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Steve Jobs Gives The Bird on Xserve Video

opaquewhite writes "In the recent 'Apple Introduces Xserve' video, an audience member asks two questions, the first regarding Apple's plans for licensing WebObjects, and the second a slam on Apple -- and a poorly aimed one, considering it focuses on slamming Apple's choice several years ago to license AIX for some of their early server offerings. Steve's response while the man is answering his question had me rolling on the floor practically in tears. To see it for yourself, take a look at the video and skip ahead to about 01:28:30 and watch from there. At 01:29:02, Steve makes a familiar gesture to push up his glasses -- glasses which by any account needed no adjustment. A video capture is available."

52 comments

  1. Hehe by MaxVlast · · Score: 2

    Go Steve. He really is the man, btw. Very slick. The video is well worth the watch.

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  2. New headline: by DiscoOnTheSide · · Score: 2, Funny

    Steve Jobs flips the iBird

    :P

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    Viva La Revolucion! Buy a Mac!
    1. Re:New headline: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Redundant!? Because 15,000 iLamp joke posters can't be wrong!!!

  3. No account? by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 5, Interesting


    If by "any account needed no adjustment" you don't include the fact that moments previous he rubbed his eye, thereby dislodging his glasses, you might have a point.

    I think the funnier part of that dialogue is when Jobs explains that "that was before I came back to Apple, which I consider a dream, like Apple was in a coma". It raises the issue again: what would Apple be like if Jobs never left?

    One thing's for sure--nothing like it is now. Whether that means "more successful", "more successful like Microsoft" or "more like Be" I'll leave to future posters.

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    1. Re:No account? by technomancerX · · Score: 5, Interesting
      "It raises the issue again: what would Apple be like if Jobs never left?"

      Actually, if Jobs hadn't left and learned many valuable lessons by more or less falling on his face with NeXT (amazing technology, but let's face it a financial disaster) Apple would have probably crashed and burned.

      Jobs learned from his mistakes at NeXT and used the experience to bring Apple back from the brink.

      --
      .technomancer
    2. Re:No account? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah... If Steve Jobs had never left Apple... Apple would have never survived into the 90's!

    3. Re:No account? by soft_guy · · Score: 1

      I disagree. Apple would be the dominant OS maker today if Jobs had never left. Here's why: In 1985, Sculley made a really bad decision to sign a contract that later doomed their "look and feel" lawsuit against Microsoft. Sculley signed the contract because Microsoft threatened to cancel Office for Mac (sound familiar, anyone?) I think Jobs would have flown them the bird in 1985 if he had been sitting at the table instead of Sculley and I think that would saved Apple right there.

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  4. Hah... by Drakin · · Score: 1

    Now that's a responce that doesn't please the media... but, i think it pleases the geeks...

    1. Re:Hah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      -1 Ignorance in regard to the outside world

  5. Jobs is key for Apples Sucess by linuxbert · · Score: 2

    Appel has been sucessfull due to Jobs' vision, you either love it or hate it, it doesnt try to please every one so it works.

    Thats jobs attitude, and if he doesnt like a question, he gives the finger.

    Apple - technology with attitude

    (slogan from rebel.com, the now defunct makers of the netwinder)

  6. How is this news? by mashy · · Score: 1


    As was mentioned, the first time this video was posted here, the day it was released, one of the Besides, how is that part of the video news?

  7. Remember when X was X? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Now we've got an Xserve. Sound like an X Server to me. What with with both Microsoft and Apple trying to confuse the X brand name?

    And don't try to convince me it's pronounce "Ten Serve" like the Mac fans claimed OS-X was pronounce "Oh Ess Ten". I'm not buying that.

    1. Re:Remember when X was X? by DavidRavenMoon · · Score: 2, Insightful
      like the Mac fans claimed OS-X was pronounce "Oh Ess Ten". I'm not buying that.

      Personally I say "oh ess ex" but Apple says it's OS Ten. OS 10,10.0.4? No. I don't buy it either. But I guess one day we will have an XI...

      I don't know what Apple's motovation was for using a roman numeral, but I'll bet you anything MS put an X in the new Windows to confuse it with Mac OS X, same reason they have a "Luna" interface that sort of sounds and looks like "Aqua"

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      -- if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic - Lewis Carrol
    2. Re:Remember when X was X? by larry+bagina · · Score: 1
      nobody ever accused nerdy product names of being original....

      aix - Advanced Interactive Executive - aka Unix
      VAX - Virtual Address eXtender - whatever.

      Oh well. Guess what OS the Apple XServe runs? OS X Server. Maybe it is an X Server.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  8. I was there first! by blakespot · · Score: 1

    I posted this to a Mac friend on an intranet web board we have in the office a week ago. Not that it's a point really worth making---but I had to pass it on. Quite fine.

    blakespot

    --
    -- Heisenberg may have slept here.
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  9. No, He Doesn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I watched it. He adjusts his glasses at the beginning of the question. The "heckler" is a 15 year Mac user -- so not someone who wants to stick it to Apple or make Jobs stumble.

    About half of glasses wearers use their middle finger to adjust their glasses. Nothing sinister about it.

    In short, not news.

    1. Re:No, He Doesn't by usr122122121 · · Score: 1

      He is definitely NOT fifteen...
      There's a clip later with the fifteen year old, but it's a different person.

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      -braxton
    2. Re:No, He Doesn't by MindStalker · · Score: 1

      He said he was a "15 year Mac user" not a 15 year old Mac user. Big difference.

    3. Re:No, He Doesn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not a difference if he's used an Apple computer since the day he was born.

    4. Re:No, He Doesn't by usr122122121 · · Score: 1

      whoops!
      note to self: reading between the words is bad.

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      -braxton
  10. A relevant piece of art... by ActiveSX · · Score: 1

    In response to the comments made at the Xserve introduction, a friend made this relevant work of art.

    1. Re:A relevant piece of art... by mjpaci · · Score: 2

      Your friend is a dork.

    2. Re:A relevant piece of art... by ActiveSX · · Score: 1

      Yes, I know. He made me do it :P

  11. There wasn't a slam or a bird. by macaddict · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The audience member asked a question regarding Apple's track record with servers and how it would affect interest in the Xserve. It wasn't a slam and Steve didn't seem to take it that way. The gesture was a quick adjustment to his glasses (which he had just knocked aside while rubbing his eye).

  12. Edit job? by singularity · · Score: 2

    I am wondering why they cut to Jobs in the middle of the question, as if to almost capture him doing that.

    If you watch the video, the guy is asking a quesiton for about a minute or so. Then they cut to Jobs, who rubs his eyes, and then "adjusts his glasses." Then they immediately cut back to the questioner, who is still asking the quesiton.

    I have read a lot about Jobs and have seen that a lot of times he takes things personally. I can only guess that he did not want to answer the question, had decided what he was goign to say, and the guy was still asking the "idiotic" question.

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    - (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
    1. Re:Edit job? by Gropo · · Score: 0

      naa.. the repeated QT stream is verbatim from the originally streamed live-edit announcement video.

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      I hate Grammar Nazi's
    2. Re:Edit job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what makes me think it was meaningful - when you spend your life producing video, you don't cut to someone adjusting their glasses with their middle finger in the midst of an irritating question unless you're saying something with that edit.

  13. As my wife put it ... by sg3000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I showed the footage to my wife, and her response was, "No, he's just scratching his eye -- oh, wait ...", so I think he probably did mean it.

    I have to so speak to press and analysts a lot because of my job, and before one does anything like that, there's an incredible amount of preparation where you practice questions for any contingency.

    Apple (and specifically, whoever the Xserve product manager is) is understandably very concerned about Xserve failing because of bad connotations with Apple's earlier server efforts, as sort of guilty by association. There's another example of this: if you watch the beginning, Jobs is talking about Jaguar, and when he mentions the handwriting recognition part called InkWell, he said it was from a well-known product, but he wouldn't mention the Newton by name. They don't want any "Eat up, Martha" jokes before the product is out.

    So I think Jobs had been anticipating the question, but he wasn't happy it came up, particularly from that annoying guy who took 10 minutes to spit out his question. He could have asked his question without specifically mentioning Apple's failed earlier server effort.

    Even if Jobs didn't mean it, I'm pretty sure the person who edited together the QuickTime footage did mean it. Something like that usually doesn't happen by accident. We're just lucky they didn't superimpose a "Moron" label above geekboy's head as he asked the question!

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    Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
    1. Re:As my wife put it ... by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't that be JAGWYRE? or perhaps JAG-WHY-ERR? I know that Americans normally mispronounced this word, but Steve takes it to a whole new level. Strange that he should be such an OSX (OH ESS TEN??) pronounciation Nazi when he can't even manage a simple word like JAGUAR (JAG-YOU-ARE).

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      That was classic intercourse!
    2. Re:As my wife put it ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "...when he can't even manage a simple word like JAGUAR (JAG-YOU-ARE)."

      Now *that* is an annoying mispronunciation.

      The word is Spanish (and Portuguese) from Guarani jaguá, yaguar. "Ha war'" is a lot closer than either "jag wire" or "jag you are".

    3. Re:As my wife put it ... by Alan+Partridge · · Score: 1

      no, IN SPANISH the word is Spanish and pronounced the Spanish way. IN ENGLISH the word is English, and pronounced according to the OED CORRECTLY. If it's American that you're speaking, why not CALL IT AMERICAN?

      --
      That was classic intercourse!
    4. Re:As my wife put it ... by Strog · · Score: 1

      Merriam Webster says it this way.

      Pronunciation: 'ja-"gwär, -gy&-"wär, -gw&r, esp British 'ja-gy&-w&r

    5. Re:As my wife put it ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is unquestionably true that Apple's largest constituency is the homosexual
      demographic. When I visited CompUSA, the Mac corner looked like a gay bar.

    6. Re:As my wife put it ... by A_Non_Moose · · Score: 2

      /tigger voice

      It's a Jaguler
      (Jag' U' ler)
      Hooo hoo hoo hooooOO
      /end tigger

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    7. Re:As my wife put it ... by Into+The+White · · Score: 1

      And would this be a good thing or a bad thing?

      --
      "If you're half-evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil." N. Mailer
    8. Re:As my wife put it ... by i_am_pi · · Score: 1

      It is unquestionably true that Microsoft's largest constituency is the stupid demographic. When I visited slashdot, this thread looked like an idiot bar.

  14. They seem to have taken the video away by cehardin · · Score: 1

    Just tried it, got to see it and it's looks like a genuine flip-off to me.

    Unfortunately the video has been removed.

    Anybody have a copy for everybody else?

  15. Re:no thanks by Erik+K.+Veland · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The Sorenson Codec? Uhm... WHAT? The Soerenson Codec is beyond doubt the most efficient of all broadband codecs. What's your point? No Linux-support?

    Threats against skin authors? Oh yeah that's right to defend their intellectual property. And not having people diluting Aqua. How cruel!

    Crippled DVD authoring software. Oh you REALLY have to explain this one. Which is crippled? The consumer easy-to-use iDVD that they are giving away for free? Or the high-end fully featured DVD Studio Pro?

    Licensing the one-click patent? I'm not even going to comment this one. Troll.

    --
    "I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
  16. He has given us...His finger! by uradu · · Score: 2

    The finger is the sign. Let us follow His example.

    This reminds me of Life Of Brian. Fanatical devotees of obscure causes and people tend to take anything for a sign. Sure, Steve is flipping off a rabid Apple fan. Whatever.

  17. Petulent Steve by pretoris · · Score: 1

    Ahhh, the famously petulant Steve. He is much more interesting thing Billy G, No?

  18. NO, NO, NO. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you guys got it all wrong - it's the iFlick uOff.

  19. Terminology? by xanthus · · Score: 1

    I believe Steve is serving the querent the bird.

    I think a better case could be made if someone could show that Jobs usually uses a different finger to adjust his glasses. Pulling a frame out of context isn't enough to, well, point fingers.

    Then again, Jobs has been known to get his feathers ruffled..

    --
    Why do I never get a fortune in my fortune cookies?
  20. CORRECT! ... (more) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are indeed a drooling linux retard!

  21. I was there.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... the guy who asked the question was just two seats away from me. Now that I bragged about that - my point is that the question was very valid and if Jobs was giving this guy the finger then he fucking shouldn't. Apple needs to grow up, and fast too, because if Jobs is going to sell servers to large corporations they sure as hell need a more serious CEO for their server supplier...

  22. Have you heard the word? by Halloween+Jack · · Score: 1

    The word is bird!

    Bird bird bird, bird's the word...

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