RIP Steve Jobs

Post by **BackTrak** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 2:53 pm

I asked the guys at lunch yesterday:

Given all of the influence, fame and money that Steve Jobs commanded over a landmark career would any of you trade places with him, now that he's dead?

No one would. We all agreed that even without $8Bn, it's better to be alive.

In death, we all become equal.

Without Steve Jobs, there would not have been a toy story. Or would there? There still would have been a John Lasseter.

Would there be MP3 players? Yes. Would the music industry have had to make a sea change without iTunes? Yes. Would there have been tablet computers? Yes. Computer mice? Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

All these things would have come to be.

So his contribution was: He ran a company well.

The sad thing about a happy life, is you'll never get to see how it all ends.

sgt_baker · Post by **sgt_baker** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 3:02 pm

BackTrak wrote:QUOTE (BackTrak @ Oct 13 2011, 03:53 PM) So his contribution was: He ran a company well.

And allegedly did so by shouting lots, being generally cantankerous and all-but-literally pissing on anybody who opposed him.

So he was just like me, in other words. Imagine THAT!

KGJV · Post by **KGJV** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:46 pm

A real inventor and really very skilled guy, Dennis Ritchie, father of C and co-father of Unix, died yesterday.

But he'll barely get 0,001% media coverage of what Steve Jobs got... What an awesome world we're living in...

sgt_baker · Post by **sgt_baker** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 5:31 pm

KGJV wrote:QUOTE (KGJV @ Oct 13 2011, 05:46 PM) A real inventor and really very skilled guy, Dennis Ritchie, father of C and co-father of Unix, died yesterday.

But he'll barely get 0,001% media coverage of what Steve Jobs got... What an awesome world we're living in...

Yup. We remember the moguls and forget the geniuses. (or so it seems these days)

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 6:05 pm

geez.. so thats who ritchie was.. i just remembered the name from my Kernighan and Ritchie textbook back in college

sgt_baker · Post by **sgt_baker** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 6:10 pm

fwiffo wrote:QUOTE (fwiffo @ Oct 13 2011, 07:05 PM) geez.. so thats who ritchie was.. i just remembered the name from my Kernighan and Ritchie textbook back in college

"Bill and Ben" for CS undergrads?

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:45 pm

translated into a bunch of diff lang, scroll down for cover arts

http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/

sgt_baker · Post by **sgt_baker** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:10 pm

Yep. Same kinda reason one might keep hold of Tim Duncan's "Physics - A textbook for advanced level studies"

With the exception of personal interests in any given volume, the reason I (stole) kept it was that I recall my uncle studying basic physics in the very early 80's. Some years later, I was "allowed" to hang around in my uncle's perfectly-preserved room. (He's not dead or anything; my gran is just a tad odd)

I quickly found an awesome book describing all manner of things I'd never heard about before.

***10 years pass***

The physics book handed to me looks strikingly familiar.

fwiffo · Post by **fwiffo** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:27 pm

ah cool.. dont think we used that physics book, but this one was my pillow for most my freshman year:

thinking back... i kinda regret not going the cs path (went with ee instead). i could use a better cs foundation

HSharp · Post by **HSharp** » Thu Oct 13, 2011 9:53 pm

KGJV wrote:QUOTE (KGJV @ Oct 13 2011, 05:46 PM) But he'll barely get 0,001% media coverage of what Steve Jobs got... What an awesome world we're living in...

Looks like you might be off a few % points.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15287391
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/13/de...tchie_obituary/

granted not a big splash as Steve Jobs but it's nice that it's getting noticed.