Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

71 comments on “Steve Jobs, 1955-2011 ”

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1. kevin007 1

   6 October 2011 at 1:32 pm

   A sad loss of a true leader and visionary
2. Kevin Welsh 2

   6 October 2011 at 1:32 pm

   Gutted.

   Hooked form the moment I first played on an Apple IIE at school. Have spent last 27 years almost solely working on Apple kit and it still baffles me how they constantly managed to just get it right.

   A true visionary.
3. r0b 3

   6 October 2011 at 1:36 pm

   Bugger.  Started on Apple IIe, posting this from a 30in iMac.

   Think different… 
   • lprent 3.1

     6 October 2011 at 3:17 pm

     I’ve only ever had a single Mac, a PPC Mac mini from 2004 that I brought to suss out the irritating CSS differences in safari. It lived onwards attached to a TV as a media box afterwards.

     However I have programmed various Mac OS’es from the early 90’s to OSX. The latter is a good system, and the previous ones sucked for a programmer because Apple never cleaned out old API’s.

     These days I have a iphone and an ipad that I don’t bother programming for. I’d have to buy a Mac, mount three operating systems on it, and keep bouncing from tone to another. I’d be like an engineer across the way who has a 30″ Mac that he runs linux on because that is the current target platform. I don’t think it has gone into OSX since a few days after he got it. And he paid about three times the cost for the equivalent hardware because ‘soon’ he will have to write code for IOS… Needless to say my next tablet and/or cellphone won’t be apple, because open systems will have caught up.

     But Steve Jobs was a hell of a marketer. And I do recommend his products to the technically challenged quite a lot.
4. joe90 4

   6 October 2011 at 1:38 pm

   .
   • r0b 4.1

     6 October 2011 at 1:46 pm

     perfect
5. higherstandard 5

   6 October 2011 at 1:38 pm

   Great looking products, very user friendly and excellent marketing – pity about the slave labour.
   • Kevin Welsh 5.1

     6 October 2011 at 1:57 pm

     Thats capitalism for ya HS.
   • Bazar 5.2

     6 October 2011 at 1:59 pm

     or the overpriced aspect
     or the limited the freedom of iphone/ipad owners
     or the way it treated its developers
     or the way gave shit contacts and terms to developers in the app store
     or the way it used/abused its monopoly on apple devices to cut everyone out of business
     or the bullshit lawsuit it filed against samsung to stop competition

     Apple was innovative and used great hardware.
     Every other aspect of apple is a cancer to the IT industry.
     • Tiger Mountain 5.2.1

       6 October 2011 at 2:35 pm

       Ooh a nasty little layer of “windoze” fans here it seems. Show some respect on this day you shitheads.

       Apples hardware/software integration and intense industrial design kept them afloat.
       Steve kept on truckn’ as one of the miniscule 1% that ever survive a pancreatic cancer diagnosis for more than a few weeks.

       Yes Apple was subject to some of the usual behaviours of captialist companies, technology and research sometimes develop -almost- indendently of political systems but ultimately private ownership and shareholder control spoil the party.

       I am typing on an alu imac with wireless magic mouse and I ain’t sending them back.
       RIP Steve.
       • Bazar 5.2.1.1

         6 October 2011 at 3:53 pm

         “Ooh a nasty little layer of “windoze” fans here it seems. Show some respect on this day you shitheads”

         I’ve not said a single thing against Jobs, and personally i neither like nor dislike the person.
         Apple the company is a different matter.

         Also its called “Windows”, you show your immaturety by deliberately misspelling it. In fact i’m loath to reply to such comments, but still i want to set the record straght.

         ” am typing on an alu imac with wireless magic mouse and I ain’t sending them back.”

         And we needed to know what you typed this post out with why?
         Truly a mac fanatic at its finest.
     • Lanthanide 5.2.2

       6 October 2011 at 2:37 pm

       “Every other aspect of apple is a cancer to the IT industry.”

       And yet they’re the biggest IT company around (by share value). How many people do Apple employ?

       I would say Apple were very beneficial to the “IT industry”.
       • Draco T Bastard 5.2.2.1

         6 October 2011 at 4:10 pm

         I’d say that they were at one point but now that they’re descending into ridiculous patent lawsuits for something they themselves did (copied others) then I’m of the opinion that they’ve started to become a liability.
         • tc 5.2.2.1.1

           6 October 2011 at 6:32 pm

           Yeah this IMO reflects Jobs decline and the lawyers rise, the man had game, shiploads of it and dwarfs those remaining so they revert to protecting what they have with the craetive drive gone.
       • Bazar 5.2.2.2

         6 October 2011 at 4:14 pm

         Size is not a virtue.
         As for how many they employ, at the cost of what other companies?

         The iPhone was nice and all, and is basicly the foundation that apple made its revival on, but at the cost of dominating the smartphone market.

         That has basicly seen Nokia get bumped off, and is now having serious troubles. How many thousands of workers got made redundant last month from nokia as a result?

         As a whole, that wasn’t a bad thing (unless you were nokia). Smart phones evolved quickly and rapidly. So in that aspect i would agree that Apple was very beneficial to the “IT industry”.”

         But that was the past. The iPhone hasn’t evolved anything, the iPad is just a larger iPhone. And all the while apple moves in ways that don’t progress the industry, but simply reinforces the control apple has over it, as well as taxing it.

         Do you think having the samsung galaxy blocked from sale in all of europe is benefical?
         Do you think it was fair that they got it blocked because of a primitive design law, localized only in Germany.
         That the evidence produced was a design scribbled on the back of a napkin, written before the iphone was designed, that was basicly at best, an outline of any generic looking smart phone
         That due to the badly thuoght out law in germany, that its a victory by default, and it needed to either be dismissed out of hand (illegal) or go to the appeal process to be rejected, with germany’s design copyright.
         And that because germany is part of the EU, and has a design law that will always be upheld in court so long someone paid a filing fee (to the point where a napkin is permissable), the biggest threat to the iPhone was blocked in all of EU.

         Or how about how anything that is ever done on the ios has to be authorized by apple?

         Or how about how if you sell an app through their store, apple takes 30% of the cut, and then you are required to offer a refund without conditions. Should the customer take the refund, you refund the customer in full, but apple still keeps 30% of the cut!

         Or how about if you sell any books or subscriptions via ios, you have to list it at the lowest price you sell the product anywhere at AND apple keeps 30% of the gross profit. (So you can’t simply raise the price to cover the apple tax and sell it cheaper to the customer elsewhere)

         I can go on, and on, and on.

         Apple wants to tax every software, charge an Apple service for all hardware, and prevent any other choice besides the Apple way. And Apple fanatics love them for it….

         But please, go on and show me how Apple is being benifical to the world.
         Frankly if i had to choose between nokia’s stupid phones, or an apple way of life, i’d happly stick with a $80 nokia.

         I’d perfer a samsung tablet instead, but well thats not much of an option thanks to apple.
       • felix 5.2.2.3

         6 October 2011 at 6:10 pm

         Gosh, who coulda predicted that this thread would descend into a mac vs pc flamewar?
   • AAMC 5.3

     6 October 2011 at 7:12 pm

     +1

     I managed to download the “phone story” app/game that slipped through the Apple censors for a couple of days, basically you have to stand over kids in the Congo with guns as they mine Coltin, then you move to the Chinese assembly factories where you have to catch suicide victims jumping from the building, then you’re an Apple store worker throwing product at the storming fans / consumers, the you have to sort for recycling in Bangladesh. Classic.

     Strangely, the guy at the Mac shop seemed a bit bemused, even a little put out – like a Jehovah’s Witness might be as he’s ejected from your doorstep – when I proudly showed him my new game.
6. Brett Dale 6

   6 October 2011 at 2:24 pm

   RIP Steve Jobs, thoughts go out to his friends and family.
7. uke 7

   6 October 2011 at 2:26 pm

   “Apple was innovative and used great hardware.”
    
   Yes… and also innovative in creating hardware with built-in obsolescence, e.g., the clickwheel iPod of which 25% broke down just outside the 12-month warranty.
8. millsy 8

   6 October 2011 at 2:29 pm

   RIP Mr Jobs.

   The purists may think otherwise, but it was Apple’s creation of the ipod/iphone/ipad that will ultamitely lead to the decline of the PC in a lot of households. Which I think is probably a good thing.
   • millsy 8.1

     6 October 2011 at 2:47 pm

     In saying that, they are rather cumbersome to use IMO – the iPod you can only put music on it thru iTunes, and the iPhone you cannot use on prepay – which is the most cost effective form of paying for mobile device use.
     • lprent 8.1.1

       6 October 2011 at 5:01 pm

       Nope. You can load music on the devices using Banshee, Rythmbox, Amorak (and probably others) from linux with varying levels of success because of some elegant reverse engineering giving a common library across media programs. On windoze* you can use MediaMonkey (and probably others).

       I hate iTunes with a passion as being one of the most inefficient and bloated programs I have ever had the misfortune to have to use. But it is the only program to that you can backup and upgrade IOS from.

       * Note to QSF: I’ve been programming on windoze since about 1986 (and seriously since 1991) and that has always been what I called it. Everyone who knows the platforms does. The standing joke is that it doesn’t matter what hardware is available, Microsoft will always find a way to suck up the CPU cycles and available disk space unproductively. You don’t realize how much until you start programming across platforms and find superior platforms in terms of performance on far inferior hardware. Or even if you just drop the GUI shell on windows servers and find a really fast and pretty clean OS underneath.
       • Draco T Bastard 8.1.1.1

         6 October 2011 at 5:50 pm

         Microsoft will always find a way to suck up the CPU cycles and available disk space unproductively.

         Yep, I always liked to compare AmigaOS with Windows.

         AmigaOS:
         250k
         True multi-tasking
         Full windows
         Nice, elegant and fast libraries

         Windoze
         Multiple megabytes
         Multi-tasking was partial at best
         Full windows
         Bloated, slow libraries (it didn’t help that the early versions were just an addon to MS DOS)

         The “success” of MS is another major market failure 🙁
       • queenstfarmer 8.1.1.2

         6 October 2011 at 6:23 pm

         * Note to QSF: …

         Note to me, or to Bazar with a similar gravatar? I am a Windows/ze programmer (more recently .NET) and wouldn’t disagree with what you say! Although I do find .NET to be incredibly developer-performance-productive, which these days is the type of productivity I’m after.
         • lprent 8.1.1.2.1

           6 October 2011 at 9:51 pm

           Indeed. Sorry about that.

           Dead server fadeout (just spent last few hours catching up on sleep)
       • Bazar 8.1.1.3

         6 October 2011 at 6:38 pm

         “… and that has always been what I called it. Everyone who knows the platforms does.”

         I haven’t heard anyone working in the industry refer to windows as “windoze” for many many years. Were talking references to windows 98 here.

         I’ve even asked my friends, working from NZ and Australia, in a variety of professional programming rolls, and they all got laughs at me for calling it that, no one they know or worked with calls it windoze either.

         Windoze is slang that died in the early 00’s… And if not, should have.
         • lprent 8.1.1.3.1

           6 October 2011 at 10:20 pm

           Yeah right. I think that windows 98 was about my 6th or 7th windoze version. There were many joys after that. The joys of monumentally broken ME, the dearly beloved vagaries of delibertately broken networking of “home” editions of XP and vista, the sluggishness that is vista etc.

           For instance, I have vista business on my vaio z (it shipped with it in 2009) on dual boot with ubuntu. It takes about 4 times as long on bootup compared to ubuntu to get to the point I can edit code. And that wasn’t a under specced system.

           And the other night I watched incredulously when it took more than an hour to shutdown after collecting a months worth of security updates – warning me that to touch it was dangerous as it powered off. On a laptop!!!

           It only has a few programs installed since I brought it – kaspersky, slickedit, itunes, open office, and visual studio so it isn’t like it has done much to mess it up. Amazing how two and a half years of microsft updates can destroy a OS

           I haven’t used windows 7 on any of my systems yet – just a few development boxes whilst testing code at work. Rocky and some others have reported that it works well. But for anything I actually need to work I will use a reliable OS that doesn’t slow down over time or have strange broken sections inserted for marketing reasons

           I have to say that I liked windows 2000 and 2003 R2 server… Still have one of the latter running my last remaining asp server code and mdaemon. I had to move it at the start of the week because the motherboard went crispy when the UPS failed badly. Hasn’t been worth changing it to Linux in the 6 years it has been running.

           You should try some other systems to pick up some perspective.
           • Lanthanide 8.1.1.3.1.1

             7 October 2011 at 1:24 pm

             “I haven’t used windows 7 on any of my systems yet – just a few development boxes whilst testing code at work. Rocky and some others have reported that it works well. But for anything I actually need to work I will use a reliable OS that doesn’t slow down over time or have strange broken sections inserted for marketing reasons”

             W7 is much much better than Vista. I always maintained that Vista was ok on brand-new properly specced hardware, and still hold to that. But W7 is still better on the same hardware.

             As for the gradual slowdown, that only seems to affect XP.
   • mik e 8.2

     6 October 2011 at 8:36 pm

     land lines are faster than wireless ,then their will be overcrowded airwaves when every man and his dog has a mobile device as is happening in some areas of the world already.
9. queenstfarmer 9

   6 October 2011 at 2:32 pm

   I respect Steve as a CEO and visionary, but I hope it’s not churlish to say that I have long been uncomortable with some of Apple’s practices in recent years. Apple has pioneered a lot of good things, but recently this included very draconian restrictions in intellectual property and user rights and freedoms. There is also significant danger to the broader internet in the “walled garden” approach used by Apple. Some of its practices are looking rather familiar to those of another IT industry behemoth that once had a predilction for heavy-handed and anti-competitive behaviour.

   In short, it seems to me that Apple may be on track to becoming the next (evil) Microsoft.
   • Draco T Bastard 9.1

     6 October 2011 at 3:03 pm

     Apple has pioneered a lot of good things, but recently this included very draconian restrictions in intellectual property and user rights and freedoms.

     It’s sad, especially when you consider that what Apple did was pretty much a copy or adaptation of what someone else had done before.
     • burt 9.1.1

       6 October 2011 at 8:17 pm

       Great link Draco. – Cheers.
10. tsmithfield 10

    6 October 2011 at 3:07 pm

    “It’s sad, especially when you consider that what Apple did was pretty much a copy or adaptation of what someone else had done before.”

    What isn’t?
    • Draco T Bastard 10.1

      6 October 2011 at 4:04 pm

      Nothing which is why the IP laws of the world are an injustice.
    • mik e 10.2

      6 October 2011 at 8:38 pm

      windows icons and the mouse are probably the 2 unique inventions his company created
      • Colonial Viper 10.2.1

        6 October 2011 at 8:43 pm

        Xerox PARC facility created those. Apple nicked them.

        Let me add: there is a real genius in seeing the possibility in others’ inventions that they cannot see themselves, and making it happen in a real, commercial, popular sense.

        Xerox died. Apple thrived.
11. Afewknowthetruth 11

    6 October 2011 at 3:10 pm

    Born after me, died before me.

    A couple of weeks ago it was Andy Whitfield (who died aged 39).

    I get the distict impression the industrial economy is an out-of-control killing machine. Not only is it killing numerous non-human species and ‘killing’ the Earth but it is also killing those embedded in it who supposedly benefit from it.

    Keep extracting the oil, driving the SUVs, flying the planes, burning the coal and lacing the food with chemicals. Judging by the epidemic of cancers we are now witnessing, the next generation will almost certainly have a much lower life expectancy than the current generation.
    • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 11.1

      6 October 2011 at 3:20 pm

      Are you saying the “industrial economy” killed Jobs?

      Should have known it was a conspiracy.
    • burt 11.2

      6 October 2011 at 8:19 pm

      Yes, we all lived so much longer when we roamed the jungles as hunter gatherers.
12. joe90 12

    6 October 2011 at 3:56 pm

    Another, probably unknown to most who read this, who passed away today was veteran civil rights campaigner Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

    Also, Timeline: The lifework of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth
13. joe90 13

    6 October 2011 at 5:15 pm

    And sure enough, Westboro is going to picket Steve Jobs’ funeral.

    #MargiePhelps
    • felix 13.1

      6 October 2011 at 6:08 pm

      Didn’t know Steve Jobs “taught sin”.

      Busy guy.
    • Brett Dale 13.2

      6 October 2011 at 6:12 pm

      Are those nutcases still around?
    • The Voice of Reason 13.3

      6 October 2011 at 7:28 pm

      Ha! Phelps’ twitter message was sent via her iPhone!
      • Brett Dale 13.3.1

        6 October 2011 at 9:08 pm

        LOL!!!!!
14. lprent 14

    6 October 2011 at 6:15 pm

    The economist has an obituary (and I do adore their obituaries above all others) it concludes with…

    His on-stage persona as a Zen-like mystic notwithstanding, Mr Jobs was an autocratic manager with a fierce temper. But his egomania was largely justified. He eschewed market researchers and focus groups, preferring to trust his own instincts when evaluating potential new products. “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them,” he said. His judgment proved uncannily accurate: by the end of his career the hits far outweighed the misses. Mr Jobs was said by an engineer in the early years of Apple to emit a “reality distortion field”, such were his powers of persuasion. But in the end he changed reality, channelling the magic of computing into products that reshaped music, telecoms and media. The man who said in his youth that he wanted to “put a ding in the universe” did just that.

    Oh yeah!

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/10/obituary
15. logie97 15

    6 October 2011 at 9:33 pm

    One of the pluses of being a consumer of Job’s and is crew’s creations is that
    Apple computers have, ’til recently, been niche appliances and therefore “attack” free.

    So while Windoze was harbouring all the nasties in the world and the home to all viruses Apple was evolving and has effectively managed any intrusions and vulnerabilities (for nothing) though Norton et al market protection software but apparently this is to protect their Windoze clients who might receive communication from a fellow Windoze client via an Apple enthusiast.

    Now that it is becoming the consumer platform of choice, newbies can enjoy the confidence of the Apple world that the erstwhile minority have enjoyed all along.
    • Bazar 15.1

      6 October 2011 at 9:42 pm

      http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20060513

      Enough said, especially for someone who thinks “windoze” is a word
      • logie97 15.1.1

        6 October 2011 at 10:21 pm

        Extraordinary response Bazar to mine, but for your information…

        Windoze
        http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Windoze
        • Draco T Bastard 15.1.1.1

          6 October 2011 at 11:47 pm

          In what way was it extraordinary?
          • logie97 15.1.1.1.1

            7 October 2011 at 7:34 am

            How many colds and diseases of any sort have users of Apple computers had to put up with…? It is a fact that there have been none. Seems to me (despite the “amusing” cartoon link) that more and more punters are enjoying that fact.
        • lprent 15.1.1.2

          7 October 2011 at 12:10 am

          Reading some of the stuff he has written further up on the subject, I suspect that he is one of those people who believes in vapourware, that being able to demo a product means that it is in a releasable condition, and there is such a thing as the correct use of a language (definitely doesn’t want to read some of my library level with the quirky optimization code). Most importantly I suspect he believes PR has something to do with reality.
        • Bazar 15.1.1.3

          7 October 2011 at 3:03 am

          urbandictionary is not a creditable dictionary. Its useful for finding out what some obscure slang reference is.

          but still, to further my point.

          windoze: (assuming you take the most popular version)
          Derogatory internet slang for Microsoft Windows.

          Slang:
          Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker’s dialect or language

          “Windoze” is not a word.

          And i’m not even saying that as a grammar nazi. Its that people who use such references (this includes “shonkey”, “liarbour”, etc) are often so utterly biased that you get nothing but rubbish from them.

          People will judge you based on how you write, you’d make a better impression and post if you simply tried.
          • logie97 15.1.1.3.1

            7 October 2011 at 7:43 am

            …this subject been keeping you up at night? (3.03 am?).

            http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Windoze.

            Seems it’s become part of the vernacular – you know, like the word “mana”. It will eventually find its way into Websters and The Oxford.

            (… better check my punctuation, cripes!)
            • Tiger Mountain 15.1.1.3.1.1

              7 October 2011 at 8:31 am

              Heh. Bazar may have been on some form of “no-doze”. I try to only mangle language Bazar with reference to three subjects–US imperialism, NZ torys and NZ police. Which admittedly gives me some scope.

              RIP Steve anyway. Carol below is probably correct, but the reaction (to Job’s death) also shows the influence of commodity fetishism as Marx first described it. For fans, the luvvies at Public Address have quite a chat going.
            • Bazar 15.1.1.3.1.2

              7 October 2011 at 5:38 pm

              the free dictionary? really, do you just drag up any link on the internet and consider it proof?
              Its references are from an external dictionary devoted to computers, so includes slang references.

              Its no better then citing urban dictionary. At least UD’s definition listing it as slang was accurate.

              “It will eventually find its way into Websters and The Oxford.”
              No, it never will.

              And i’m done arguing this, you can continue using windoze for all i care, myself and others will as a result treat your posts, and yourself with contempt due someone unwilling to treat both sides of an issue with respect.

              PS: Sometimes my job requires that i work late or early.
              • logie97 …

                7 October 2011 at 7:25 pm

                Now Bazar, if you were to read my initial post again, you will see that I have simply discussed a case for people adopting the Apple platform. Your hyper-sensitive reaction to the use of Windoze says more about you and your lack of ability to be balanced.

                Interesting that you speak for others – “myself and others will … treat … contempt.” Work in a syndicate do you? Take it in turns to comment on blogs?
                • Colonial Viper …

                  7 October 2011 at 7:32 pm

                  lol, out of the mouth of babes 🙂
                • Bazar …

                  8 October 2011 at 2:13 pm

                  ” you will see that I have simply discussed a case for people adopting the Apple platform”

                  A case which is incredibly inaccurate and illogical.
                  You state that Apple is a far secure OS. Studies and experts have shown that’s just not the case, its simply that no one gives a shit over a niche market, so nobody bothers to attack it.

                  You state that Apple is more secure because of Norton. But Windows machines can come with Norton as well. Sounds like you are comparing Apple+Norton to Windows, instead of Windows+Norton.

                  Going back to this final statement you made:
                  “Now that it is becoming the consumer platform of choice, newbies can enjoy the confidence of the Apple world that the erstwhile minority have enjoyed all along.”

                  If apple was actually a major player in the PC market, malware developers would actually target the platform. And the platform does have significant security holes.
                  In fact its already starting to happen. I’ve already had a malware attempt to infect one of my clients mac machines. It failed only because of my security policy (they never had the power to become administrators)

                  So the reasons you discussed for why macs were better, was either ignorant or naive.

                  “Interesting that you speak for others – “myself and others will … treat … contempt.” Work in a syndicate do you? Take it in turns to comment on blogs?”

                  Arguing for the sake of arguing? Is that truly the best you can do?
                  Just read around a little and pay attention, i’m not the only person who’ll state they stopped reading/caring when someone starts spouting dribble like “windoze”, “liarbour”, “shonkey”.

                  As for some homework, should you wish to continue this thread, read
                  http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10444561-245.html

                  Macs are generally considered more secure, not because they are more secure then windows, but because NO ONE GIVES A SHIT.
                  • logie97 …

                    8 October 2011 at 5:26 pm

                    Save the capitals at the end Bazar.
                    Seems you wouldn’t meet Tolley’s standards in Reading comprehension.
                    Read my post again (if you can).

                    Nowhere did I claim that Nortons makes Apple more secure.
                    My assertion was that Nortons have become rich on the back of Windoze. They have virus software written for Apple to prevent Apple users passing Windoze Viruses on.

                    Apple used to be a niche market and therefore avoided malware. Because their systems are so strong the retards who write malware have to continue to attack PC’s.
                  • logie97 …

                    8 October 2011 at 5:45 pm

                    Read your link.
                    Most of the comments are from producers or vendors of virus software. Nice one. They would say those things wouldn’t they…?

                    When is your Nortons update subscription due – another 12 months of worry free surfing?

                    I know of one iMac owner who runs Parallels on his machine, for the few PC specific programmes he has, and has to keep paying for the update of his Kaspersky for PC…. oh dear.
                    • Bazar …

                      9 October 2011 at 7:10 am

                      “Most of the comments are from producers or vendors of virus software.”

                      You mean from professional security experts, who know what they are talking about?

                      From experts who design security software and know the ins and outs of both systems?

                      Who else did you expect it from?
                    • Bazar …

                      9 October 2011 at 7:46 am

                      “Nowhere did I claim that Nortons makes Apple more secure.”

                      And yet you wrote:
                      >Apple was evolving and has effectively managed any intrusions and
                      >vulnerabilities (for nothing) though Norton et al market protection software

                      “They have virus software written for Apple to prevent Apple users passing Windoze Viruses on”
                      While that’s true, it also protects the mac from mac viruses, few as they are, and other exploits.

                      I’m also wondering why you’re raising the price of antivirus subcriptions.
                      You understand that if macs get popular, macs will need antivirus protection as well right?
                      And if you really want to get into a cost comparison. Its one that the PC will win effortlessly.

                      But please, continue believing that macs are inherently secure and cost effective. Just make sure to continue disregarding all evidence that disagrees with your perception.
16. Carol 16

    7 October 2011 at 8:18 am

    It’s sad to see someone die so young, and Jobs did make some significant contributions to the IT world. However, I am getting a little fed up with the OTT eulogising about him in the media and online.
    I’m not an Apple fan, or a Microsoft or windows one either. We live in a computerised world and I buy/use whatever fulfills my needs as cheaply and easily as possible. (never owned or used an i-phone, i-mac, i-pod, i-pad)

    But, Jobs was an entrepreneurial capitalist businessman, out to corner and control as much of the market as he could. The whole i-marketing machine has created an aura around Apple products that encourages many people to spend and or desire to spend big bucks on gadgets many people probably don’t really need, using up world resources and often produced by underpaid workers.

    I think Woz was really the original Apple techie innovator, and there have probably many others working for Apple since then that contributed to the products marketed by Jobs.

    To me a leftie blog is not really the place to get into Jobs fan worship…. there are others more crucial to the left cause.
    • Brett Dale 16.1

      7 October 2011 at 10:24 am

      This is a post on Steve Jobs though, I wonder how many people had employment because of him?

      Just because he is an American businessman doesnt make him bad.

      He has changed the way world communicates, and everything I have read or heard about him is that he was a heck of a nice guy.
      • Colonial Viper 16.1.1

        7 October 2011 at 7:34 pm

        This is a post on Steve Jobs though, I wonder how many people had employment because of him?

        Lots of Chinese workers got $2/hr jobs because of him, as he moved all Apple manufacturing away from his own people. Grand.
17. tc 17

    7 October 2011 at 12:35 pm

    Job’s was the consumate marketeer, wrapping up existing technologies in a user friendly manner and knowing not only what punters want but the real cunning was in knowing how to tap an existing resource and resell what already exists in another format.

    The mac interface him and Wozniak stumbled across in Xerox PARC facility a.k.a STAR os.

    By locking down music/video etc on his devices he could guarnatee the copyright owners there’d be no mass copying away from the apple ecosystem so they flocked in droves to kaching some more out of their bulging decades of music/film/tv archives….whilst Jobs kachinged off the many versions of iPod etc.

    brilliant marketing meets technology and as Paul Macguiness (U2’s manager) said….all those people making more and more money out of our music….RIP Steve you were the right man at the right time and you will be missed.
18. Bored 18

    7 October 2011 at 2:11 pm

    For the record Jobs is an age contemporary of my generation, to close so its too young. Unfortunate.

    I have no views on him at all, nor his products: again for the record I work with technology, its how the cash is made.

    So lets have a look at the world when Steve and I were in primer one….cars electronics had no computers, they went really well. Egg beaters were (unless you were rich) handamatic…they beat eggs well. Cell phones did not interrupt you, you were lucky to have a land line. Consequently you made arrangements, and talked face to face. Life was not inflicted with emails, young lads had the pleasure of translating their scrawl to the lovelies at the typing pool. Or they wrote letters by hand. Waiting for the mail to arrive bringing the love letter from the remote loved one….recieving it, magic.

    We move with greater speed, we are in touch, are we communicating any more effectively. My take is we have become slaves to the technology. It has taken away more jobs than it now produces, and it does not appear to make us more happy en masse. Except in the trinket department. Thorstein Veblen would have had a lovely time with Iphones and Macs.
    • Brett Dale 18.1

      7 October 2011 at 4:05 pm

      Im kinda guessing technology has created more jobs.
      • Colonial Viper 18.1.1

        7 October 2011 at 7:36 pm

        Why?

        More jobs for whom, where, and paid how much?

        Not in the US. 46M on food stamps.
    • logie97 18.2

      7 October 2011 at 7:32 pm

      Bored maybe you are right, but being able to “Facetime” with family around the world is brilliant.

      And you will know that it used to cost Stlg 1.00 per minute to phone home and when you did your parents spent most of the time telling you that the call was costing you a fortune and wanted you to hang up.

      (By the way Windoze users, sorry but not sure what you are lumbered with – probably Skype and all its pixilation and freezes. Facetime is an Apple application – it’s reliable and works (simply) and you don’t get all those spammers.)

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