Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Lost Hour-Long Jobs Interview Found

Posted by timothy on from the all-the-steve-you-can-handle dept.

adharma writes "According to Robert Cringely, in 1995 he was granted an hour long interview with Steve Jobs at NeXT headquarters for Triumph of the Nerds and promptly lost. Two weeks ago, a 'PAL-VHS, dubbed on professional equipment from a D1 master' copy of the interview was found and is in the process of being restored." Cringely writes there: "What we’ll do with the 64-minute video depends on how good it looks this week. Maybe we’ll put it up on the Net, maybe we’ll do something more. I’m open to your ideas."

18 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. AAGGGGHHHH! by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

    Burn it, bury it, put a stake through it's heart. The tape is probably like that girl from The Ring, and if you watch it, the undead ghost of Steve Jobs will come and jam your Android device into your brain.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:AAGGGGHHHH! by msauve · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Burn it, bury it, put a stake through it's heart."

      I was thinking you were talking about that imposter, Mark Stevens, who stole the Cringley name from Infoworld. I was going to mod you up, then figured out you were talking about the tape.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:AAGGGGHHHH! by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The world is a better place because of Winston Churchill, Florence Nightingale and Aristotle. Steve Jobs was a very successful marketing guy. He didn't save the world or create new ways to explain it, he ran a company who makes electronic doo-dads who, by and large, are totally reliant on technologies made by other people.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  2. Post it dude... by GPLHost-Thomas · · Score: 2

    Instead of making an announcement about something you're preparing, just restore this f*** videotape and post it on youtube...

  3. Re:Put it up by RoFLKOPTr · · Score: 2

    However, one should make sure there were release agreements signed by Steve or his proxy, and if not, get permission from the family first.

    Umm... why? If you can get away with publishing photos of celebrities nipples without being sued, you can surely post on YouTube an interview which Steve Jobs agreed to have taped with no repercussions.

  4. Figures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Instead of just releasing it, you tease it...announce that you are 'open' to ideas...you're just going to profit off of someone's death like everyone else in the world has. The fact that it was Steve Jobs and it's almost 20 years old doesn't mean you have to actually make money on it...

    You didn't use it then, so release it to public domain...Cringley is a profiteering whore.

  5. "and promptly lost" by 6Yankee · · Score: 4, Funny

    Lost what? The video, his mind, his virginity to Steve, what?

    Editors: Edit, damn it!

  6. you can see parts of it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can see parts of the interview in Triumph of the Nerds which is available online.
    Jobs is much more open and emotional than in more recent interviews. For instance, he talks about Microsoft having no taste and John Sculley destroying everything he'd worked for. This was before Jobs came back to Apple and got his chance to right his earlier failures so you can bet these wounds are still raw.

    1. Re:you can see parts of it by flyingsquid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There was recently a segment on NPR's Fresh Air where they were playing an interview about Apple, and I remember thinking "who's this geek they're interviewing about Apple?" and then I realized it was Jobs himself, back in his NeXT days. He sounded a lot different from the Jobs I've gotten to know from the keynote addresses. That guy, the one with the black turtleneck, is a confident, slick, polished presenter, a technological oracle. The person they were interviewing on NPR was a lot more human. It makes me think that to some degree the "Steve Jobs" who presented Apple products to the world was a bit of a construct, just some guy that Jobs played, sort of like Steven Colbert's "Steven Colbert" character.

  7. Re:Put it up by headhot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If he was filmed for a documentary, he already signed a release.

  8. Re:everything old is new again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    That is not "begging the question".

  9. Idea.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Autotune it and put some phat beats under it.

  10. Re:everything old is new again by cduffy · · Score: 2

    Many modern English speakers use "begging the question" to mean the same as "raises the question".

    However, as English has no phrase fully equivalent to "begging the question" (in its canonical form -- requiring a premise with no foundation stronger than conclusion it is used to draw), while we already have "raising the question" for the other usage, the language would be the poorer if we stood aside and let this pass into acceptance.

  11. Re:Got the Beat by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Damn, redundant. Take me down mods!

  12. Re:everything old is new again by Tim+the+Gecko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many modern English speakers use "begging the question" to demonstrate their over-reliance on clichés

    FTFY

  13. Re:everything old is new again by cduffy · · Score: 2

    I think the source of the expression is with subject and object reversed. It is the question that begs to be asked. This is not exactly the same as "raises the question", as it is much stronger.

    This is not consistent with historical meaning. Please see either or both of the following links, which go into substantial detail:

  14. Re:So, is there anything NEW in there? by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It was probably "lost" because it wasn't exciting and now it's been "found" because he's dead. The fact they haven't decided what to do with it means they want to make money from it.

  15. Re:Got the Beat by backslashdot · · Score: 2

    Yeah .. I think so, if you do it properly. Many talentless people are making money off autotune, so I reckon you can too.