Steve Jobs Dies

[East Texas]

Still one of the best commercials

Any of you a bit older than dirt should easily remember this commercial when it aired in 1984.

1984_Apple_Macintosh_Commercial

 

[Sarah in SC]

Cliff, I was thinking of that Economist story and of course the Onion, when I heard Michael Lewis in an interview about his new book. I think he might be right about us. Jobs was an enigmatic and brilliant man, and the world is less for his passing.

A review: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...-third-world/2011/10/04/gIQAMVlXTL_story.html

 

[GusLevy]

That really says something - very fitting.

How many people could something like this be said about? Samuel Morse maybe? Marconi? Philo Farnsworth? Possibly whoever invented the first printing presses used for newspapers?

Pretty rarefied territory. And all accomplished by 56.

-ERD50

Hey now! There are admirers of Nikola Tesla - probably my favorite scientist in history - who froth at the mouth at the suggestion that Marconi invented the radio. He done stoled it from Tesla and history is only making that clearer as time passes. That sneaky Italian did have money and political support to build the big radio company of his day but give Tesla his due for the technological innovation.

On the topic of Jobs - who IMO will be remembered hundreds of yrs from now as the seminal figure in making advanced communications technology a truly household item for humanity - I view his spiritual connection more to Tesla rather than Edison like so many in the press are doing these past few days. I say this as both men saw a vision in their mind's eye of what was possible in the world and could not stop themselves from making their visions come to reality - not for money, fame or political power. Also, despite Jobs being a multi-billionaire, I think that some of the mass global adoration for him is due to the sense that he actually - and honestly - didn't care much for the money and wealth as opposed to the realization of his vision: He could easily have been the richest man in the world with the growth of Apple alone but, in his own words, Jobs had "no desire to be the richest man in the cemetary." These individuals like Jobs and Tesla are like the finest artists that mankind can produce but their palates happen to be in the realm of science to the benefit of mankind - of course, Da Vinci is the archetype of this extremely rare human being and one wonders what could have been if he were born 500yrs later than he was.

Anyway, I liken Gates as the Edison of his day while Jobs is the Tesla of his day as both sets were the fierce rivals of their day. Jobs and Tesla were both introverts who were still gifted showman. Both were also fired from the companies that each founded! Jobs fortunately had the redemptive chapter to his life which Tesla never enjoyed.

RIP Steve Jobs.

 

[braumeister]

I view his spiritual connection more to Tesla rather than Edison

That's a great comparison, and I heartily agree. It's also apt in that both were highly eccentric individuals with a few downright weird characteristics, but they didn't let that stifle their creativity.

Can't remember where I read it, but one recent article said essentially that Jobs created his own profession, with a total world membership of one. That's what he talked about in his Stanford address, too. We'll be lucky to see another example of this before the 21st century is over.

 

[ERD50]

Hey now! There are admirers of Nikola Tesla - probably my favorite scientist in history - who froth at the mouth at the suggestion that Marconi invented the radio. He done stoled it from Tesla and history is only making that clearer as time passes. ...

On the topic of Jobs - who IMO will be remembered hundreds of yrs from now as the seminal figure in making advanced communications technology a truly household item for humanity - I view his spiritual connection more to Tesla rather than Edison like so many in the press are doing these past few days.

....

Anyway, I liken Gates as the Edison of his day while Jobs is the Tesla of his day ....

RIP Steve Jobs.

Very good points. And I'll apologize for crediting Marconi, w/o due credit to Tesla (remember that scene from the beginning of "The Bucket List?).

And I gristle when I hear people refer to Edison as the 'inventor' of the light bulb. There were numerous patents ahead of him, Joseph Swan in England is often cited. I also don't really think of Edison as a 'genius' - Tesla certainly was very high level genius. Edison was a hard worker, applied himself and his staff (likely stole a lot of credit from them), but he did not have the high level of understanding of physics and electricity that Tesla had. Edison relied on 'brute force, brute will' to get things done. He didn't analyze the chemical properties of materials for a filament, he just had his staff keep trying things. I don't think Edison could have ever conceived the idea of 3-phase power (a Tesla development), Edison was stuck on DC. But Edison could envision that people would want dictating machines, moving pictures, phonographs and an electrical distribution system.

At least Tesla has a car company named after him now.


Where the Jobs-Tesla comparison breaks down for me though - I don't see Jobs as really being all that technically knowledgeable. In the early days, he had the other Steve for that, and later his teams. He had the vision of what he wanted, and knew how to get it done. Not a common combination, and maybe a bit more like Edison in that regard.

An amazing man, regardless how we view it.

-ERD50

 

[sheehs1]

Here is a brilliant ilogo tribute to Jobs:

jonathan mak

Loved this when I saw it. ! They should use it!

 

[GregLee]

And I gristle when I hear people refer to Edison as the 'inventor' of the light bulb. ... But Edison could envision that people would want dictating machines, moving pictures, phonographs and an electrical distribution system.

But Edison did invent the phonograph.

The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Alva Edison at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA.[1][2][3][4] On February 19, 1878, Edison was issued the first patent (U.S. patent #200,521) for the phonograph.[5] While other inventors had produced devices that could record sounds, Edison's phonograph was the first to be able to reproduce the recorded sound.
Phonograph - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[kcowan]

I can't help thinking of Gates with his vision of a computer on every desk.

For Jobs, it might have been a computer in every hand! After all, he has freed people from ever going to a desk...