n72.75
Seize the means of computation
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Rest in Peace Steve.
Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple dies !!
- Thread starter Yoda
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What influence did Jobs have in the creation of Orbiter-Forum? Let alone Orbiter..?
None.
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Artlav
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A tribute by Xkcd:
Jarvitä
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I don't get it.
RisingFury
OBSP developer
Ghostrider
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Were it not for the Jobs, the Gates, the Tramiels, the Bushnells, the Wozniaks, the Miners and other folks like them we wouldn't have Orbiter because, quite simply, the Home Computer Revolution would have never happened.
It's just too bad that some of them (including Jobs) at one point decided that the revolution had to be stopped in its tracks.
It's just too bad that some of them (including Jobs) at one point decided that the revolution had to be stopped in its tracks.
Ark
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Lets just start with Apple turning iOS into the absolute opposite of an open-source, startup-friendly platform. They run their app store like the freakin Mafia, nobody gets to sell anything without their express say-so.
Then throw in constant measures to prevent people from using their iProducts in any way not specifically permitted and designed by Apple's management. The Apple of today forces top-down control over everything their customers do, and constantly engages in anticompetitive practices like using stupidly vague patents to sue their competitors out of the marketplace. Jobs was a visionary that revolutionized personal computing...20 years ago. Recently he was just head of the tech industry's version of the Galactic Empire.
Speaking for myself, I will never buy another Apple product, not when there are other platforms out there that are friendly to modders, customizers, and startups.
Well, yes of course. There are all sorts of choices. Ones locked down like the evil empire in star wars. Then there's platforms open like the free love thing from the 1960's.. Take your choice! It is your right to choose! Whatever floats your boat. Or gives you delta-V.
I, personally, like the iPod products. Trouble-free music, I've had, for years and years. Consistent interface, clean, stable, it just works. Simple, straightforward. Simple enough that my sister can use it (and that in and of itself says a lot about apple products).
Prior to when I got my iPod in 2003/2004 I had nothing but frustration in going from cassette-based music to digital music. None of the interfaces were versatile enough or consistent. Too proprietary were many.. In fact. I was so brainwashed *against* Apple products that I spend months looking for an alternative to iTunes without even giving it a chance. And that was another mistake. Listening to idiot fanbois. Ha!!
Well I gave up after a year, and just used the iTunes product for the heck of it. I was pleasantly surprised. And you know, iTunes has the same look now as it did when it first came out. There's been some tweaking here and there like changing icons. But the whole program has the exact same look now in 2011/2012 as it did in 2003. And it works the same way.
I didn't like loading modules and drivers and messing with config files, like when setting up win-amp to transfer music to the iPod. A mess, really. Nothing was refined or elegant about it. Nothing. Tedious too.
I like stuff to just work. If I want to mess around with stuff I'll play the various sandboxes like orbiter or flight simulator. But to accomplish a specific task - just make it easy and consistent. Clear. To me, that is invaluable. I really don't like beta-testing new software. Itunes isn't beta. it isn't confusing. And I can count on it being that way, and working the same way, for years to come. Some things work better with an iron-fist behind them. Others do not.
Thanks Mr. Jobs!
Regarding 20 years ago.. Make that 30 years ago, with the introduction of the Apple II. Woz made that machine, a lot of him is in it. The Apple II was revolutionary and a showcase for excellence when it came to doing so much with so little. Woz made a product that kicked the industry forward big-time. Then came the DISK ][ drive. Totally amazing! Doing even more with less!
Thanks Mr. Woz!
There is more to it than that, but we're getting beyond the subject of this thread.
For the record, I'm not a fanboi of anything really. I just use what works, for me.
I, personally, like the iPod products. Trouble-free music, I've had, for years and years. Consistent interface, clean, stable, it just works. Simple, straightforward. Simple enough that my sister can use it (and that in and of itself says a lot about apple products).
Prior to when I got my iPod in 2003/2004 I had nothing but frustration in going from cassette-based music to digital music. None of the interfaces were versatile enough or consistent. Too proprietary were many.. In fact. I was so brainwashed *against* Apple products that I spend months looking for an alternative to iTunes without even giving it a chance. And that was another mistake. Listening to idiot fanbois. Ha!!
Well I gave up after a year, and just used the iTunes product for the heck of it. I was pleasantly surprised. And you know, iTunes has the same look now as it did when it first came out. There's been some tweaking here and there like changing icons. But the whole program has the exact same look now in 2011/2012 as it did in 2003. And it works the same way.
I didn't like loading modules and drivers and messing with config files, like when setting up win-amp to transfer music to the iPod. A mess, really. Nothing was refined or elegant about it. Nothing. Tedious too.
I like stuff to just work. If I want to mess around with stuff I'll play the various sandboxes like orbiter or flight simulator. But to accomplish a specific task - just make it easy and consistent. Clear. To me, that is invaluable. I really don't like beta-testing new software. Itunes isn't beta. it isn't confusing. And I can count on it being that way, and working the same way, for years to come. Some things work better with an iron-fist behind them. Others do not.
Thanks Mr. Jobs!
Regarding 20 years ago.. Make that 30 years ago, with the introduction of the Apple II. Woz made that machine, a lot of him is in it. The Apple II was revolutionary and a showcase for excellence when it came to doing so much with so little. Woz made a product that kicked the industry forward big-time. Then came the DISK ][ drive. Totally amazing! Doing even more with less!
Thanks Mr. Woz!
There is more to it than that, but we're getting beyond the subject of this thread.
For the record, I'm not a fanboi of anything really. I just use what works, for me.
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Ghostrider
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Let's put the wayback machine to, about, 1975 with the beginning of the Home Computer Revolution. If you haven't lived there, you will have a hard time understanding it. You couldn't just buy a computer, go home, and do much: no fancy GUIs, no in-built apps (back in the days we used to call them "programs"). You had to learn. You had to tinker. What you would call now a medium-to-advanced user had to be a hacker. Hacking was encouraged. My very first machine, a Commodore VIC-20, came with a book that explained every single function call in its OS. There were detailed schematics. This was more or less true for every platform including one of the most popular one - the Apple ][.
What made the Apple ][ fortune was the ability of many third-party manufacturers to build peripherals and add-on boards that the then small Apple Company couldn't make. The Apple ][ had hundreds of third-party hardware add-ons that enhanced everything from character set to sound, game ports, you name it and some little garage-based lab would make it. And software, there weren't licenses there. You didn't come groveling with cash in hand to be a developer, you wrote your stuff and sold it. There was a lot of shovelware but the Apple market had some of the best software ever, including VisiCalc which pretty much turned the Home Computer from hobbyist machine/smart toy into business powerhouse.
Now, Apple has pretty much bulldozed the garden and put a six-feet wall around it. Where will the next generation of programmers learn to tinker on? On tablet computers? When everybody only buys those, where will open-architecture machines go? And when a budding programmer has to fear being sued into the gutter by some megacorps that claims rights over square roots, unless he works for that megacorp, what's going to happen to small hobbyist developers?
One could say, that's the market, that's what people want, deal with it. Yeah, and if it were just for market forces we would all be analphabets because people didn't want to make the effort to learn the written word. Mind you, we're headed that way. Any Italian-speaking Orbinaut here knows the debasing our beloved language is suffering because of Mariadefilippization.
I remember back then I had written a terminal program to display, in "real-time", the streaming data from the Voyagers that JPL had made available. As a pic would come in, they'd post it, and we'd download it. At 300 baud, it took us like 15 minutes for a hi-res image to come down to us.
It was a big stink then, because all this was done in BASIC with Peeks and Pokes and calls to the 2kb firmware on the modem card. There were also some tiny M'L programs to push data quickly from here to there. And the entire 'experiment' was controlled with standard easy-to-use BASIC.
I still have all my original hardware from those days. And the programs too!
Right now, the iPod is about as high-tech I'll go. It's practical, it works, it fits my needs.. blahh blahh.. And it's a 10 year old design.
Today, everything, for some reason, needs to be fast and sterile. Why that is I don't know. Nor do I care much for it. I just don't participate in it as much.
It was a big stink then, because all this was done in BASIC with Peeks and Pokes and calls to the 2kb firmware on the modem card. There were also some tiny M'L programs to push data quickly from here to there. And the entire 'experiment' was controlled with standard easy-to-use BASIC.
I still have all my original hardware from those days. And the programs too!
Right now, the iPod is about as high-tech I'll go. It's practical, it works, it fits my needs.. blahh blahh.. And it's a 10 year old design.
Today, everything, for some reason, needs to be fast and sterile. Why that is I don't know. Nor do I care much for it. I just don't participate in it as much.
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