It's true that history remembers those who use technology to accomplish things, and not those who created the technology. I would not agree with history that this is the important thing, however. I value the people who created the thing far more than the people who saw how to make others want it.
Please don't misunderstand me, I do value PARC's contribution to our present GUI environment. I decry Xerox's lack of vision. They had the world beater in the early 80's and they let it slip away.
For anyone who doesn't get the humor, you used to eject floppy discs from a Macintosh by dragging the icon to the trash can -- probably the worst, most counter-intuitive, emotionally-haunting UI gesture ever conceived in the history of computers.
You still eject thumb drives that way, iirc.
Re:What he took away is more precious than given
on
Steve Jobs Dead At 56
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· Score: 1
Museums are different from flea markets. Having only one model in the universe is worse than having several models, one of which you don't happen to like.
I'm happy to pay Apple to do some rudimentary QA on the apps that run on their phones. (And, looking at where the market is nowadays, I'm not paying them very much at all...)
If that was all they did, I'd concede the point.
Re:What he took away is more precious than given
on
Steve Jobs Dead At 56
·
· Score: 1
Oh, go to fucking hell. This isn't the time for that.
There is no hell, so I can't go there. Sure a man has died, but does that mean we can't still be objective about what he brought about during his all-to-brief stay with us? I mean, if your tender sensibilities can't take an objective criticism of something this man can be rightfully criticized for just because he's no longer with us, perhaps you should unplug the modem for a couple days, or stop being such a mincing emo.
Flamebait, perhaps. But not factually wrong. Steve Jobs was a brilliant salesman, perhaps one of the best the world has ever seen. But he reaps a ton of credit for technology he didn't create. Some of it is technology even Apple didn't create. His true genius and achievements were marketing, not tech.
Xerox PARC deserves some credit, sure. But there's a reason people are using Apple-produced Macs (or Windows-based PC's) and not Xerox whatevers. That reason is, Xerox were idiots. They were so focused on making dittos they forgot about the future. Apple and Microsoft were all about the future (because, as I recall, the present sucked). My first foray into a windowed operating system didn't come from either of them, but they both got it right in my estimation. Apple needs to get on the horse and innovate some more as far as a desktop goes, though. OSX in its many iterations is getting long in the tooth. Windows XP, its contemporary, would be on service pack 7 by now. In Mac Land, service pack 7 is called Lion.
Re:What he took away is more precious than given
on
Steve Jobs Dead At 56
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
He brought user friendliness, usability concepts to top of the pile, and caused computer technology to go for more style, but what he did with locking in his customers, limiting their freedoms and then making enormous profits over these, has caused almost all other companies to follow the same style. now every company, even google, is trying to lock in people to things so that they can cash-cow them. imagine how internet would be if it was limited to 10-15 companies and their app stores, estores, media stores etc from the start.
unfortunately, due to what he did, this is the direction the movers and shakers of the information technology are taking.
talk about the openness, freedom of apple at the starting stages, and talk about after jobs. i wonder if the other steve can turn things around and make apple more in line with the spirit of information technology freedom and progress again...
I hate to dance on a grave. So, I won't. His family and friends are saddened today, and I would offer condolences.
But the Apple model is not one we want to have replicated - and it is being replicated. In 20 years will we mourn Jobs or curse him? A brilliant man, there is no doubt. Walled gardens do us no favors.
By all means, vote 'em out if that's what you want to do. That generally isn't what is meant when people "expect restitution", though.
Restitution, as defined conventionally, is a non sequitur. The AC in the original post was obviously playing the role of an aggrieved, bullied person in a sarcastic manner.
If we want to play fast and loose with words, which I admittedly am not quite comfortable with, we could come to the conclusion that "restitution" would be their defeat at the polls. I wouldn't call it restitution, I would more likely call it common sense and vox populi.
You say that like it's something new. Politics has always been a racket, as long as there's been money to grease palms. And before that I'm sure they worked out some sort of barter.
So let me get this straight: You're in favour of free speech, and that's why you want four men punished for writing a paper? Do I have that right?
Three men and a woman actually, all of whom are elected public officials, who are expected to uphold our state and federal constitutions. I don't favor impeaching them, but I do hope they see primary challenges and a stout resistance in their next general election. The problem here in New York is that there really isn't a viable opposition in most areas of the state. We've been gerrymandered all to hell since the days of Boss Tweed. Too many safe districts means too many unaccountable senators and legislators. That's a problem at the federal level, as well.
Dropping the atomic bombs wasn't even a questionable decision morally, it was the right thing to do. America wasn't dealing with rational, modern thinkers. They were dealing with medieval thinkers who had manufactured modern implements of war. The only way to get the message across that continued fighting was useless was to glass them. Had America been able to drop the bomb on Germany I'd have supported it too. That war was the greatest horror mankind has ever faced and anything that ended it sooner rather than later was a good thing. The Second World War was a racist, awful conflict. The right side won. Yes, we let the nuclear genie out of the bottle in the process. I'll take that over the alternative, which was likely millions more Japanese and American (as well as British, Canadian, Indian, South African, French, Dutch, Belgian, Australian and New Zealander) dead.
That's neither here nor there, though. The modern FBI operates with the intent to entrap for publicity, much to the discredit of the nation which lays claim to being the most free people on the planet. Freedom means trusting the people who live here.
Gold that is available in large amounts is something we could expect in certain space environments like you describe. Of course, it would be worth less than dirt once discovered (assuming economical extraction), but it would be pretty cool just for the resource value. Gold is pretty useful once you get past the relative scarcity. It's an excellent conductor and it doesn't like to corrode. If it were as common as copper, we'd be using it for our electrical distribution system instead. Of course, who knows what sort of technology we'd have devised by the time we'd actually be able to travel space like that to make it useless?
We can only hope that their bodies had to spend more energy on supportive body mass and fibers than brain power. But if they are landing here then they made at least some of the qualifying grade for brains which is indeed scary. But think of the inverse!
I just can't imagine being the person to investigate the surface of a super earth if we could land on them (hypothetical of course). I just can't help but think there would be a risk of breaking a leg just by falling while walking or jumping. Never mind the blackout risk trying to do anything useful like climb a hill on a body with 4-5 times earth gravity. Humans do OK for a while with less gravity before our bodies have problems, but we are really pretty bad in an environment with more of it.
If we could manage to travel to a Super Earth in any sort of reasonable time frame, I would think dealing with the gravity upon arrival would be a trivial problem. We would likely have invented "artificial gravity" along the way. Along with a bunch of other science fiction.
"unless it is a water-world (what else is liquid or low density in the habitable zone?) with incredibly immense ocean depths"
Um, the home world of Jar-Jar Binks?
Naboo also had enough land for a spacefaring human civilization.
Watson demonstrated some difficulty establishing context for its answers on Jeopardy, e.g. "the Toronto answer". I can only assume there will still be a qualified medical doctor making the final call, and that Watson will just be an additional tool for the doctor to use.
Slashdot Mirror
Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human.
Wrath of Khan quote, for the win.
Play him out with the pipes, Scotty.
It's true that history remembers those who use technology to accomplish things, and not those who created the technology. I would not agree with history that this is the important thing, however. I value the people who created the thing far more than the people who saw how to make others want it.
Please don't misunderstand me, I do value PARC's contribution to our present GUI environment. I decry Xerox's lack of vision. They had the world beater in the early 80's and they let it slip away.
For anyone who doesn't get the humor, you used to eject floppy discs from a Macintosh by dragging the icon to the trash can -- probably the worst, most counter-intuitive, emotionally-haunting UI gesture ever conceived in the history of computers.
You still eject thumb drives that way, iirc.
Museums are different from flea markets. Having only one model in the universe is worse than having several models, one of which you don't happen to like.
I'm happy to pay Apple to do some rudimentary QA on the apps that run on their phones. (And, looking at where the market is nowadays, I'm not paying them very much at all...)
If that was all they did, I'd concede the point.
Oh, go to fucking hell. This isn't the time for that.
There is no hell, so I can't go there. Sure a man has died, but does that mean we can't still be objective about what he brought about during his all-to-brief stay with us? I mean, if your tender sensibilities can't take an objective criticism of something this man can be rightfully criticized for just because he's no longer with us, perhaps you should unplug the modem for a couple days, or stop being such a mincing emo.
Flamebait, perhaps. But not factually wrong. Steve Jobs was a brilliant salesman, perhaps one of the best the world has ever seen. But he reaps a ton of credit for technology he didn't create. Some of it is technology even Apple didn't create. His true genius and achievements were marketing, not tech.
Xerox PARC deserves some credit, sure. But there's a reason people are using Apple-produced Macs (or Windows-based PC's) and not Xerox whatevers. That reason is, Xerox were idiots. They were so focused on making dittos they forgot about the future. Apple and Microsoft were all about the future (because, as I recall, the present sucked). My first foray into a windowed operating system didn't come from either of them, but they both got it right in my estimation. Apple needs to get on the horse and innovate some more as far as a desktop goes, though. OSX in its many iterations is getting long in the tooth. Windows XP, its contemporary, would be on service pack 7 by now. In Mac Land, service pack 7 is called Lion.
He brought user friendliness, usability concepts to top of the pile, and caused computer technology to go for more style, but what he did with locking in his customers, limiting their freedoms and then making enormous profits over these, has caused almost all other companies to follow the same style. now every company, even google, is trying to lock in people to things so that they can cash-cow them. imagine how internet would be if it was limited to 10-15 companies and their app stores, estores, media stores etc from the start. unfortunately, due to what he did, this is the direction the movers and shakers of the information technology are taking. talk about the openness, freedom of apple at the starting stages, and talk about after jobs. i wonder if the other steve can turn things around and make apple more in line with the spirit of information technology freedom and progress again ...
I hate to dance on a grave. So, I won't. His family and friends are saddened today, and I would offer condolences.
But the Apple model is not one we want to have replicated - and it is being replicated. In 20 years will we mourn Jobs or curse him? A brilliant man, there is no doubt. Walled gardens do us no favors.
His final will stated that he be buried in a glossy white coffin with no visible hinges or latches. RIP Steve.
with rounded corners
By all means, vote 'em out if that's what you want to do. That generally isn't what is meant when people "expect restitution", though.
Restitution, as defined conventionally, is a non sequitur. The AC in the original post was obviously playing the role of an aggrieved, bullied person in a sarcastic manner.
If we want to play fast and loose with words, which I admittedly am not quite comfortable with, we could come to the conclusion that "restitution" would be their defeat at the polls. I wouldn't call it restitution, I would more likely call it common sense and vox populi.
Politics has become a racket.
You say that like it's something new. Politics has always been a racket, as long as there's been money to grease palms. And before that I'm sure they worked out some sort of barter.
And what are the odds that Facebook PAC will represent its users? About zero.
What are the chances that the sole purpose of this PAC is to loosen privacy laws so as to aid spying on it's users? Very high.
+1 Insightful.
This PAC is about nothing else except protecting Facebook's golden-egg-laying goose.
So let me get this straight: You're in favour of free speech, and that's why you want four men punished for writing a paper? Do I have that right?
Three men and a woman actually, all of whom are elected public officials, who are expected to uphold our state and federal constitutions. I don't favor impeaching them, but I do hope they see primary challenges and a stout resistance in their next general election. The problem here in New York is that there really isn't a viable opposition in most areas of the state. We've been gerrymandered all to hell since the days of Boss Tweed. Too many safe districts means too many unaccountable senators and legislators. That's a problem at the federal level, as well.
These are the fascist assholes who want to restrict your natural rights:
Jeffrey D. Klein, 34th District (Bronx) jdklein@senate.state.ny.us
Diane J. Savino, 23rd District (Staten Island) savino@senate.state.ny.us
David Carlucci, 38th District (Nanuet) carlucci@nysenate.gov
David J. Valesky, 49th District (Syracuse) valesky@senate.state.ny.us
Let them hear from you.
Dropping the atomic bombs wasn't even a questionable decision morally, it was the right thing to do. America wasn't dealing with rational, modern thinkers. They were dealing with medieval thinkers who had manufactured modern implements of war. The only way to get the message across that continued fighting was useless was to glass them. Had America been able to drop the bomb on Germany I'd have supported it too. That war was the greatest horror mankind has ever faced and anything that ended it sooner rather than later was a good thing. The Second World War was a racist, awful conflict. The right side won. Yes, we let the nuclear genie out of the bottle in the process. I'll take that over the alternative, which was likely millions more Japanese and American (as well as British, Canadian, Indian, South African, French, Dutch, Belgian, Australian and New Zealander) dead.
That's neither here nor there, though. The modern FBI operates with the intent to entrap for publicity, much to the discredit of the nation which lays claim to being the most free people on the planet. Freedom means trusting the people who live here.
Department of Corrections?
IIRC Didn't NASA have to pay a fine for littering due to Skylab?
Those of us who believe in science need to quit navel gazing and start calling people out. We do still live in a representative republic.
go fuck yourself you snake oil huckster
Gold that is available in large amounts is something we could expect in certain space environments like you describe. Of course, it would be worth less than dirt once discovered (assuming economical extraction), but it would be pretty cool just for the resource value. Gold is pretty useful once you get past the relative scarcity. It's an excellent conductor and it doesn't like to corrode. If it were as common as copper, we'd be using it for our electrical distribution system instead. Of course, who knows what sort of technology we'd have devised by the time we'd actually be able to travel space like that to make it useless?
We can only hope that their bodies had to spend more energy on supportive body mass and fibers than brain power. But if they are landing here then they made at least some of the qualifying grade for brains which is indeed scary. But think of the inverse! I just can't imagine being the person to investigate the surface of a super earth if we could land on them (hypothetical of course). I just can't help but think there would be a risk of breaking a leg just by falling while walking or jumping. Never mind the blackout risk trying to do anything useful like climb a hill on a body with 4-5 times earth gravity. Humans do OK for a while with less gravity before our bodies have problems, but we are really pretty bad in an environment with more of it.
If we could manage to travel to a Super Earth in any sort of reasonable time frame, I would think dealing with the gravity upon arrival would be a trivial problem. We would likely have invented "artificial gravity" along the way. Along with a bunch of other science fiction.
"unless it is a water-world (what else is liquid or low density in the habitable zone?) with incredibly immense ocean depths" Um, the home world of Jar-Jar Binks?
Naboo also had enough land for a spacefaring human civilization.
It seems you have a severe case of being a little pussy, I am prescribing that you man the fuck up.
Doctor: But Watson, the patient is a 5-year old girl!
Watson demonstrated some difficulty establishing context for its answers on Jeopardy, e.g. "the Toronto answer". I can only assume there will still be a qualified medical doctor making the final call, and that Watson will just be an additional tool for the doctor to use.
Who tagged this 'idocracy'? Is that even a word?
If this were an Apple medicine machine, maybe it would be iDocracy.
Idiocracy
Tag whoosh?
You forgot to mention the Koch brothers, no breathless, invective-filled anti-Republican screed is complete without them.