Posted on 10/06/2011 9:56:45 AM PDT by Shalmaneser
Steve Jobs is dead.
I'm saddened. Besides the grief his family and loved ones must feel, his death brings a loss to the world. He was a true innovator. Apple products and the technologies derived from them have reordered our way of living. While Jobs did not invent either the personal computer or the graphical interface operating system, the PCs and personal digital devices he created implement these in a way that has had an impact on society equal to that of the automobile, telephone, and antibiotic drugs. I used Apple products exclusively throughout my thirty years as a graphic designer and illustrator, and (although I am a Windows user now) it is safe to say that I would not have had a career as a professional artist without Mr. Jobs and his magic computer machines.
And yet...
I have always had mixed feeling about the Apple Revolution. While Apple PCs and devices have led the way to our current world of interconnectedness and immediacy, I wonder if this has been entirely for the good. Think about it: Apple products put the Internet, texting, entertainment downloading, social media, and many other things at our fingertips. As a result, the world has become more convenient and more connected. But has it become better? Have Apple's wares helped us to become more free, more kind-hearted? Have they helped us to be better people?
One can make a good case that they have not. The world of chatrooms, comments threads, kitty-cat pictures, and Facebook pages is a bright, fun place when looked at out of the corner of one's eye. Repeated viewing -- especially up close -- will, however, reveal the darker side of the Information Age. We are more connected to one another than ever before -- and the ugliness that lurks within the human heart is more openly displayed. We can each design and create more easily than ever before -- but few would argue that our world has become better-designed or more beautiful than it was pre-Apple. And the personalization of computing has put unlimited knowledge at the fingertips of every man -- and knowledge is, they say, power.
But while the Mac, iPhone, and iPad have given us power, they have also taken it away. With them we have access to essentially unlimited knowledge of the world around us; the world around us. And with them, the world around us now has access to essentially unlimited knowledge about each of us. From one point of view, the iPhone and iPad are powerful tools for communication, education and entertainment. From another, they are the most powerful intelligence-gathering tools ever devised. Thanks to Steve Jobs and the iWorld he has created, the Powers That Be no longer have to gather intelligence on you and me. We build our own dossiers now!
Is that a good thing?
Apple's logo is an apple with a bite -- byte, get it? -- taken out of it. While this means nothing of itself, I have always wondered why so few people associate the logo with the Biblical story it brings to mind. It was, after all, by means of an apple that man became an enemy of God.
And the Forbidden Fruit was not the company's original logo. The first design was much more interesting from an esoteric viewpoint. It depicts Isaac Newton (Freemason and astrologer) sitting under a tree with an apple dangling above his head. The apple, as we all know, is about to fall, and its impact will enlighten (illuminate) Newton and the rest of the world. The motto on the original logo reads "A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought … Alone.”
The original price of Apple I was $666.66. No, really.
Steve Jobs got everything he wanted. He also died awfully young. That sort of life occasionally happens here on poor old planet Earth, and I suppose it's something to be celebrated. But I can't help but be reminded of another story when I read the amazing tale of the late Mr. Jobs. And as Apple products become more and more central to our lives, I can't help but wonder if there might have been something more than a shrewd mind behind the company's rise. It's a long, long way from the obscurity of a garage to the most valuable company in the world. History is full of men who were willing to deal with the Devil to gain such false success.
But there is absolutely no reason to think the late founder of Apple Computer was one such man. Rest in peace, Steve Jobs -- and thanks for the great computers.
Apple admit Briton DID invent iPod, but he’s still not getting any money
‘Apple has finally admitted that a British man who left school at 15 is the inventor behind the iPod.
Kane Kramer, 52, came up with the technology that drives the digital music player nearly 30 years ago but has still not seen a penny from his invention.
And the father of three had to sell his home last year and move his family to rented accommodation after closing his struggling furniture business .
Now documents filed by Apple in a court case show the US firm acknowledges him as the father of the iPod.
The computer giant even flew Mr Kramer to its Californian headquarters to give evidence in its defence during a legal wrangle with another firm, Burst.com, which claimed it held patents to technology in the iPod and deserved a cut of Apple’s £89billion profits.
Two years ago, Mr Kramer told this newspaper how he had invented and built the device in 1979 – when he was just 23.
His invention, called the IXI, stored only 3.5 minutes of music on to a chip – but Mr Kramer rightly believed its capacity would improve.
His sketches at the time showed a credit-card-sized player with a rectangular screen and a central menu button to scroll through a selection of music tracks – very similar to the iPod.
He took out a worldwide patent and set up a company to develop the idea. But in 1988, after a boardroom split, he was unable to raise the £60,000 needed to renew patents across 120 countries and the technology became public property.
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