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Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

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Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#71
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you care to clarify why? Apple is either upset with Gray or it isn't. Woz wearing an irreverent shirt won't change it either way.

Culturally I doubt Apple's that mad if their cofounder's joking about it.

I don't know any better than you (probably) do, but my sense of it is that Wozniak's sensibilities don't even land on the same hemisphere as Apple's circa 2010.

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#72
post #2

I think that it would be stupid not to have him on stage as part of the introduction of the new iPhone. It's not like everybody doesn't know about it, and it would generate a lot of goodwill among developers and Apple employees. It's like the story of the Air Force commander and the mechanic: One day, a military big-wig took off in an Air Force transport, which almost crashed, and was forced to land due to mechanical…

I've watched a lot of Steve Jobs presentations, and I can't recall any direct humor (aside from John Mayer and maybe Sam Altman rocking the popped collars). It just doesn't seem that they'd do something like this. It's not vaudeville night, it's the Reality Distortion Field.

Here's a video of Jobs reacting to leaked PowerMac G5 specifications

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c92rhiOepI

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#73
post #43
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone gets the gravity. Its tragicomedy.

Is your point, "don't let some random guy's reputation get in the way of our Internet joke"?

The point is that it would be morally better if the people involved treated it as something capable of being laughed off, and so we should all treat it that way to encourage such an atmosphere in our culture. It is similar to how we discourage people from making a big deal over interracial, or more recently gay, marriages—if we treat it like nothing happened (and that those that insist something did are on the wrong end of a bad joke), then nothing did happen, and everyone—including Mr. Gray—can get on with their lives.

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#74
post #29
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree to disagree - I don't have insider knowledge, so I may be utterly wrong. Perhaps we'll find out soon enough. My feeling is this is a bit of social signalling going on. Woz is saying 'Gray is one of us, we can joke around about it, because that's the kind of teasing we can do in our circle'. If the matter were serious, Wozniak would indeed be out of line, and he'd hopefully know better than to do this. There's…

If Wozniak was an Apple spokesperson, that comment would carry a lot of weight. But he isn't. He has no authority here whatsoever. And I think he's wrong.

Do you disagree with the first sentence, the second sentence, or both?

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#75
post #65
post #59

I have a new theory about life that hasn't let me down yet. It's a variant on Occam's Razor that I call Zoschke's Razor: The most boring explanation is usually the correct one. Let me apply it here... -- Gray has talked to his supervisors, and his job is secure because he's the same talented engineer today as he was last week. Gray's career options are unaffected by this because who wouldn't want to hire an iPhone en…

Maybe Apple is a very cool company, but I've watched people get fired for far less significant data loss incidents. I hope you're right.

[deleted]

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#76
post #59

I have a new theory about life that hasn't let me down yet. It's a variant on Occam's Razor that I call Zoschke's Razor: The most boring explanation is usually the correct one. Let me apply it here... -- Gray has talked to his supervisors, and his job is secure because he's the same talented engineer today as he was last week. Gray's career options are unaffected by this because who wouldn't want to hire an iPhone en…

Except for that other iPhone prototype guy who lost an iPhone and either committed suicide after "intense interrogation", or was killed: http://gizmodo.com/5319275/report-iphone-leak-interrogations... http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/07/im-really-thinking-maybe-i-...

So, yeah, losing an iPhone prototype is really, like, boring.

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#77

This seems to me rather insensitive -- more importantly, it's probably not worthy of Hacker News. Edit: Given the downvotes, I'd be quite happy to hear any legitimate grounds for disagreement. I consider the widely disseminated mocking of someone who hasn't knowingly signed on as a public figure to be insensitive (independent of how funny or clever that mocking might be, and independent of whether being insensitive w…

Tragically, our civilization has lost the capacity to forgive and forget, and the target doesn't qualify for witness protection, so further damaging his career is no longer possible. After Apple, he's going to have to go smith for the Amish or something.

This is not a career-ending mistake. He should be just fine.

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#78
post #16
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wozniak having a "sense of humor" about someone else's misfortune doesn't help that person. Meanwhile, there's the guy's name, plastered on a rich famous guy's belly, being mocked. I stand by my original comment and believes it sums the situation up precisely.

There's clearly no malice intended, and I'd say "mocked" is far too strong a term. He's making fun of the situation, not Gray himself. If you find this joke to be insensitive I'm having a hard time imagining what sort of humor you approve of, given practically every joke out there makes fun of someone/something.

"practically every joke out there makes fun of someone/something."

Those are the types of jokes Americans like. I prefer surreal/absurdist humor. http://www.laughlab.co.uk/

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#79
post #59

I have a new theory about life that hasn't let me down yet. It's a variant on Occam's Razor that I call Zoschke's Razor: The most boring explanation is usually the correct one. Let me apply it here... -- Gray has talked to his supervisors, and his job is secure because he's the same talented engineer today as he was last week. Gray's career options are unaffected by this because who wouldn't want to hire an iPhone en…

Except for that other iPhone prototype guy who lost an iPhone and either committed suicide after "intense interrogation", or was killed: http://gizmodo.com/5319275/report-iphone-leak-interrogations... http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/07/im-really-thinking-maybe-i-... So, yeah, losing an iPhone prototype is really, like, boring.

I think the cultural differences are important here: not only the fact that the Foxconn employee had fewer options (whereas Gray Powell can be easily employed tomorrow at a competitor), but also that US companies are far less forgiving of errors by a vendor, especially a foreign vendor. I've heard people hurl abuse at Indian call center employees that they wouldn't dream of saying to a colleague in Palo Alto.

Re: Steve Wozniak has a little bit of fun at Gray Powell’s expense

#80
post #59

I have a new theory about life that hasn't let me down yet. It's a variant on Occam's Razor that I call Zoschke's Razor: The most boring explanation is usually the correct one. Let me apply it here... -- Gray has talked to his supervisors, and his job is secure because he's the same talented engineer today as he was last week. Gray's career options are unaffected by this because who wouldn't want to hire an iPhone en…

Except for that other iPhone prototype guy who lost an iPhone and either committed suicide after "intense interrogation", or was killed: http://gizmodo.com/5319275/report-iphone-leak-interrogations... http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/07/im-really-thinking-maybe-i-... So, yeah, losing an iPhone prototype is really, like, boring.

Yikes I remember that story now. Strange that Gizmodo is breaking that story too...

I'll grant Chinese factories are more interesting than the Cupertino labs.

The most boring explanation here would be that the worker stole the phone, got caught, and chose to take his own life instead of suffer the other unpleasant consequences.

My posed principle would indicate there was no inappropriate investigation or murder, Gizmodo is again sexing up the story.

But its just a thought experiment, tragic and dramatic things do happen.

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