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The world loses another visionary


Xtaz

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This was announced by Apple itself. The man who changed the way we interact with the computer, with music, with cell phones. He was probably died victim of pancreatic cancer which he struggled against for years. I'm very sad.

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I am surprised. I thought he was just slowing down.

 

I think he would qualify for the Walt Disney-level of important visionary.

 

I was thinking the same thing...I thought he had gotten his health problems reduced and just needed some time to recuperate.

 

I'll also echo his standing as a visionary...the world is totally different because of him. It's an incredible loss.

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A sad day. It seems reasonable that in the grieving process people will consider the effect losing Steve Jobs will have on the future. I hope everyone focuses more on celebrating his life over wondering about the future. The world was made better by this man and his life and legacy is well worth celebrating.

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I am surprised. I thought he was just slowing down.

 

I think he would qualify for the Walt Disney-level of important visionary.

 

I was thinking the same thing...I thought he had gotten his health problems reduced and just needed some time to recuperate.

 

I'll also echo his standing as a visionary...the world is totally different because of him. It's an incredible loss.

 

If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be typing this on my iphone that I purchased yesterday. His was a vision few have these days where people are scared to be truly innovative and not just rehash what's been done already.

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Steve Jobs was an extraordinary visionary, our very dear friend and the guiding light of the Pixar family. He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer animated films; the one thing he always said was to simply 'make it great.' He is why Pixar turned out the way we did and his strength, integrity and love of life has made us all better people. He will forever be a part of Pixar’s DNA. Our hearts go out to his wife Laurene and their children during this incredibly difficult time.

 

Statment from John Lasseter and Ed Catmull

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Even though I am not that much into Apple and their products I liked Steve and think he was a great guy. I am quite sure that someone else would have found equal good solutions if Steve wouldnt have done it, but he was one of the first and he had the vision and the assertiveness to do it...

 

Rest in peace Steve, you will not be forgotten.

 

See you

*Fuchur*

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eternal_flame.gif

image from http://xkcd.com/961/

 

it was 1995 (i think), the theatre i worked in invested in this sugarlump of a grey blob tower.

i'd seen friends work the cmd prompters on their pcs and couldn't yawn enough,

don't people have a life?

the sugarlump caught my full attention. i devoured the little manual, stayed late after work to play with it.

it was so easy, so much fun. two weeks later everyone came to me about it. "what's this.." "how do you.."

i've never had the resources for PodsPadsPhones or such, but Apple still changed my life.

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I don't think any of us in modern life have not been changed by his innovation mac tech 8 years pc 8 years ,reminds me quite certainly that the things that matter in life are the things you can't buy with money, bless Steve those closest to him and all of you as well !!!

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This was announced by Apple itself. The man who changed the way we interact with the computer, with music, with cell phones. He was probably died victim of pancreatic cancer which he struggled against for years. I'm very sad.

 

 

 

Don't be too sad, if you knew him, had a relationship with him or worked for him you wouldn't be shedding a tear. Visionary yes, changed the world, yes. Nice guy, no. He ruled with an iron fist. He was a dick way worse than Bill Gates and no where as generous. Bill Gates is also a Dick.

 

These are not nice people do not make that mistake. These people are feared in their respective circles and for good reason.

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Thank you Steve, for showing us what computers are truly capable of, and making it fun at the same time. No one else could have done what he did.

 

Bill Gates is not that far from him... he did many things Macs copied and visversa... I think without Bill, Steve wouldnt have been as huge as he has become and the other way around is although true...

The best superhero (I dont say that one of them is one) can't be that super if there is noone who challenges him...

 

And don't think too much about "Apple invented mp3-players, tablet-pcs, etc... they didn't, at least not alone... most innovations of that kind has been done in a way close to it by Archos and others... only the marketing and maybe sometimes the quality hold them back... all are telling me again and again "IPad was the first Tablet-PC"... just not true... Archos had their "Media Tablets" out before the Ipad was here... 5-7" touchscreen-devices with small applications (called widges, not apps so) with all kind of media-playback-possibilities (video and audio) with Wifi-connectivity to serve the web (with Flash!) and so on... they suffered from a less table OS, but they have been around much earlier (I am talking about years) than the IPad and other tablet-pcs...

Steve and Apple made them better and promoted them very well, but they didnt really invent the idea itself... same for IPod (mp3-players where there before... even HD-mp3-players (again Archos had one of the first once with massive 20 GB of space on a small HardDisc). Apple made them looking better, but I had those players way before the iPod headed into that direction and they worked quite well...

 

Still: Rest in peace... So I hate the fact, that WallStreet and Co overreacted to his death like they did... (yes it had although to do with the IPhone 4s, etc. but still...)

 

See you

*Fuchur*

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These are not nice people

that goes for millions.

 

but it always makes me wonder why so many would oppose someone brilliant.

if exploited, leave. you still have the employment on your cv, and can elaborate about your contribution,

and continue on that path.

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If he's really that bad then we were getting a good deal, we got the results of his visionariness... without having to live next door to him or work for him!

 

There's a bio of him due out in several months. We'll know more and filter that through whether it was written by a Kitty Kelly or a Ted Sorenson.

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I did not know the man personally or work for him, so I can't really comment about his dickishness. I have read a few things on the web since his recent passing, that if true, may validate that view.

 

I think that at least some of that behavior might be due to the stresses of running a business that large, and pleasing the board and shareholders in our quarter-to-quarter narrowly focused business world. I don't know that it is possible to run that type of empire and be nice. It might even be a detriment, when you are competing against people that operate at that level.

 

I would say some of his products were revolutionary, and I suspect Microsoft might have been content to stay where they were had they not had Apple around.

 

I am glad that he took a chance on Pixar. There might have been some other 3d studio in its place, but there is something special about Pixar.

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Don't be too sad, if you knew him, had a relationship with him or worked for him you wouldn't be shedding a tear. Visionary yes, changed the world, yes. Nice guy, no. He ruled with an iron fist. He was a dick way worse than Bill Gates and no where as generous. Bill Gates is also a Dick.

 

These are not nice people do not make that mistake. These people are feared in their respective circles and for good reason.

 

I thought it would be at least a few more days before everyone began to spit on his grave.

 

The statement from Pixar has been the most appropriate I've seen in that they thank Steve for his support and end with thoughts of his family. Funerals (and epitaphs) are for those who would rightfully shed a tear. The deceased no longer care.

 

You lower the bar considerably here Jason.

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There are always going to be haters. No matter who you are, or what you do. Best is to ignore them and succeed anyway.

Maybe Jobs wasn't a Fred Rogers (is there anyone that can say anything bad about that man? Truly a gentle soul) but he

did change the world. Lots of people like his computers. I'm not a Mac fan, myself, but do recognize that the innovations

at One Infinite Loop have influenced a great deal the equipment I do use.

 

Hopefully he is at peace now. At least he is no longer suffering. Cancer (particularly pancreatic) is no fun way to go.

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It's interesting to note the parallel between the death of Steve Jobs with the recent death of the leader of Canada's NDP party, Jack Layton. On the federal level, the NDP has always been in the shadow of Conservative and Liberal parties, until in the latest federal election where the NDP overwhelmed the Liberals to become the official opposition (2nd place party). Jack Layton was always positive, and always involved, and never gave up on a fight. He became a better leader and a better speaker as time went on. He was not liked by many, but as time went on, became more and more respected, even by those of other parties. As someone that emigrated to Canada, by the time I got my bearings in the country and learned something about politics, Layton had been the face of the NDP.

 

And now the same questions come about for the NDP and for Apple -- can they succeed without the visionary that defined them and made them what they are?

 

I know, the comparison only goes so far, and probably those outside of Canada won't care. But it's hard not to make the comparisons with the deaths of two passionate and iconic leaders just a couple of months apart.

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Well most of us only know the persona ---no rust, cracks or thorns ever seen....so for that person I know ----Memory Eternal --May his soul rest peacefully without the stress and pains of this life knowing well he made a mark on this place we call earth and to the extent few of us could ever dream of.

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And we're just hailing him as a visionary, not a saint or humanitarian.

 

Bill Gates will be remembered as a humanitarian. He's trying to do very helpful, positive things with his accumulated billions.

 

 

No one knows what the plan is with Job's money. Who is the biggest stockholder at Disney now... Mrs. Jobs?

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That man was one of the greatest visionaries in his field and what`s more imported, he managed to bring many of his visions to live.

What astounded me the most is, that nobody was able to copy that, not Sony, not Samsung, not Microsoft, not Nokia, though many things seemed so obvious in the afterthought.

 

But the easy looking is always the most difficult to achieve.

 

He must have been a though businessman on the other hand, as Jason pointed out ( and that should be allowed to say without being named to "spitting on someones grave").

 

While its always very sad, if someone has to go before his time, because one of these dreadfull illnesses, I don`t like this hype that is evolving now around his person: I mean, people bringing down candles and such in front of the big applestore in Hamburg like he was John Lennon or Lady Di.

But that`s the fault of these people and not of Steve Jobs`s.

 

I also feel very sad for his premature loss.

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It's interesting to note the parallel between the death of Steve Jobs with the recent death of the leader of Canada's NDP party, Jack Layton. On the federal level, the NDP has always been in the shadow of Conservative and Liberal parties, until in the latest federal election where the NDP overwhelmed the Liberals to become the official opposition (2nd place party). Jack Layton was always positive, and always involved, and never gave up on a fight. He became a better leader and a better speaker as time went on. He was not liked by many, but as time went on, became more and more respected, even by those of other parties. As someone that emigrated to Canada, by the time I got my bearings in the country and learned something about politics, Layton had been the face of the NDP.

 

And now the same questions come about for the NDP and for Apple -- can they succeed without the visionary that defined them and made them what they are?

 

I know, the comparison only goes so far, and probably those outside of Canada won't care. But it's hard not to make the comparisons with the deaths of two passionate and iconic leaders just a couple of months apart.

 

I agree, it will be most interesting to see what happens with regards to the NDP. Jack Layton was the leader of that party for as long as I can remember, I don't know if he's been the leader my whole life or not, but it would be crazy if he was. But overall, what will happen with both Apple and the NDP will be very interesting to follow

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  • 3 weeks later...

LOL, Gerry. And to think that must've seemed like some high tech back when you did the piece. :-)

 

I've been reading the Steve Jobs biography and it's interesting. Clearly many flaws in Mr. Jobs' character.

 

I'm reading it on my Kindle, so I have no clue about what page I'm on (it says I'm at 37%), but I'm in the "Act II" part where he's gone from Apple and is losing money hand over fist with NeXT and Pixar. Interestingly, the book says that as many cuts as Jobs made at Pixar, he couldn't bring himself to cut anything around the animation division. In fact, he would layoff people from the software/hardware side and then put that money into whatever the next animated short Lasseter was doing.

 

Jobs seems to have done this just because he loved what they were doing and the "art" of it. Yet it isn't occurring to him at this point to drop the hardware/software side. He's baffled that side isn't taking off, believing that every person would want to create 3D animation on their computer at home. :-)

 

The book also attributes George Lucas' decision to get rid of the computer animation division was that he was entangled in his messy divorce and needed the money. Jobs' $5M offer for Pixar was considerably less than what Lucas wanted, but he took it because he was in a bad way. On top of the $5M, Jobs agreed to invest $5M into the operation of Pixar. I remember hearing in that great Pixar documentary that was floating around a few years ago that Pixar was losing $1M every year before Toy Story.

 

I haven't gotten to that point in the book, but I wonder if he ever considered shutting it down. At this point, Jobs had spent a lot of his money and no new money was coming in.

 

Obviously, it worked out in the end, since Wikipedia says that in 2006, when Disney bought Pixar, it was valued at $7.4B.

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Don't be too sad, if you knew him, had a relationship with him or worked for him you wouldn't be shedding a tear. Visionary yes, changed the world, yes. Nice guy, no. He ruled with an iron fist. He was a dick way worse than Bill Gates and no where as generous. Bill Gates is also a Dick.

 

These are not nice people do not make that mistake. These people are feared in their respective circles and for good reason.

 

I thought it would be at least a few more days before everyone began to spit on his grave.

 

The statement from Pixar has been the most appropriate I've seen in that they thank Steve for his support and end with thoughts of his family. Funerals (and epitaphs) are for those who would rightfully shed a tear. The deceased no longer care.

 

You lower the bar considerably here Jason.

 

 

It wasn't a very high bar to begin with.

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So, according the book Jobs *did* look into selling Pixar. Oddly enough, one of the places he talked to was Microsoft. :-) At that time, Jobs had put in $50M of his own money and was just looking to break even.

 

When he left Apple, he had sold all but one stock, and had spent half of that money on starting NeXT. At the rate he was losing money, he didn't have nearly 60 years. :-)

 

That's what pushed him to make the deal with Disney to make Toy Story. And he was so frustrated with how bad a deal he thought that deal was that he made arrangements for Pixar to go public one week after Toy Story opened, gambling it would be the success it was. That gave them the money to be able to renegotiate their deal with Disney. Jobs hated that people were confusing the movie as a "Disney" movie. He felt Disney's contribution was only monetary and blamed Katzenberg's interference for taking the film over its $17M budget. Eisner said after the renegotiation, he and Jobs would fight over the type size of Pixar and Disney in relation to each other like they were 4 year-olds.

 

Toy Story's massive success and the amazing success of going public (Pixar made 5 times what Apple made when it went public) turned Jobs' fortune around. It certainly has to be part of why he would only take a $1 a year salary when he returned to Apple.

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