[phantom4570]

I've never been a worshiper but I admire what this man accomplished. First off Steve Jobs didn't start the PC revolution; College kids and computer hobbyists who built Altair 8800 and IMASI 8080 kits starting in 1975 started the movement. Apple first sold the Apple I in 1976 and became part of the movement with the Apple II in 1977 which they produced until the end of 1982 when it was replaced by the Apple IIe. The PC Revolution was launched by a combination of platform and software. The platform that launched the revolution was the IBM PC-XT in 1981. What so many overlook is that the PC was worthless without applications. Word Perfect provided word processing and Visicalc provided basic spreadsheet functionality until the first Killer App, Lotus 1-2-3 came along in January of 1983. A powerful spreadsheet application got the attention of management. It wasn't the platform that launched the revolution, it was the application and the platform.

Steve Jobs was a visionary who shaped the technology we use today but the PC revolution would have happened without him.

The Register dispassionately nails it with this missive: This Dianamania is a slur on Jobs

Steve Jobs was a remarkable and fascinating businessman, and by some distance the most interesting and accomplished personality operating in an important corner of the economy.

Interview at Wired: Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing

 

[Skeptic49]

But Visicalc first ran on Apple. The IBM version was a poor adaption until re-written.
I went the Osborne route, because of the Wordstar(TM) in the software package. Finally traded the first page of the combined manual for the Osborne in on a major discount of WordPerfect (TM). Then came Enable, MS Works, MS Office. Met my wife on line..
Sigh,
Geoff
Who remembers people asking for a Visicalc at the local computer store.

 

[WaltGraham]

Who remembers people asking for a Visicalc at the local computer store.

I'll bet you remember DR DOS and maybe even played "Hunt the Wumpus" on a TI-99...

 

[Skeptic49]

I assembled my first PC-clone a Z-158. Sigh a few months later you could buy a 248 for the same money assembled.

BACKPLANE UBER ALLES!!

Geoff
Who was into the little magic boxes before little magic boxes wuz cool!

 

[Skeptic49]

And for the other side of Mr. Jobs, from one of my favorite blogs:
Bayou Renaissance Man: In memoriam: Steve Jobs

Well worth a look at the blog itself.
Geoff
Who visits daily.

 

[BobMac]

do you remember

How about BASIC on the trash 80. I still have a navagtion computer programmed in basic. For those purposes it work very well.

Bob

 

[phantom4570]

Bayou Renaissance Man: In memoriam: Steve Jobs

Thanks for that link. I've heard stories like these about Jobs before.

 

[TommyGunn]

How about BASIC on the trash 80. I still have a navagtion computer programmed in basic. For those purposes it work very well.

Bob

My first year in college at the University of South Florida (1974-5) I had a math course where I got to use a "computor" -- a teminal that actually more closely resembled a electric typewriter. You may recall the rolls of paper they used; there were perforations along both edges and it was the only "read-out" you got, atleast on the system USF had at the time.
I was using BASIC and somehow managed to get it into FORTRAN. The supervisor knew what had happened and was able to rectify the situation .... but no one figured out how I'd done it; and all the stpes were all neatly typed out :cryinlaugh: .
I wonder what is inthat computer lab today.....

 

[jdh]

How about BASIC on the trash 80.

Bob

Saved on a cassette tape drive.

 

[Diamondback]

I'll bet you remember DR DOS and maybe even played "Hunt the Wumpus" on a TI-99...

Hey, I remember that platform and game... spent quite a few hours on that, Car Wars and Blasto as a kid. LOL

 

[WaltGraham]

Hey, I remember that platform and game... spent quite a few hours on that, Car Wars and Blasto as a kid. LOL

Kudos, O Ancient One...

 

[DavidE]

Thanks for that link. I've heard stories like these about Jobs before.

If you ever get the chance to see a movie called "Pirates of Silicon Valley," it is highly recommended.

 

[phantom4570]

Gordon Gekko In Turtleneck

This was a nasty, vindictive man who laid off workers en masse, bragged about stealing ideas from competitors, belittled his employees with screaming tirades laced with oaths and imprecations, overburdened them with heinous work schedules, cheated his best friends and oldest colleagues when it came time to distribute shares, outsourced everything he could to Chinese factories that employ child labor under dangerous conditions, practiced a cruel Darwinian meritocracy that disdained diversity, lied constantly out of pure habit, sicced the government on his chief business rival, possessed a "Nietzschean attitude that ordinary rules didn't apply to him", and even denied paternity of his firstborn child. Then he took credit for the work he practically whipped out of people while posing as a benevolent sage. His name was Steve Jobs.

Wow. I had heard stories but never imagined that anyone would write this about Steve Jobs.

 

[Skeptic49]

Gordon Gekko In Turtleneck Wow. I had heard stories but never imagined that anyone would write this about Steve Jobs.

In other words he is the prototype for EVERY current Hollyweird interpretation of an American Businessperson.

Geoff
Who is somehow not surprised. mg:

 

[DavidE]

In other words he is the prototype for EVERY current Hollyweird interpretation of an American Businessperson.

Geoff
Who is somehow not surprised. mg:

Yet ironically, in Hollywood, movies, TV, look for all the Apple products, the arts community loves the man. Then again not all artists have reputations as constant nice guys. It doesn't mean the art is unappreciated. Nature of the beast maybe.

 

[Diamondback]

Kudos, O Ancient One...

LOL I was a precocious thing, back in '83-'84... LOL and I know that at 31, I'm probably one of the "pups" around here.

 

[Skeptic49]

31! I've got Army Socks older than your Mother!
Geoff
Who actually kept a pair from his original issue, of course advanced age means I don't remember where I put them...

 

[phantom4570]

What is the purpose of a sofa?

"We spoke about furniture in theory for eight years," his wife, Laurene Powell, tells Walter Isaacson, in "Steve Jobs," Isaacson's enthralling new biography of the Apple founder. "We spent a lot of time asking ourselves, 'What is the purpose of a sofa?' "

Someone once said that a perfectionist is one who takes great pains and gives them to others.