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Joining Apple 40 years ago

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Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#131

Post by MisterTea »

linguae wrote: post #45

I'm a big fan of Jean-Louis Gassée and I wish there were more visionaries like him in the personal computing industry. He helped push the Mac further during his tenure at Apple, and his work at BeOS also pushed the state of the art of personal computing. There are two major standouts in his career that I greatly appreciate: 1. His transformation of the Mac from the non-expandable appliance it was in the original 1984…

Spent many hours on BeOS and visited their booth at PCexpo in NYC around 1999. The big draw was the multimedia centric OS where the GUI always remained responsive. It also did things like allow you to open up a dozen AVI files on a single core sub 1GHz Pentium 2/3 and not have the computer grind to a halt. Instead the videos skipped frames and you continue to work on other programs. It was a pleasant experience compared to the rough shape of early Linux/BSD and the obtuse horror show that was Windows 95/98. We even had a somewhat working port of Netscape and there was some momentum building behind it. But then came Windows 2000 and Be sorta lost steam on the desktop and then went in some bizarre internet appliance direction and it was over shortly after.

Don't quote me on this but the another powerful feature was the decoupling of media codecs from programs. Adding support for a new media codec was as simple as dropping a .so lib file into a /lib/codec directory and all your media programs now supported that codec. This applied to all media including audio, video and images. This was all part of the BeOS API.

It also had a decent c++ API and multithreading was a first class concept in the system allowing one to easily write programs to take advantage of multiple processors. That allowed the machine to easily scale as you added more processors, something Windows 98 couldn't do at the time. This was well before the concept of multi-core. Back then you needed more sockets to add more processors and it wasn't cheap.

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#132

Post by ascagnel_ »

neogodless wrote: post #74
ascagnel_ wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I generally agree, I think MS has to copy Apple here, but not because they need to make the same products. The M1 chip was Apple planting the flag for consumer-level ARM performance, and every indication is that they'll be able to scale that performance up to more demanding use-cases. MS's fortunes are tied to Intel and Qualcomm for the time being, both of whom are falling behind on performance and performance/…

I wish there was a third entity in addition to Intel and Qualcomm that produced computer processing units that Windows would run on. Some kind of advanced micro devices that outperformed both Intel and Qualcomm would be really interesting to watch.

AMD has been doing great work over the past few years, but they've traditionally been a much smaller outfit (market cap for Intel is about 50% larger than AMD), and their work over the years has been off and on (they frequently compete more on price than anything else, although they did win the race to 1GHz two decades ago). I doubt it'd ever pass legal muster, but if Microsoft were to buy them (and their x86 license), I think they'd be able to do some very good work.

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#133

Post by [deleted] »

DSingularity wrote: post #103
supernova87a wrote: post #4

Can you imagine moving to the Bay Area in the 80s? To grow up when land was still cheap, before college competition was cutthroat and unaffordable, when relatively simple competence could get you a solid job and VC/PE firms weren't plundering and incentivizing the latest 30-second attention-span app to reach $1B? It would be me living in Los Altos now, instead of the old rich people who I curse for refusing to die or…

Wtf. Why do you curse old people for not dying? What is wrong with you? Do you feel the same about your parents? In 30 years when you are old, are you gonna move to Kansas and sell your property under market value to some younger people?

[deleted]

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#134

Post by nitrogen »

helen___keller wrote: post #81
coldtea wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tokyo’s population has increased 50% over the last twenty years and property prices have been flat That's because most live in glorified living room space, and many in "comfortable elevator" size houses...

Talking about the size of living space in a discussion of free marking housing costs is irrelevant. The only fact that matters is cost per unit area, the free market will decide how much area people are willing to pay for (assuming, of course, that there is a free market that is able to construct smaller or larger living spaces. Japan has one of these, whereas the United States typically does not thanks to most munic…

mandate a certain space between houses

Just want to note that this is in part for fire reasons...

require getting special zoning board approval to subdivide your lot

...and this is for traffic and services management.

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#135

Post by novok »

linguae wrote: post #58
JacobSuperslav wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's always an untapped place somewhere. in the 80s people were saying this about someplace else probably.

I'm curious about the untapped potential of other parts of California. Now that the pandemic has made remote work a necessity, I'm wondering if regions of California outside Silicon Valley will benefit from remote tech workers having more options in terms of residences. For example, Sacramento is a very popular destination for ex-Bay Area residents, and it appears to be a good location for people working remotely for…

If I wanted to stay in generic american suburbia while my location doesn't matter for my job, it's hard to justify staying in california.

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#136

Post by novok »

edoceo wrote: post #94
barry-cotter wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite. So increase supply. Build, build, build.

Or reduce demand. Move move move

And watch as the tax base to fund your pension plans and retirement evaporates away. This shit is eating your seed crop levels of stupid.

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#137

Post by chaostheory »

onethought wrote: post #23
mattlutze wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the time that's passed since then, you'd be one of the old rich person. Austin sounds like an up-and-coming Valley, as do a few other really gorgeous locations around the US. The trick is to pick one and settle in early.

I think Shenzhen is the new valley of 1980. (Though to the GP you’re probably already priced out of the housing market there too )

Unlike other places, people don't own land in China right? You can only lease it for x number of years. That changes the dynamics of the real estate market.

Pollution is also terrible with no end in sight.

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#138

Post by microtherion »

martin_balsam wrote: post #20
CyberRabbi wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting story but Jean-louis gassee is not the same person as Jean-marie hullot

Ops...my bad. I was wondering this morning why there seams to be a tradition at Apple to hire French engineers and executives.

If I may speculate wildly:

* France (and other French speaking countries) produce well qualified engineers.

* As others have pointed out, France can be perceived as a rather inhospitable place for entrepreneurial people.

* On the other hand, Apple may be a little bit more aligned with French values than other Silicon Valley companies: Pride of auteurship, opinionated design, and occasional stubbornness in the face of customer complaints. I think a French engineer will recognize a certain je ne sais quoi in "you're holding it wrong" ;-)

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#139

Post by shuckles »

nitrogen wrote: post #130
shuckles wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco rent control is below inflation, so it gets cheaper every year you stay.

If you stay in downtown SF in a "YIMBY"/new construction building, there's no rent control and the prices are astronomical. $3900ish for the cheapest studio in some buildings.

What does the location or construction date have anything to do with YIMBYism? In fact, YIMBYs probably believe that San Francisco's least desirable neighborhoods shouldn't be where all housing growth occurs.

Re: Joining Apple 40 years ago

#140

Post by egypturnash »

bovermyer wrote: post #61
mattlutze wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the time that's passed since then, you'd be one of the old rich person. Austin sounds like an up-and-coming Valley, as do a few other really gorgeous locations around the US. The trick is to pick one and settle in early.

Minneapolis is also gorgeous, and relatively cheap. There's a "greenway" for bikes and pedestrians that's a converted railway. It has a huge music and art scene. There are tons of local breweries and more than a handful of startups and big name companies with a presence there.

Good luck keeping it somewhere those musicians and artists can afford to live.
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