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Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

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Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#181

Post by dboreham »

engeljohnb wrote: post #120
dbish wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woz is awesome and as an engineer I understand the urge to say he’s the main one who should be honored but we have to be realistic. Jobs ushered in 2 eras, only 1 with Woz. The personal computer and the computer in everyone’s pocket. That’s not touching any of the other areas like helping to drive Pixar. Woz did not have a second act, which is perfectly fine and I deeply respect him but he doesn’t have quite the same…

Woz is a genius who invented the personal computer as we know it. Jobs was a celebrity who was good at branding himself as a genius. I don't consider a clever UI idea like a touch screen to be a work of brilliance, especially since he did zero engineering work, both for early and later Apple devices. Touch screen handheld devices would've come around with or without him, just maybe a few years later. It should've bee…

> Woz is a genius who invented the personal computer as we know it.

History being written by the victors here, I believe.

He designed some clever things for example bit-banging the floppy interface which allowed the Apple 2 to have floppies at a lower price point than competitors. Another innovation of the Apple 2 at the time was its use of a switched-mode PSU. It was almost certainly the first personal computer to have that, but designed by Rod Holt not Woz. He didn't invent the switching PSU -- they were commonly used in portable test equipment at the time.

Having been alive at the time and paying attention, I disagree that Woz invented anything very significant. Definitely an important figure, and a clever guy though.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#182

Post by dboreham »

microtherion wrote: post #165
engeljohnb wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woz is a genius who invented the personal computer as we know it. Jobs was a celebrity who was good at branding himself as a genius. I don't consider a clever UI idea like a touch screen to be a work of brilliance, especially since he did zero engineering work, both for early and later Apple devices. Touch screen handheld devices would've come around with or without him, just maybe a few years later. It should've bee…

Woz was one of many people who designed microprocessor based computers in the 1970s (I recently started reading back issues of Dr. Dobb's Journal https://archive.org/details/dr_dobbs_journal_vol_01_201710 , and the variety is astounding), and far from the first one, though he was very good at what he did. What really set apart the Apple II from many of its peers is that it came preassembled, in a neatly designed case…

This is much more true than the parent comment, but nobody invented the concept of an integrated system in a case with keyboard and screen. That's because said concept is called a "video terminal" and had existed for at least a decade prior to the mid-70s. In fact one of the prime target markets for the first generation 8-bit CPUs was...video terminals. A late-70s personal computer is really just a video terminal that has been made programmable by the user. The hardware is pretty much identical.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#183

Post by b00ty4breakfast »

if the intent is to bring attention to technological innovations, Jobs was not a technological innovator, despite what the decades of PR would lead you to believe. If we want to argue that he was a promoter of tech innovations, in his capacity as a businessman, I would find that less objectionable but I still don't think Jobs is the guy we should be highlighting, given his track record of screwing over the people doing the actual work and innovating. (though depending on how cynical you are, that is perhaps exactly the type of person that the Powers That Be would want to push as the face of innovation)

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#184

Post by butlike »

keiferski wrote: post #58
boomboomsubban wrote: post #34

It's not a major deal as nobody will use them, but it's strange to have a company on US legal tender. I wonder what percent of the run Cray will buy?

There isn’t a company on the coins, just the supercomputer device itself. The Jobs coin has Jobs himself.

that shit cray

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#185

Post by giancarlostoro »

throw0101d wrote: post #166
giancarlostoro wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just decided to pull mine up... I live in Florida, and I had no idea of the following: * Air conditioning: In 1851, Dr. John Gorrie invented a machine to cool air, which laid the groundwork for modern air conditioning and refrigeration * Gatorade: The sports drink was developed at the University of Florida to help the football team rehydrate. * Sunscreen: Benjamin Green invented the first commercial sunscreen in 19…

> Air conditioning: In 1851, Dr. John Gorrie invented a machine to cool air, which laid the groundwork for modern air conditioning and refrigeration And modern cooling was invented by Carrier, with the original use case to actually control humidity to help the publishing/newspaper industry: > On December 3, 1911, Carrier presented what is perhaps the most significant document ever prepared on air conditioning – Ratio…

Its funny because in Florida you kinda need the dehumidifier, it makes a major difference, I have small ones all around the house, but for years I didn't know this. I actually believe wholeheartedly I get sick way less because of it. In other places / states you need a humidifier instead.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#186

Post by wqaatwt »

hirvi74 wrote: post #176
wqaatwt wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Jobs repeated it ~3-4 times without Wozniak (and arguably being a part of making Apple II a huge success was not even his greatest achievement).

What did Jobs actually build himself? My understanding was that man was technically inept.

Products? I mean at the end of the day (as long as you consistently pick the right people/tools for the job) technical part is just an implementation detail.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#187

Post by kemiller2002 »

I'm writing this from a Mac when I ask this. Has Apple actually created anything that could arguably have changed the world? Resistant crops, the Cray, mobile refrigeration all changed the world. My iPhone's nice, but it's not exactly on the same level. Is there anything from Apple that I'm missing?

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#188

Post by groundzeros2015 »

b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #183

if the intent is to bring attention to technological innovations, Jobs was not a technological innovator, despite what the decades of PR would lead you to believe. If we want to argue that he was a promoter of tech innovations, in his capacity as a businessman, I would find that less objectionable but I still don't think Jobs is the guy we should be highlighting, given his track record of screwing over the people doi…

Innovator has a broader meaning than the individual who wrote the program or built the circuit. Setting the direction and vision for technology is a big deal.

The engineers were very smart but it’s hard to see us knowing their name or having such an impact on technology without Steve. Woz was destined for a comfortable 30 year career at HP.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#189

Post by groundzeros2015 »

hirvi74 wrote: post #180
elif wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Each state voted on its innovation.

Dolly Parton is the only person of value to ever come out my state (TN).

Grim take on your family and neighbors.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#190

Post by vunderba »

pk-protect-ai wrote: post #79
themafia wrote: post #28

Why Steve Jobs and not the Apple II? Or even the iPhone? Alternatively why not Seymour Cray instead of the Cray-1? Or why not use one side for the inventor and the other side for the invention? Jobs sitting there in an empty field just throws the whole set for me.

Why not Wozniak (probably still alive), or Shannon (I'd vote for him), Convey, Knut, Reed, Solomon, Thompson, Ritchie, Kernighan, etc? Why it is a CEO? Why Jobs and Edison? It is just how it is...

I'd love to see Wozniak up there. From Al Alcorn, a pivotal computer scientist and electrical engineer employed in the early days of Atari:

"So, meanwhile, Steve’s friend Wozniak comes in the evenings. He would be out there during burn-in tests while these Tank games were on the production line, and he’d play Tank forever. I didn’t think much of it; I didn’t care. He was a cool guy.

I found that what really had happened was that Jobs never designed a lick of anything in his life. He had Woz do it [redesign Breakout].

Woz did it in like 72 hours nonstop and all in his head. He got it down to 20 or 30 ICs [integrated circuits]. It was remarkable… a tour de force.

It was so minimized, though, that nobody else could build it. Nobody could understand what Woz did but Woz. It was this brilliant piece of engineering, but it was just unproduceable. So the game sat around and languished in the lab."

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