Ed Burdell

Sorry, brother. No offense meant to you and others at Big Blue. I just found it to be a soul sucking experience for me. YMMV, clearly.

csertich

Steve Jobs came to Memphis for his liver transplant. I'm also on the transplant list as well and we share the same doctors. The hospital staff that I know said he was a very gracious man, polite, not demanding like some captains of industry might be, etc. He came off as a regular guy to all who worked with him at the hospital.

It's a sad day. He did change our world dramatically.
chuck

Flying Finn

Visionary indeed but let's not get carried away, Thomas Edison he was not.

pstraub

No problem Ed, I understand. ALL big corporations are in business to make money....period. Some can do it and maintain a fairly high level of integrity, even contribute products that make the world a better place. I put companies like Apple, HP and IBM in that category. We know for sure there is no such thing as a perfect corporation, since they are all run by humans! All the best...

Ed Burdell

Oh, it wasn't really IBM's fault. They were just doing what they do. I just think different.

f8vr993

Everyone has a story.
His was just more roller coaster ride than many of us, average people.
I do admire the man for living it up in this world!
Here is my in the moment quote from him...
"Never satisfy with mediocrity" sound kind of like where we are as American right now!

jmiller10012

I had the opportunity to spend 30 minutes with Steve Jobs when I was a grad student at MIT in 1993. What an amazing conversation - Steve was all the antagonist and provocateur that he was made out to be - he implored me to take the road less traveled. And he was right.

I was never an Apple fan until a few years ago - now the whole house is just about Apple.

600RR

Some harsh words about Apple. New iPhone may be the most profitable version. Before dissing it, check out the features and cost. Short Apple - are you serious? or just looking for losses?

mrsullivan

Actually I couldnt disagree more. And if we really wanted to get factual about the impacts of both, I could make the case that Jobs is MORE than a modern day Edison.

He did nothing short of changing the world...forever. Very sad loss. I hate cancer. Plague of the 21st century.

goofballdeluxe

Didn't Edison invent the lightbulb (and a bunch of other things)? That's pretty profound. I'd hafta give Edison and the lightbulb a leg up over the iPad or iPod, which aren't nearly as profound, I'd say.

Nothing against Jobs, but he didn't invent the computer, did he? And as fun as the iPhone and iPod are, they're mostly just entertaining gadgets, not really a game changer the way the lightbulb was, are they?

I suppose had Jobs invented the cell phone (he didn't), the computer (again, I don't think he did) and the portable music player (he didn't), one could make a case for him being one of the greatest inventors, but what he seems to be is someone who just made entertaining gadgets that much better and entertaining. Not an inventor of great things perhaps, but a great innovator to be sure.

Sure is a loss, regardless. Many people are profoundly attached to his gadgets, that's for damn sure.

mrsullivan

I credit him with the PC... Many will debate that. It's not about the iPod or cell phone

asofine

It somewhat depends on how you interpret the word "invent." Steve Jobs was not the first person to ever assemble what we would call a computer. He was, however, the first person to market a personal computer to the consumer market, which arguably changed the world greater than any other "invention" during the 20th century. With regards to the personal music player, again, no, he didn't "invent" it, but he forever changed the way we consume media with iTunes. Not quite as profound as the light bulb, sure, but nonetheless pretty incredible.

As an aside, Edison was oft accused of piggy backing on the work of others with respects to his inventions. The Jobs vs. Edison debate aside, I do personally credit the "invention" of the personal computer to Steve Jobs, which alone is enough to put him in the conversation of greatest "inventors"/innovators in recent memory.

Lorenfb

"I do personally credit the "invention" of the personal computer to Steve Jobs"

"the first person to market a personal computer to the consumer market"

Not really!

Need to check the history of the late '70s early '80s, e.g. MITS, Compaq,
and many, many others were all significant PC developers. Really have
to credit Intel with the development of the 1st microprocessor (4004)
or none of the present day devices (iPods, PCs) would not exist. Now
that was a true and major invention!

It wasn't until the internet/email came about that a true consumer market
developed for a PC and both Apple and Win PC benefited. Prior to that,
the typical consumer saw no value in a device that just did word processing,
spreadsheets, accounting, & etc. Most considered those with PCs out of the
ordinary and a little strange back then.

Most seem to forget that Apple only started to gain momentum since the iPod
(~ 10yrs ago) and significantly since the iPhone (2007). The Macs never had
(and still don't) have a major market share in the PC market. Samsung and
Viewsonic both had tablets before the iPad, and Jobs denigrated their designs.
The iPad basically required minimal development, as it's just a 10 inch iPod
Touch or a scaled iPhone less the phone.

Steve Jobs was Apple and deserves a lot credit for what Apple is today!
As an Apple user (and Win PCs) with basically all their products (from the
Apple IIe to an iPad), I value what Jobs/Apple have contributed to technology.

mrsullivan

People will want to get precise about who invented the technology for the PC, the hardware, the manufacturing, etc. That wasnt Steve Jobs. I agree. But the innovation of the form factor, content, capabilities, etc. that led to the commercialization of the PC, that eventually led to so many advancements, knowledge, information in far corners of the world, etc. is all Steve Jobs. The proliferation of usable mobile computing, etc. has got nothing to do with anything but Apple. Anyway, I guess we should let the man pass in peace and not create a debate about his contributions.

Ed Burdell

Before Steve Jobs, computers were either room-filling machines or things for hobbyists or typewriters with a crt screen. Only afterwards (and it took a few tries - anything pre-Mac weren't that earth-shattering) they became things you needed and wanted. Same for music and phones. His true inventions were the paradigm shifts wrought by his devices.