Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything.

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  • merc,

    “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Anonymous Author,

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    Auckland • Since Nov 2010 • 64 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Grevers,

    My first experience with computers was the two shiny new Apple ][s at school. But when I needed my own computer doing postgrad, budget forced me to the dark side, so that by the time I was doing a bit of copyediting in a graphics agency, they were "alien" machines. The guys there managed to crash them quite regularly (followed by 10 minute reboot - possibly they were just pushing them too hard.
    I bought an ageing powerPC Mac from a designer in order to do "mac testing" of websites, but it had been OS-upgraded beyond its capability and was too slow to do anything useful with.
    I remember at Webstock '06 at least half the presenters spent 5 or more minutes riffing on the failings of the Ipod.
    So obviously I'm not a fanboy (although I dislike Apple less than I dislike Microsoft) - but I believe Steve's legacy was a great one. He set the ball rolling, then made many innovations which others emulated cheaper, faster, more feature-rich. Does that make Apple the hardware equivalent of Opera Software?
    He also understood marketing (in the fullest sense of the word) better than any of the competition. The upside of that is that it de-geeked technology and put it in the hands of people who would have shied away from it otherwise - the downside that they managed to put style over substance in many of their products.
    R.I.P Steve Jobs

    New Plymouth • Since Jul 2011 • 143 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Grevers, in reply to Anonymous Author,

    What encoding?

    New Plymouth • Since Jul 2011 • 143 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Richard Grevers,

    He also understood marketing (in the fullest sense of the word) better than any of the competition. The upside of that is that it de-geeked technology and put it in the hands of people who would have shied away from it otherwise – the downside that they managed to put style over substance in many of their products.

    And yet, these are the products that creative people are associating with the real, productive work they’ve done over decades. So I don’t accept that characterisation – with a few notable exceptions like the Cube. (Yes, I’m ignoring the dark years.)

    And it bears noting that at Webstock ’11, about two thirds of the room was using Apple products.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Grevers,

    Ed Piskor, whose great comic "Boingthump" wound to its conclusion a few weeks back, just posted this. I assume it's something he prepared earlier.

    New Plymouth • Since Jul 2011 • 143 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Grevers, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Undeniably they are, Russell, but is that purely because of the hardware and OS, or is much of the credit due to software pioneers such as Adobe who were slow to port their excellent products to PC, and thence to industry pressure*. The smile often vanished from print industry sales reps' faces when I told them copy would be from Corel, or on a PC-format zip disk.
    * For graphics - I think Mac really was a better platform for creating audio, which is never a field I got into.

    New Plymouth • Since Jul 2011 • 143 posts Report Reply

  • Anonymous Author, in reply to Richard Grevers,

    While Steve Jobs didn't invent the code, that was my binary-computery-homagey acknowledgement of his influence on me. I do enjoy a good Apple device.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2010 • 64 posts Report Reply

  • chris,

    Mawkland • Since Jan 2010 • 1302 posts Report Reply

  • Mikaere Curtis,

    I've hardly ever use Macs in anger, but...

    During the late 80s, formy first two years at varsity I had a cleaning job. One of the offices I cleaned as 7 College Hill - the home, at the time, of Apple NZ. They had a lot of promotional material around the place, being naturally curious, I read everything I could get my hands on.

    I was impressed at the direction they were taking personal computing. Desktop publishing, little bags that you could put your Mac in so you could move it, that kind of thing. I also read about this new technology (which, IIRC, required a hardware upgrade) called HyperCard. It allowed you to navigate to related topics by clicking on things called "Hyperlink". Now that, I thought at the time, had promise...

    The 90s were indeed dark days for Apple, and it felt as if the company could fall over at any time.

    My favourite thought about Steve Jobs is something a friend said about him once:

    "He created a billion dollar company. And then he did it all over again."

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to Richard Grevers,

    The smile often vanished from print industry sales reps’ faces when I told them copy would be from Corel, or on a PC-format zip disk.

    Thanks to the infamous Click of Death, the Zip Drive Parallel Port edition was the worst $345 (in 1997 dollars) I ever spent in my computing life. And unfortunately, the class-action lawsuit only applied in North America.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Martin Lindberg, in reply to chris,

    Did you need to copy and paste the entire article for any particular reason?

    Stockholm • Since Jul 2009 • 802 posts Report Reply

  • chris,

    Yes.

    Mawkland • Since Jan 2010 • 1302 posts Report Reply

  • Steve Curtis,

    Jobs was nearly alone in the computer industry in his belief that it was better for users if a single company made every part of every device. In an age ruled by mediocre modularity—where one company makes your hardware, another makes your software, and another bundles ads and crapware onto the machine—Jobs saw electronics as an expression of a fierce, if inscrutable, artistic vision

    writes Farhad Manjoo at Slate.
    Of course Fisher & Paykel used to do this as well

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 314 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen, in reply to chris,

    I understand the issue Chris but I find it crass and inappropriate at this time and in this thread.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Bart Janssen,

    +!
    and, very probably most of us here had read the whole thing much earlier in the day.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Biobbs,

    iSad.

    The River Mouth, Denmark • Since Jan 2011 • 114 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Williams, in reply to Biobbs,

    iSad

    +1

    I'm less informed on his faults and failures than I might be, however, for the moment I'm quite content to celebrate an inspiring life. May we all have such adventures. Vale.

    Sydney • Since Nov 2006 • 2273 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    As someone who was frogmarched to a PC a couple of months back (my faculty arguing that they couldn't support Macs), I am with Russell in only tolerating my Dell. I sometimes wonder how a one-armed person would turn it on (control/alt/delete).

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Clarke,

    Were the flags on the bridge put at half mast for Stevo this evening?

    If so, that's a bit rough. My grandma changed my world but she didn't get that.

    -36.76, 174.61 or thereab… • Since Nov 2006 • 164 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    how a one-armed person would turn it on (control/alt/delete).

    There's a control and an alt key on both sides of the keyboard. It can be done one-handed, although it feels awkward. :-)

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Martin Lindberg, in reply to Russell Clarke,

    Were the flags on the bridge put at half mast for Stevo this evening?

    No, they were at half mast early this morning already. No idea why.

    Stockholm • Since Jul 2009 • 802 posts Report Reply

  • Mikaere Curtis, in reply to Martin Lindberg,

    Were the flags on the bridge put at half mast for Stevo this evening?

    No, they were at half mast early this morning already. No idea why.

    Probably to respect our latest fallen SAS soldier. A soldier who would not have been in Afghanistan except because of a decision that John Key personally took.

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Graham, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    I sometimes wonder how a one-armed person would turn it on (control/alt/delete).

    With this

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2011 • 39 posts Report Reply

  • Mikaere Curtis, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    As someone who was frogmarched to a PC a couple of months back (my faculty arguing that they couldn’t support Macs), I am with Russell in only tolerating my Dell. I sometimes wonder how a one-armed person would turn it on (control/alt/delete).

    Yeah, it's a crap default.

    BUT, it's not as if Dell has an operating system. IMO, Windows 7 was the version that finally caught up with Apple. Took a while, to say the least. ;)

    Tamaki Makaurau • Since Nov 2006 • 528 posts Report Reply

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