Posts by BenWilson
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And doing so - battling the paranoia and reactionary protectionism of the creative dinosaurs - was something he can take full and complete credit for.
Not all the credit. There were many attempts to make online music work, and the reactionary dinosaurs resisted them all until Napster taught them that it was a choice of change or die. But Jobs made it work, and that's huge.
I'm curious also why you left out radio as a music milestone. I can't think of a device that brought more music to more people.
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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything., in reply to Simon Grigg,
I think I did
I missed it in your list of game breakers.
*The others being Edison's Cylinder, Berliner's Flat Disc, Bell Labs' Electrical Recording, BASF's Magnetic Tape, the RCA 45/CBS Microgroove, and Sony/Philips' CD.
Other than a mention that Apple did not invent the mp3. That's not really giving the inventions that made it possible for iTunes to revive the music monopolies much credit. But I guess it was a collection of technologies, and the glory is diffused, however massive the value of these things is.
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Hard News: Thanks, Steve. For everything., in reply to Simon Grigg,
You don't think mp3 + Napster rates a mention?
I accept that I'm out of step with the majority, and perhaps the problem lies with me, but it's all a bit Princess Diana to me.
Jobs was an IT rock star. There's always a massive scale lamentation when someone with a fan following dies before their time. I wasn't especially interested in either Jobs or Diana, but can see why the fans are distraught. More so in the case of Jobs, really, because the impact on the lives of his fans was considerably greater. They would have used his products every day, during work and play. Not that many people get to reach so deeply into the lives of others. Well, not carrying a brand that people notice, anyway (I'm sure there's probably chips from some particular chinese factory all around my house, but I don't know and don't much care).
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Commodore was coming out with the C64, I think. You could probably fit a small novel on one of those, or about 8 of my posts.
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Hard News: The price is that they get to…, in reply to Rich Lock,
Does nothing! Wasteful!
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I learned Computer Science entirely on Apples. There was something quaintly fitting about learning a programming language (Pascal) that nobody uses in the workforce, on machines that are also not much used. Both were excellent teaching tools and went a long way towards duping me that computer programming was going to be a rewarding career, rather than one damned thing after another, like it actually turned out. Maybe if I'd stuck with them Apples...
Farewell Steve.
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Hard News: The price is that they get to…, in reply to James Butler,
I feel like I should respond at length, but I'm at work.
Don't do it on my account. I'm also at work.
Which illustrates one of the two things I prefer about Twitter - it makes me spend more time thinking and less typing
That is one thing I need like a hole in the head - more time thinking. If there was one thing about myself I could change, it would be an ability to turn off the god-damned thinking. That's probably why I prefer downers over uppers.
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Hard News: The price is that they get to…, in reply to Sacha,
I don't put much weight on an Aussie philosopher complaining about that.
I don't think he was complaining...just weighing up the pros and cons. He does say:
It is a lesson in clarity of thought and brevity in language - exactly what many rambling, muddled boffins need. And everyone can use Twitter to sharpen their ideas.
Good note to himself, and myself.
Lets just say Gio, among others here, on a roll is fun to watch.
I'll bet. Interestingly, on his blog, he claimed that he was going to only write one tweet per day, and follow no one. I can't find where, but remember it quite distinctly, thinking it a very interesting experiment. I presumed it must have failed, when I found him following me.
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Hard News: The price is that they get to…, in reply to Russell Brown,
this column by the Australian philosopher (not a Python joke) Damon Young on first impression of Twitter is really very perceptive
Yes, this is gold:
Bad tweets are not criminal or immoral - they simply give red cordial to an antsy mind.
It's perfect tweet length too.
I actually like writing epigrams. But decontextualized, they're hollow, empty things. What does "honesty's praised, but honest men freeze", really mean on its own? Little. In the context of Juvenal's first tirade against the sinful city of Rome, it was a perfect summary of his feelings. I like context, so my epigrams are scattered through my writings, to form mental milestones for the reader. Twitter seems to be only milestones, the rest of the journey is an irrelevant blur, happening in another time or place. A Twitter thread is like hearing a summary of a party that you weren't at. You had to be there to really see why you all laughed so hard you wet your pants.
Which is not to say that it's not a valuable and extremely entertaining thing for everyone who is at the party. But I can't get satisfaction from casual use, and don't feel I have the time for anything else.
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Hard News: The price is that they get to…, in reply to Russell Brown,
I may be the only person whose hit it regularly enough to realize that it's not just a random bug. It's pretty large, whatever it is - somwhere around 2 screenfuls. But you've answered my question - it's not by design, at least not your design. I expect it's an arbitrary setting, as computer programs are usually full of "How big should I make this buffer? Hmmm, 8KB should be enough, who writes more than 8KB in a single blog comment?".
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