness as I tried to say goodbye. In order to mask my emotion, I asked the one question that was still puzzling me: Why had he been so eager, during close to 50 interviews and conversations over the course of two years, to open up so much for a book when he was usually so private? “I wanted my kids to know me,” he said. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”

I almost posted that here. Poignant.

That's a great image.

Sun Microsystems went so far as to have a policy that no contract could be agreed to while Steve was in the room. RDF, indeed.

Great article. Someone needs to collect all these great stories in one place. Like a special room at the library of congress.
Would it be irony if colleges had whole fields of study devoted to Jobs?

It'll only be a few months before the MBA's convince themselves that Jobs never happened and the only way to succeed is more meetings and committee decisions.

From the article:

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But then I asked him if he would sign my Apple Extended Keyboard. He burst out: “This keyboard represents everything about Apple that I hate. It’s a battleship. Why does it have all these keys? Do you use this F1 key? No.” And with his car keys he pried it right off. “How about this F2 key?” Off they all went. “I’m changing the world, one keyboard at a time,” he concluded in a calmer voice.

Proof he was human. I loved those extended keyboards...

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=CA_SFE&ref_pge=tpt

Another lump in throat. As Gruber says, the past tense sucks.

Here's one of FLL's interviews today:

KARE11.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2011 02:37PM by Cloudscout.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/last-american-who-knew-what-the-fuck-he-was-doing,26268/

Congrats FLL.