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Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

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Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#151
post #107

[flagged]

The best direct reporting on this comes from Jobs himself in the so-called “lost” interview with Bob Cringely:

Jobs:

I had 3-4 people who kept bugging me that I ought to get my rear over to Xerox PARC and see what they were doing, and so I finally did. I went over there. And they were very kind, and they showed me what they were working on, and they showed me, But I was so blinded by the first one that One of the things they showed me was object-oriented programing. They showed me that, but I didn’t even see that. The other one they showed me was, really, a network computer system. They had over 100 Alto computers, all networked, using email, et cetera, et cetera. I didn’t even see that. I was so blinded by the first thing they showed me, which was the graphical user interface. I thought it was the best thing I’d ever seen in my life.

https://sameerbajaj.com/jobs/

NeXT was, at its core, about getting back to the other two things.

Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What a crappy thing to say to someone speaking honestly and passionately . I don’t worship the guy but I sure as hell consider myself lucky to have watched the iPhone announcement live on a webstream. It’s inarguably one of the most important products in human history. It changed all of our lives whether you own one or not. You can argue that someone else would have got there eventually, but Apple did it first and it…

> one of the most important products in human history

the pill (birth control) and the washing machine were the two single most significant products of the 20th century due to their role in liberating women. i can think of others (the light bulb, the car, the television). do you really believe the iphone compares (in terms of historical significance) to these products?

> And if it didn’t amaze you, I think you’re bitter and cynical.

it didn't amaze me because consumer electronics don't amaze me. sorry.

> I was on the team that delivered the first iPad and you wouldn’t believe how excited we were for the announcement as other companies introduced tablets that weren’t anywhere near as good during the months leading up to it.

being proud of your work is fine. assuming it is of historical importance is arrogant. sorry again.

Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#154
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You know many words can be used colloquially and not literally? Language is contextual and ever evolving. I’d also be hesitant to call people out for sloppy language when you can’t be bothered to even capitalize stuff.

> language when you can’t be bothered to even capitalize stuff

language and orthography are two very different things (language preceded orthography by hundreds of thousands of years).

Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#155
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple was NeXT but not anymore. All the NeXT people were pushed out. Turns out, most of the work was being done by the NeXT people. Probably when Scott Forstall gets stabbed in the back by Tim Cook, that was the end of the NeXT era of Apple.

Craig Federighi is still there, right? He had a lot to do with bringing together NeXT frameworks and enterprise database interfaces. If Tim Cook's successor is truly engineering oriented then we might see them work together to get the old buggy going forward again.

It's batshit that people still talk like apple is lost technically when apple silicon has absolutely crushed, airpods are the default headphone of the world, and macbooks are the best overall package available at all price points. And why? because they arent interested in VR and the glass aesthetic is kind of janky? Absolutely minor issues.

Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#156
post #7

Much respect to Steve and the engineers at Apple. However, I hate using a product from Apple that actually causes me physical pain after using it. The magic mouse. I use that for 10 minutes and my palm and wrist hurt badly. Many have experienced the same symptoms and yet Apple hasn’t changed its design. I get that Apple is creative. Do they change their product design based on feedback from actual users in their crea…

I’m so confused. Your complaint is that Apple don’t make a mouse that you like? Are you in some situation where you are being forced to use a Magic Mouse? Other manufacturers make mice in every form factor you can imagine. I don’t believe any apple product comes with a Magic Mouse bundled - you’re not forced in any way to buy one. Apple don’t make any headphones that I like. I don’t feel like this is a failing on App…

Magic Mouse isn't ergonomic. You can't use it plugged in. Its little ball gets dirty quickly and becomes hard to use. The buttons are hard to distinguish by touch.

Kind of surprising how bad it is since it's their official, heavily advertised option.

Thankfully the walled garden at least has ports for outside equipment.

Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must have missed the bit where Steve Jobs was trying to create “legion” of his offspring, supported far-right parties in Europe and tried to foment civil war in the UK. Guess I’ll have to buy the book

He isn't comparing Jobs to Musk in a general sense, but specifically the way Musk took over Twitter. Not that I agree with the point. But I wouldn't assume the poster thinks Jobs and Musk are similar in a broad sense.

Even then, Musk didn't cut fat and then produce multiple revolutionary products. He tanked Twitter's ad revenue and wound up with a much smaller business that had to get bailed out by SpaceX, otherwise it doesn't pay for the acquisition costs.

Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#158

> I think they’re still going to make great [software]. It’s just not going to be the cutting-edge anymore. This is what I see. The biggest test was the Vision Pro. Amazing hardware but only "another iOS" software vision for it, which is a tremendous dropped ball. Another toy-app/media kiosk with its service subscription lanyard. To me, the Vision Pro screams out that it wants to have a richer interface than a Mac, w…

[deleted]

Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#159
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craig Federighi is still there, right? He had a lot to do with bringing together NeXT frameworks and enterprise database interfaces. If Tim Cook's successor is truly engineering oriented then we might see them work together to get the old buggy going forward again.

It's batshit that people still talk like apple is lost technically when apple silicon has absolutely crushed, airpods are the default headphone of the world, and macbooks are the best overall package available at all price points. And why? because they arent interested in VR and the glass aesthetic is kind of janky? Absolutely minor issues.

The software isn't so good these days, even while the hardware has been the best in the world. Now that the guy responsible for the hardware will be CEO, maybe quality will come back to software too.

Re: Steve Jobs in Exile – New book on his years at NeXT Computer

#160
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know many words can be used colloquially and not literally? Language is contextual and ever evolving. I’d also be hesitant to call people out for sloppy language when you can’t be bothered to even capitalize stuff.

> language when you can’t be bothered to even capitalize stuff language and orthography are two very different things (language preceded orthography by hundreds of thousands of years).

You must be a hoot at parties. Getting to pick and choose what you and everyone else around you should care about and how they define terms to fit exactly what’s important to just you.

Orthography may be independent of language, but shockingly in society, it’s part of written language.

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