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How Apple's Story Is Like Breaking Bad
theodp writes "Over at CNN, Omar L. Gallaga explains how Apple's story is like Breaking Bad, the TV drama whose protagonist — high school chemistry teacher Walter White — decides to use his science skills to cook methamphetamine to provide for his family after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Walter takes shocking, out-of-character risks but reinvents himself as a brilliant, feared meth chemist who grows more ambitious, ruthless and cocky with each victory. 'Like Steve Jobs,' writes Gallaga, 'Walter White's cancer awakens a panic in him to hurry up and leave a legacy through his work.' Gallaga continues: 'Like Walter White, it [Apple] has mixed the proper elements at just the right amounts to create highly pure, addictive products. The products have been made within secretive working conditions. The skill employed to design and manufacture them tends to make what competitors put out seem like cheaper, cloudier, less effective imitations.'"
Walter takes shocking, out-of-character risks
Out of character? You haven't been paying attention, especially in the current season. They made it clear from the very first episode that Walt is not a nice guy. His anger issues cost him his share of the startup that would have made him rich, and sent him off to a teaching job he despises and that doesn't pay the bills. Later, he refuses to accept help with his medical expenses from his former partners, obviously still pissed at whatever issue forced him to break with them.
He wears a mask of a mild-mannered suburban nebbish, but his sociopath side becomes evident early on and gradually becomes the only face he shows to his colleagues in the drug business. More and more, people suffer because of Walt's lack of moral center, sometimes just because he's mad at them. (So long Mike!)
Mr. Wizard was always a front. Now he's Nero.
Jeez, what a great show. I look forward to the final 9 eps with anticipation and dread.
ummm... betamax was negligibly better initially, and inferior toward the end of the 80s.
the battle was won ENTIRELY on record time. when beta came out with long-play modes, they were suddenly at less quality than VHS for the same record time.
who would want a format with max length of 60 mins when the average movie is about 90 mins?
now... 60 mins is an eternity for a camera operator, as the only portable format at the time was 16mm film which gave just a little over 10 mins record time. so guess what happened to beta?
it's funny - lack of reading the market that led to the failure of both formats. beta missed the consumer market, and when DVDs came along, VHS missed the opportunity with the pro market (D-VHS launched too late and was only really competitive with HDV which was a much more convenient form-factor). beta is still alive because though it failed to disrupt the consumer market, it completely disrupted the news gathering and television markets and became a main-stay until just a couple of years ago (XDCAM is the news-gathering darling now, either on cards or caddied-blu-ray discs).
Apple designs stuff. Foxconn makes it.
"Walter White had challenged the general attitude of "they are stupid junkies, they'll smoke whatever we give them" by insisting that a higher-purity product will sell better. "
There's not a lot of attitude to challenge. I can't stand to watch Breaking Bad due to experience dealing with meth addicts. I had an everything addict roommate for a year who slipped up and started doing meth again, and after he split on the rent I had to cover that and clean up the mess he left behind...2 liter bottles of piss and syringes oh my. The guy was cool as long as his addictions were in check but when they weren't...well being around a couple of grad students drinking heavily to escape the pain wasn't healthy for anyone. About a year later I had moved and my next door neighbor and his stripper girlfriend selling and doing meth weren't a positive influence on my mental behavior to say the least. After they tossed their stuff out into a pickup at 3 AM to escape rent and my new next neighbor moved in...well, I'd rather have a drug dealer than a hard core user living next to me. That guy was in his early 20's, with a physique only a young 6'2" laborer could have, but was already showing signs of meth mouth. Kept an axe on the windowsill. Had anger management issues. Stayed up for days after taking meth. Some nights I slept (fitfully) with a loaded shotgun stashed under the bed.
If you're doing meth (after at best the first time) you don't give a shit. You'll do it until it kills you, which isn't much past the second dose. Six months, tops. Along the way you'll have lost most of your teeth, sold your asshole for meth, and have a couple different forms of fatal VD. You aren't going to give two fucks (that's money for meth biatch) about the color of the crystal.
I thought everything showed up on the front page of Slashdot. Is there a back page?
Yes. Basically everything submitted is there, and you can vote for articles to get them to the front page.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
II. Attention to detail
We can't deny that the one thing that makes Apple different from the rest of the crowd is their attention to detail.
From the way MacIntosh can create smooth curvy fonts to the "feel" of the original iPhone when it first came out (as versus the offering from the rest of the cellphone industry), Mr. Jobs had taken great pain in making sure that the products that have the "Bitten Apple" mark on it come with as few bugs as possible
As I said, I am no Apple fanbois, and I do not own any Apple product
Paid attention to every detail but how people want to hold a phone while making a call.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?