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FBI File Notes Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field
Hugh Pickens writes "Bloomberg reports that the FBI has released a decades-old file it kept on Steve Jobs, the deceased Apple co-founder, after a background check for a possible appointment by former President George H. W. Bush conducting interviews with unnamed associates of Jobs to judge his character, drug use and potential prejudices. 'Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs' honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,' according to the materials. Several people commented 'concerning past drug use on the part of Mr. Jobs,' according to the file including marijuana, hashish and LSD during the period 1970 – 1974. The file also noted that Jobs was not a member of the communist party."
Most people (we are not all paragons of virtue) do that. The difference was that Jobs was apparently good at it.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Wondering if the FBI does background checks on Senate, Congress and Presidential candidates? Pretty sure 99.9% would have the same issues with "dishonesty". My favourite line from the TFA is "Others mentioned that Jobs couldn’t be trusted and that he was able to create a reality-distortion field." Wondering how strong this force field was and was it able to warp the time-space continuum?? :P
>> Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,
Sounds like a politician to me!
Tons and tons of people have used a bit of hash and LSD in their past, but few will admit it to their employers if they work in the professional world.
It's not that these activities actually make a person of bad or suspicious - it's that many people _believe_ that they do. This turns casual and innocent drug users into liars because they have to protect themselves from the horribly ill-informed and paranoid power structure.
with the amount of business Steve sent to China, he should be an honorary member of the Chinese Communist Party
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Might I ask exactly whom you believe will fall for your rubbish? This article is about the absurdity of the FBI having such a file, not about "mean" Steve Jobs. Your article quotes Florian fucking Mueller, and that billion in royalties comes solely from Apple, who (a) can afford it, (b) was already paying it, (c) has been racing to the bottom with Google's business partners for quite some time now, and (d) started it. Learn how to troll.
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None of those things are surprising or unexpected. None of those things, or even just the combination of those things, are unique or special to Jobs, or uncommon among humanity at all, let alone people of his generation and initial environment. Hell, the fact that he had an FBI file isn't even surprising or unexpected - I'm sure quite a few /.ers have FBI files just by virtue of where they've worked etc.
This is "news" in the same way that saying Mr. Jobs was a carbon based life form would been news.
Jobs was who most people expected he was, even when they had vastly differing opinions as to his worth as a human being.
I'm not trying to say that /, shouldn't report this stuff, but rather that I'm just surprised the guy's file was so mundane - you'd hope for *something* juicy.
Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
Apple just filed a patent for methods of creating a "Reality Distortion Field". They are calling it iLie.
What is absurd about the FBI having a file on someone who was a potential presidential appointee?
to achieve his goals.
The man outright stated he was willing to bankrupt the company he was in charge of making a profit for in order to avenge a perceived theft.
I would say the guy has reality, vengeance, and anger issues that rivals that of women I've let into my life.
Seriously, the guy had a very elegant approach to things, that's why Apple is very popular among those who don't mind having choices made for them, because despite the premium they're good solid choices as long as you don't have anything outside the box to accomplish. There's no doubt in my mind the guy had control issues, the fit he threw when the iPhone boot-loader was cracked, the fact he won't let you deal with multi-media data on external USB/FireWire drives on Mac OS X, the FUD he had the company spread about OGG/Vorbis, and the face Apple officially doesn't even acknowledge Linux exist even though it counts MS/Windows as a bonus feature combined with temper and obsessiveness stories that leaked about his first term as CEO tells me Jobs was likely a sociopath.
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Get a life bonch. A Slashdotter who lives in one of the most boring places in the world is telling you to Get. A. Life.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
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Hmm. Point taken. Then I guess it's really just a point of curiosity, and there's nothing to get upset about. I'm still new at this "yelling at bonch for being a horrible person" thing, so there may be a few rough patches to work out.
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This is "news" in the same way that saying Mr. Jobs was a carbon based life form would been news.
To be fair, that revelation would have surprised a lot of the Apple Faithful.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
There's a note that Jobs once held a TOP SECRET clearance while at Pixar. I wonder what Pixar was doing for the Government.
[redacted] concluded the interview by stating that even though he does not consider Mr. Jobs to be a friend, he (Mr. Jobs) possesses the qualities to assume a high level political position. It was [redacted]'s opinion that honest and integrity are not required qualities to hold such a position. [redacted] recommended him for a position of trust and confidence with the government.
That quote alone is awesome on so many levels I can't even begin to describe the joy and mirth I experienced while reading it.
Communist China is communist like Roman Meal bread is from Rome.
Steve Jobs is LSD!
That statement makes more sense than I'm comfortable admitting.
They're better than human, they're a corporation; All the rights and privileges, a lot less of the requirements.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I think the worst thing about this is that the public in general will see his drug use as being worse than his dishonesty/reality warping. I'm by no means excusing it, but I'd rather have a user than a liar any day.
(It's funny that I went to actually RTFA and it was barely longer than the /. summary with no additional information.)
When I hired into a high tech company in 1996, they were still using a home-grown electronic mail system running on a mainframe, using a tn3270 emulator to access it. Most people had transitioned to SMTP mail for most purposes (they quaintly called it "Internet mail"), but there was still an important segment of mail traffic that went over the old system.
The older, proprietary message system did allow mixed case, and most people used it that way. But, there were still a handful of people (mostly in HR) that had been there 20+ years, and still sent all their messages in ALL CAPS. (One person I remember specifically had their tn3270 emulator set to force CAPS mode.)
That proprietary system got retired about 2 years after I hired in. I wasn't sad to see it go.
My point, anyway, is that old habits die hard. Mixed case may have been supported or may not have been, but ALL CAPS was slow to die out in certain corners. Heck, aren't NWS alerts still in ALL CAPS?
Program Intellivision!
Is it me, or is it the more we learn about the inner workings of our government via WikiLeaks, social media, and other channels that it becomes clear the last thing on earth any reasonably intelligent person should ever do is give their trust or dollars to the government or big corporations?
As a young man I had an impression of at least certain departments of the government as being competent, such as the FBI, CIA, and State Department. The first of those to fall was the CIA, with whom I had personal contact in the late 90's; calling them room temperature IQ's would be an effusive compliment. Then the FBI botched investigation after investigation throughout their lab screw-ups. And their modus operandus seemed to increasingly be to frame their suspects and violate the basic constitutional rights of innocent Americans. The State Department's sign-off on yellow-cake uranium was the first big blow to my confidence in that bunch; the next big strike against them was breezing through their application process only to wonder why it was no people of color made it; and the nail in the coffin was Cablegate.
Now, maybe DARPA has mettle left. The SEALs seem to prove themselves again and again. Apple and Google appear to be effective. But why do we cede so much to all the rest, given how shot through with corruption, collusion, and incompetence they are, and at such horrific cost?
We are, many of us, so much brighter and better and deserving of more to have our collective potential so utterly frustrated by such dross. It's not an information problem so much anymore. We have any one of dozens of channels to chose from to communicate. Is it a question of will or organization? As refugees from the system of ritual abuse constituted by the status quo, are we constitutionally unable to work with others cohesively or deeply afraid of bullies who will walk up and punch us?
I struggle with this because I see the deep intelligence of so many of my colleagues and of the general community on /., and I wonder what challenges we could not surmount if we could break free of our learned social inhibitions. We have all grown up in a world ruled by salesmen, thugs, and psychopaths, but that's not the world I'd like to leave to my kids. I'd like them to live in a world led by artists, engineers, scientists, and humanitarians.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
To be fair to the NWS, if they're issuing alerts, they should probably be shouted.
What's more appropriate?
"200 inches of rain expected. You are urged to evacuate." ...or...
"200 INCHES OF RAIN EXPECTED YOU ARE URGED TO EVACUATE"
?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
What is absurd about the FBI having a file on someone who was a potential presidential appointee?
And by the looks of the material, he filled in the forms, he agreed to be interviewed and he probably nominated associates to talk with. He could have flat out said no and none of this would have happened. I expect in the end it was the administration who said no. Hard working and driven are positives, being a narcissist, liar and deadbeat father are negatives and I suspect they tipped the scales.
I'm baffled by America's continuing war on stamping out communists.
Sure, this is a democracy, we want to stay a democracy. We had enemies who were communists; however, the witch hunt against communism, which is still going on to a lesser degree is baffling.
When I applied for my green card, and later my citizenship (as recent as 2 years ago)- I had to fill in a form saying I hadn't overthrown any governments, wasn't a communist, etc, etc, etc. ... and no, I'm not a communist- although I joined a joke "communist party" in university that parodied the Republican and democrat clubs (I'm actually very centrist)- surprise they didn't find that and block my citizenship... :)
To me it seems to be "undemocratic" to try and stamp out an individual party or belief like that. Sure- if they try to over-throw the country- or do terrorist acts- or represent a foreign nation- but to try to keep people out because of their belief. Obviously the made a point- even as late as the 80's to make sure Jobs wasn't a commie... this was after the worst of the cold war- and after McCarthyism was en vogue.
Even MLK was demonized by the FBI- they spread false rumours about him trying to discredit him because he had communist friends and they FBI was worried he too might be a communist trying to spread communism.
I dunno- but even as someone who is opposed to communism - I find the attack on communism by the government to be kinda creepy- it feels as if some rights are being violated somehow. If I did want to be a commie- should I not be allowed to? Should I not be allowed to have a political opinion that is not main stream? What if a Republican government later decides to attack and out law the green party, or the democrats?
Am I the only one who finds this wrong? I know we're supposed to hate the commies- but we're also supposed to let people believe whatever they want and only arrest them if the commit a crime or conspire to do so.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
That's much better.
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You really are just a pro-Apple anti-Google ranter, bonch. I'm not going to say you're a paid shill, but you incessantly try to turn conversations to be about how much Google sucks and Apple rules. I'm finally done with you.
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In other words Steve was perfect for the job.
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
Hell, I have an FBI file. Prints on file with them, too. Everybody in the military, past, present, and future, gets one as part of their security clearance procedure. Some of us get them added to over the decades as a result of, well, things. Things like, participating in a protest movement, joining an organisation with ties to radical politics. I do have to say, tho, that most of the 'subversive' things I did back in the day are real snoozers today. Kinda hard to remember why we fucking cared that much.
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Corporations are what you'd get with a human who:
- Never sleeps
- Never needs air
- Has no conscience
- Has enough funding to run a team of lawyers 24/7
- Cannot be imprisoned or arrested, even for a single hour
I'll believe a corporation is a person when one can be given the death penalty for murder. Oh, wait, they just fine the corporation lots of money and the people responsible for the murderous decisions get off scot free with a golden stock parachute...
I second that motion. Corporations break the law and commit things that would be considered felonies, yet they just get a small fine and a slap of the wrist. The fine is always ridiculously small, it is like having a $90 fine for stealing $100 worth of goods from a store. The chances of getting caught by someone you can't bribe are small, and when you do get caught, the fine isn't that bad.
In some states, convicted felons lose the right to vote. Yet, corporations convicted of felonies are allowed to sway elections with unlimited campaign contributions.
I read it and thought, "Why would working at Pixar require Top Secret Clearance?" My only guess is they were working on military simulation graphics.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein
You may think about SJ what you want, but if you look at his presentations and speeches one thing that is much more interesting than his RDF is the pieces this RDF is made up from: He is extremely clear, logically convincing, he speaks freely without a script and everything appears to be very well thought through. You don't need to accept what he did and what he thought, but there's still much to learn from him, if you like him or not.
For any political, public or indeed business work these are abilities that are extremely important and at the same time rare. I can fully understand that there were people wanting him badly in a political rule. And I'm actually happy that he was obviously single-minded enough to not fall for that. He never cared for anything but computers, applied technology and business. Even if you don't like the company, the software and the business he built, the way he managed to do that certainly is something to learn from.
Only idiots refuse to learn from people they don't like. The opposite from something that is totally wrong is invariably also totally wrong.
No, no he didn't. Everyone knows that his last word was "iDead".
Yeah, there are four government agencies that have files on me, and I'm not even a potential presidential appointee!
That's just what they want you to think.
un-ALTERED reproduction and dissimination of this IMPORTANT information is ENCOURAGED
We're halfway there, what with txtspk... here's a joke from 1990 (possibly before, that's when I first came across it; I'll try and do it from memory):
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkurage the removal of double leters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the langwij is disgraseful, and they should go away.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen world!
-
Postscript: That last paragraph looks slightly German to me. Hitler's dream come true (no you may not invoke Godwin's, it was a joke).
Operation Guillotine is in effect.