Apple: Steve Jobs and the greatest company ever created

[erico]

I grew up with Apple, and my Apple II was technically my first gaming system. My dad had one before he bought one for me and my sister, and while his intention was for education purposes...

Then you were well educated on good games , not the nowadays flood of AAA "dragon´s lair", with a challenge level similar to watching a movie.

Most of the 80s computer had at least a bit of the "kid´s education" into their propaganda, and I guess it was true in many fronts. While I didn´t get much better grades related to it, the knowledge on operating computers sure does put one ahead, specially after the 90s as everything human related depends on it. Heck, because of coding games, I think my math and physics advanced quite a bit at the time, or at least I started liking them.


Did you play Robot Odyssey? That still ranks as one of my fav games of all time. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Odyssey

Also, it is much better to play Powerbots then Minesweep...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/N9eilxG023E?feature=oembed

 

[Klumpen]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/2WNb3TUNf0A?feature=oembed

If you're Apple device doesn't work, it's your fault.

Mind the ESD!

 

[_jr_]

Did you play Robot Odyssey? That still ranks as one of my fav games of all time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Odyssey

Somebody wanting to port https://github.com/ThomasFooteDQ/DroidQuest?

 

[rygD]

Never thought I could wish some keyboard threads back.

  You sure that is what you would rather have?

 

[Jumpman]

This sums up Apple for me perfectly!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xdd0M2P_mKU?feature=oembed

Chris

 

[Kev2442]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/2WNb3TUNf0A?feature=oembed

That was very interesting. Do you guys think it's still up to date ?

Maybe I should be more careful while I tinker with computers...

 

[TrashyMG]

That was very interesting. Do you guys think it's still up to date ? Maybe I should be more careful while I tinker with computers...

Yeah ESD is still an issue with semiconductors... I usually am a little lax when it comes to ESD safety when playing with my computer. However I generally keep the power supply plugged in, but have the supply shut off to provide a proper ground. I keep touching the case occasionally to dissipate static electricity before touching parts.

 

[Klumpen]

That was very interesting. Do you guys think it's still up to date ?
Maybe I should be more careful while I tinker with computers...

I wish I would believe, that this is the actual reason for them sealing all parts tight and making maintenance or even a simple battery change impossible without breaking everything apart, but I don't believe, that it's because of sparks.

 

[TrashyMG]

That was very interesting. Do you guys think it's still up to date ?


Maybe I should be more careful while I tinker with computers...

I wish I would believe, that this is the actual reason for them sealing all parts tight and making maintenance or even a simple battery change impossible without breaking everything apart, but I don't believe, that it's because of sparks.

I work in the semiconductor industry I've seen failure analysis xrays of static discharge damage on the products I manage. It's real.

 

[Klumpen]

That was very interesting. Do you guys think it's still up to date ?


Maybe I should be more careful while I tinker with computers...

I wish I would believe, that this is the actual reason for them sealing all parts tight and making maintenance or even a simple battery change impossible without breaking everything apart, but I don't believe, that it's because of sparks.

I work in the semiconductor industry I've seen failure analysis xrays of static discharge damage on the products I manage. It's real.

Yes, I know that this is happening indeed, my sentence wasn't formulated very well, I'm really tired and just came back from a jam session.

I just think, that Apple isn't thinking about stuff like this when it comes to unswappable batteries for example. They rather need as many reasons as possible for the existence of all those Apple stores.

 

[levi]

That was very interesting. Do you guys think it's still up to date ? Maybe I should be more careful while I tinker with computers...

Yeah ESD is still an issue with semiconductors... I usually am a little lax when it comes to ESD safety when playing with my computer. However I generally keep the power supply plugged in, but have the supply shut off to provide a proper ground. I keep touching the case occasionally to dissipate static electricity before touching parts.

It's less of an issue for me personally since PGA package tech.  With the older DIL or QFP style packages there's lots of exposed metal you can touch accidentally, but since the various grid array packages have become necessary, connectors are a lot more concealed.  It's still pure luck that I've never fried a RAM module when installing/removing it though, I guess.

Personally I don't leave the lead in when fiddling with stuff.  It's more psychological than anything real though - if the case became live it'd short immediately and kill any number of fuses between the mains inlet and me.  Theoretically it could send live voltages through the +5V or +12V lines, but I'd expect a few bits to develop a serious smoking habit if that occurred.  But it just doesn't feel right having mains voltages coming into the workpiece, so personally I just try to avoid touching conductive parts most of the time.

 

[TrashyMG]

Personally I don't leave the lead in when fiddling with stuff.
Like I said in my previous post, I turn off the power supply with the main power switch when I do this, before modern power supplies that had those switches came to be I unplugged the power connections to the motherboard. It's just providing a proper ground at that point.

 

[___]

I urge all of the people who still think steve jobs to be some sort of tech god to go and watch Mike Daisy's "the agony and exctasy of steven p. jobs". great monologue about being an apple fan and also about how apple actually produces their crap: exactly like every electronics firm on the planet, and in the same factory spaces. the workers of foxconn in shenzhen really don't care what they produce as long as they have work.

Mike Daisy hits the spot. He is enough of a geek to know what he is talking about and at the same time compassionate enough to question the marketing propaganda of apple. remember that he is a stage performer and author though, not a journalist!

anyway, I am forced to work on an apple machine for work right now, as I have to cut loads of videos with finalcut pro. I hate the osx mouse oriented GUI, love the stability and the terminal (feel at home there as a linux geek). I hate the design oriented marketing and the retarded fanbase. I'd rather have all these great media production suites for linux systems, though. I never feel like I am in control of the system, the whole thing mystifies work flow in a way that makes it non transparent and - at least for me - very ineffective.

seriously... screw em. not better than any of the other big corporations out there, just smarter in taking your money. people actually applaude them for ripping them off. have fun with your powerful machines turned into kids toys, because that's what they are doing right now. dumbing it down for the casual consumer. congratulations. if windows 8/10 wasn't such an atrocity, I think most software companies would've switched already.

I am hoping for more software support on the linux side. Blackmagic already supports the platform for quite a while, now the software support has to follow. It's the way of the future for media production. I am sick of paying for shit I don't need, I need a top notch stable video setup with multiple I/O options, thunderbolt and pcie capture cards. this crap is expensive, so I and lots of others are willing to pay for quality software. I will not go on to pay for cheap OS consumer options though. I want to take control of what is going on, not the other way around. Sorry if you are such a fan but to me it seems like apple and google are the biggest supporters and motors in this development right now: turning hardware into touchscreen magnadoodle toys and farting private data into the big stinky cloud of personal crap the internet has become over the last 10 years.

EDIT: I am aware of the scandal about Mike Daisy. The fact that he "invented" his visits to actual factories in Shenzhen changes nothing about the fact that manual labourers are still slaving away with minimal to no rights for products that we in the "western world" buy and consume without acknowledging this. people who called Daisy a lier are missing the point. he is a storyteller, yes. he has exaggerated his role a great deal and that is misleading, still Shenzhen is there, foxconn is real and all your crap is also still produced there.

 

[DrHAX]

I found some nasty quotes by steve jobs basically calling the apple fanbase the people who view him as a god as idiots. He said they would buy what ever he made if it was made by him. The quotes however, the moment he died were scrubbed from the web. I feel it was a sort of a way to etch-a-sketch the image of him. He was an egotistical bastard, he straight up was, and he ran his company into the ground at one point and his relationships with many people have made them just leave and want nothing to do with him. I don't celebrate him he was a business man. A very good one,yes but I view him in the same way I view Edison. If Steve jobs could have destroyed his competition by frying circus elephants and filming it like Edison did to show the "horrors" of ac current. He would have.

There was a documentary I saw while he was alive that interviewed various people who worked with him. One guy worked with him and he would come into the meeting room and have complete tyrant control over the white board, forbidding anybody to touch, or erase it and was a being a prick about it. So the guy one day said F' it and walked up and erased it.. Steve jobs had a stroke, left the room and the building and didn't show up to work again until the next day.

Also to mention the working conditions of most employees in those factories... Theres a reason why Foxconn had to put suicide nets on the roof of every building on the complex..Most workers LIVE at the plant. In tiny spaces on bunk beds with 4-8 to a room that only has a single window with bars on it and the bunk beds. No desks no nothing. Everythings controlled these people are basically slaves. They make less then 50 cents a day in some cases.

My fiancee was given an apple mac book pro because her college she almost went too demanded it. We have it and while it is an impressive laptop for what it is. (The retina screen makes 1080hd 60fps youtube videos crazy..) I like it, but I don't like the apple OS. If you were to give me the laptop I'd be throwing a distro a linux over it.  I like the hardware and the way its designed, but for the same price i'd take a pyra every day of the week for the next 50 years.
My biggest issue with apple is how locked down the software is for everything. I love how its straight up almost illegal to create a hackingtosh due to user agreements and how "apple os can only be used on apple approved hardware."and other crap like that. Apple is a very consumer unfriendly company. Their OS's are planned straight for obsolescence that most of the older hardware is almost useless now with modern apple stuff.  I also hate how their OS takes very simple civil liberties and throws them out the windows in many regards. Oh you have a flashdrive that's not to our specs we'lll format it for  you without fuckin' telling you!  Yeah who cares what's on it. 

Apple isn't more secure then windows in fact I remember when apple opened its arrogant mouth. "I don't get viruses." and every virus maker was like "OH... Challenge accepted Brah!"  There's a reason why they stopped running those ads... because they painted a bullseye on their ass.  But to the coffee shop hipster who writes on their macbook Air sipping soy latte expressos and writing poetry about how cassettes, scarfs and tofu make the world go round, it doesn't matter if their system is bla bla, or worse then X or Y most of the apple fan base is brain washed consumers who Steve jobs was right about. If he put a logo on a rock and sold it they'd buy the IPaperweight for 300 dollars because its the best paperweight in the UNIVERSE. I've been to a few apple stores and they're down right creepy and cult like. I took my mother into one once to prove a point. She is still creeped out by them to this day. Nothing screams happy fun land like white tie floors white walls with glowing logos built in and bright white lighting to highlight the only colour coming from their products. Everybody has the same vacant stare, I needed a part for a cheap Imac Mini I got from a garage sale for 5 bucks from a creepy guy who I was a afraid the computer may have something highly illegal porn on it or something like that. (Wiped that damn harddrive with a PPC linux cd)  I told them the part number. they gave me a blank stare. The guy said he didn't have it.. they didn't carry it. I told them to go check. The apple website itself told me THEY had 3 in stock. he came out with it and gave me a shocked and confused look like I was a wearing war paint and wearing a dear skull hood with antlers and told him everything about his life personal desires just at a glance.  

Apple's "Success" with counter culture is ironic to a T because they all conform to apple's whim. They're all consumer whores who will the defend the product TOOTH and claw without any valid reason. If apple's the greatest company on earth its only because it knows how to make its fan base religious zealots.

That's my apple rant done. I already have a bad taste in my mouth.

P.S I would still love to get an apple II as much as I detest the new company the older one's products were quite interesting and something I would love to get some hands on experience with... 

 

[fusion_power]

My fiancee was given an apple mac book pro because her college she almost went too demanded it. We have it and while it is an impressive laptop for what it is. (The retina screen makes 1080hd 60fps youtube videos crazy..) I like it, but I don't like the apple OS. If you were to give me the laptop I'd be throwing a distro a linux over it.  I like the hardware and the way its designed, but for the same price i'd take a pyra every day of the week for the next 50 years.
My biggest issue with apple is how locked down the software is for everything. I love how its straight up almost illegal to create a hackingtosh due to user agreements and how "apple os can only be used on apple approved hardware."and other crap like that. Apple is a very consumer unfriendly company. Their OS's are planned straight for obsolescence that most of the older hardware is almost useless now with modern apple stuff.  I also hate how their OS takes very simple civil liberties and throws them out the windows in many regards. Oh you have a flashdrive that's not to our specs we'lll format it for  you without fuckin' telling you!  Yeah who cares what's on it. 

Search for "Asus Zenbook" Ultrabook Series. It's like a MacBook but not from Apple. ^^ They have an impressive build quality and are cheaper, come with non-glare display and even an optional dedicated GFX Card. Ok, and Windows but if you don't like it, I'm sure you could install Linux too.

I watched an interesting documentation recently about The Rivality between Steve Jobs and Bill gates, they were so different persons but also had alot in common. And it was fun to watch how they pissed off each other regulary.  Alot of behind the curtain stuff was told, some of it was also in the article linked here. I also recommend the Movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" where these rivality is also shown. And how they basicly stolen their core products of other companies, no, Apple did not invented the GUI or the Mouse and Microsoft did not made MS DOS - they simply bought it from one guy who made DOS and just renamed it!

 

[Klumpen]

Apple isn't more secure then windows in fact I remember when apple opened its arrogant mouth. "I don't get viruses." and every virus maker was like "OH... Challenge accepted Brah!"  There's a reason why they stopped running those ads... because they painted a bullseye on their ass.  But to the coffee shop hipster who writes on their macbook Air sipping soy latte expressos and writing poetry about how cassettes, scarfs and tofu make the world go round,

I think you are mixing up some of your enemy images here. I've never seen a vegan Apple user in my whole life (I know a lot of both but not one that is in both camps) and this is only logical, since every person who makes severe decisions for himself that need some prior and afterwards thinking won't choose an Apple product for many reasons.
I agree with the rest of the post.

 

[DrHAX]

Apple isn't more secure then windows in fact I remember when apple opened its arrogant mouth. "I don't get viruses." and every virus maker was like "OH... Challenge accepted Brah!"  There's a reason why they stopped running those ads... because they painted a bullseye on their ass.  But to the coffee shop hipster who writes on their macbook Air sipping soy latte expressos and writing poetry about how cassettes, scarfs and tofu make the world go round,

I think you are mixing up some of your enemy images here. I've never seen a vegan Apple user in my whole life (I know a lot of both but not one that is in both camps) and this is only logical, since every person who makes severe decisions for himself that need some prior and afterwards thinking won't choose an Apple product for many reasons.
I agree with the rest of the post.

Come to St.Paul MN USA and visit a coffee shop. The people here are like exactly like the crazy thumblr posts in real life. They have to have the latest and greatest and be part of the new age... Shun the old embrace the new. Nothing says your thinking about the future like having gauges in the side of your nose buying Iphones, Imacs when you don't have a job. People around here are deranged in a many a regard the idea of "Social revolution" only conforms if the people you socially revolt for those that are highly liberal or borderline communist. Militant feminists, crazed "hipsters" and many other politically based factions whose idea of equality is just applying another jackboot to a throat only its their foot in the boot this time.
WARNING OFF TOPIC political rant below. :angry:

Spoiler

Europe is different from here many regards. You have people who can think(usually).. Around here especially in St.Paul, Minneapolis  critical thinking skills are shunned upon and if you don't think in X, Y and Z you're gonna fail your classes in school. Everything is politically biased, everything is politically motivated for the democratic party who have ran this state for the at least 50 years. So everything is slanted. Minnesota in many circles is a joke just because of how deranged and absurd things are here. Its not uncommon to see a Highly liberal vegan driving a Prius, with expensive clothes carrying an Iphone going to expensive organic stores then preach to you how your'e a piece of shit because you held open the door and are oppressing her... Seriously St.Paul/ Minneapolis are fucked. to prove how blindly loyal the people are to the democratic party one of our family friends back in the 1970's put a dog up for position in power with no campaigning, no nothing Just a Democratic D beside its name.....The next week the dog got 80% of the votes they had to pull it out of the election out of fear of it winning, and them going to jail. People here have no grasp of reality... in many a regard.  I'm just happy i moved out and into the country because now politically things are getting interesting and chaotic.

I live in an redneck area, where people are far more polite Don't give you shit and are there for you. In St.Paul they turn each other into the state because their lawn grass is too high for their liking.

By the gods I Detest dragging idiotic politics into stuff... 

 There's more I can rant about but I'd rather rant about apple's bullshit then my state's bullshit. At least apple's bullshit is easy to explain...

 

[Ziz]

Fun fact. Star bucks has only one vegan bagel. So not really the perfect place for vegan hipster apple users.

Spoiler

 

[fusion_power]

By the gods I Detest dragging idiotic politics into stuff... 

 There's more I can rant about but I'd rather rant about apple's bullshit then my state's bullshit. At least apple's bullshit is easy to explain...

Funny, many Europeans think, the Dems are the good guys and the Reps are the evil ones. And when I take a short look onto FOX NEWS, I keep believing this very much. 
Well, the point is, USA still has more creative people than we havve, so they can't be all retards. There is no Microsoft or Apple in Europe, there are no Companies like Google, Amazon of Facebook that were founded in Europe, Some copies are here of ocurse but not much originals. Which is pretty sad actualy. All we have here in Germany when it comes to big IT Companies is "SAP" and they do not even count for the consumer market, they are doing professional Business-Software.  

 

[rygD]

I don't celebrate him he was a business man. A very good one,yes but I view him in the same way I view Edison. If Steve jobs could have destroyed his competition by frying circus elephants and filming it like Edison did to show the "horrors" of ac current. He would have.

I like Tesla, too.  I think many people now appreciate him more than they di for many decades.  My favorite businessman is probably Howard Hughes, but I haven't looked much into him as a businessman.  I think it would have been interesting to ride along with Hughes.

 

Apple's "Success" with counter culture is ironic to a T because they all conform to apple's whim. They're all consumer whores who will the defend the product TOOTH and claw without any valid reason. If apple's the greatest company on earth its only because it knows how to make its fan base religious zealots.

That's my apple rant done. I already have a bad taste in my mouth.

P.S I would still love to get an apple II as much as I detest the new company the older one's products were quite interesting and something I would love to get some hands on experience with... 

I don't feel like fighting with quotes to split them up right now.

I remember someone talking about how Apple tried to commoditize (not sure if a word) counter culture.  The funny thing is that by doing that it is no longer the counter culture, and becomes mainstream. This has been done with many things over the years, and it pisses me off a bit that the same people that once insulted or attacked (sometimes physically) others for these things are the same ones who are now all about it and forcefully trying to exclaim why it is so great, yet frequently not fully understanding it, or even acknowledging where it came from, why, or those that made it the case.  This is really the feeling I get for the hardcore Apple type.  They praise Jobs, but completely miss that without Woz and the others that actually made the company and early products there would be no Apple.  All Jobs did was (rip off those with the ideas or that could actually do, and) sell people on his vision for the things.  Yes, that is an oversimplification.  No, I don't care, I don't think he was as important as many think, and definitely not for things I seek out and use.

Get an Apple II.  There are probably many not being used somewhat close to you.  If your feelings toward Apple are too strong for you to tolerate the real thing, get a clone.  Just make sure any clones you consider will work for what you are going to do/use.

In response to the political rant I didn't quote, a woman opened a door for me yesterday.  I thought she was being kind because she saw I was in a hurry.  Should I have instead stopped and yelled at her?   Also, check out Emperor Norton.  I just remembered my grass is getting too tall...time to slaughter all the things living in it.  I hope the frogs aren't in it again.