'OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW' Given that the week started with Halloween, it was perhaps appropriate that the weird and wonderful was prevalent. In honour of All Hallow's Eve, a tech geek transformed his fruity fondleslabs into an, erm, interesting costume. A Berkeley boffin argued that because of Einstein's most famous equation E=MC², ebook readers get …
"Apple is not making a tablet"
"I'm getting rid of my hi-fi for the iPod Stereo"
"All iPhone applications will be done though the browser"
"Nobody reads books any more"
"Just change your app's name, no big deal"
"You're holding it wrong"
"The perfect TV interface; I've finally cracked it"
"Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow"
They see him trollin', they be believin'
Fuck you and the high horse you rode in on.
The mainstream media are a _caricature_ of the societies they pretend to represent, pandering to the extremes as the middle ground love to have something to point and laugh at. Said media do NOT speak for everyone.
Most of us are quite capable of buying Apple products without believing the late Steve Jobs to be some kind of cult religious figure. I don't genuflect and cry hallelujah whenever my MacBook Pro boots up. Nor do I run out and buy the very latest fruit-themed gadget just because it's there.
I've been using—and programming—computers since the early '80s, so I'm well aware of your own cult's particularly twisted logic that places technology for its own sake at the centre of IT, rather than users. And I want no part of it.
Extremists and fanatics often don't realise they are extremists or fanatics. These people are dangerous, regardless of the field they are fanatical about, be it religion, technology, or business. Jobs wasn't a fanatic in the way you are, Mr. Stallman. Jobs was certainly *singleminded*, which isn't quite the same thing. He was a "design and business nerd".
The _media_ have suggested Jobs invented everything singlehanded, but Jobs himself never made that claim. The media caricatured him and did all that entirely without his help. If you watch his keynote speeches, you'll know damned well Jobs was never shy about giving credit where it was due. For all his flaws, and he certainly had plenty, Jobs was no blinkered extremist.
The very fact that you appear to have bought into the media's caricatured portrayal of Steve Jobs is clear evidence that you're nowhere near as clever as you think you are.
What's all this I keep reading about Steve Jobs and design?
For a man obsessed with design, he sold some pretty mundane products. The Iphone looks much the same as most other mobile phones. The computers looks much like all computers (except for the ones that have a square mouse with a button missing). From a technical perspective they seem to be nothing special.
I think what Jobs had was a kings-new-clothes ability to convince people that superficial gloss is good design.
I almost agree with you 100%. Before iPhone, mobile users got to buy jpeg walpapers for their phones for £3 a piece and that was all the interaction phones offered. Often being spammed after first purchase with monthly subscriptions they weren't aware of. Plus the telcos were taking 50% of that for their stupid wap push technology, ads took another 30%, leaving 20% to content producer. Where's was Stallman then to complain about walled gardens?
Now for £3 I get 5 games, and the content producer gets to keep 70%, go figure...
Where I disagree with you is the fact that although Stallman is making an ignorant grumpy fool of himself, walled gardens aren't good.
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