Steve Jobs dies at 56

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Steve Jobs was a genius in the way Walt Disney was a genius.
He invented very few things himself, but surrounded himself with extremely creative people.
He took things that already existed and made them more appealing.
He could be a terrible boss, yelling at employees and belittling them.
He demanded complete control, and held onto it tightly.
He was photogenic, and comfortable with being the front man for his company.

Walt took the idea of amusement parks, and cleaned it up for the whole family. Steve took the idea of personal computing and cleaned it up and made it easy for people to use.

Walt understood that families wanted movies they could go to together. Steve understood that people wanted to download music safely and easily.

I think it would be entirely appropriate that Apple should put an animatronic Steve in the foyer of their headquarters.

He didn't really invent a lot of things, did he? He just had a cadre of engineers who made thing work like they ought to. My Windows computer and my Mac are like autos. My Windows computer is like an old Triumph, when it starts, it sputters, and it's always a question of whether it will bring up the program I clicked on or not. I might be in the middle of working on a Photoshop project and it locks up. My Mac is like a Nissan, it always starts, always brings up the program I click on, and doesn't cut out when I'm working on something.
But isn't that sad?
A man is hailed as a genius because he made sure things ACTUALLY work. It's really a testament to how the market will embrace something that is a piece of crap. I went out and bought a digital music player back in 2002 when the iPod was big. I think it was made by Sony. It was an utter piece of crap. It was covered with buttons that performed one function, press button A twenty times to get the song you want to hear. The software was better left undescribed. My iPod does everything it should, with simple controls and simple software.
But isn't that a sad statement to make ??

who would "steve jobs" have been if he had lived to 116 years old? what would he have been able to do?

sometimes it may be better to say "good afternoon" or "good morning" or "good day" or "good night" (depending on the time of day that final retirement from society is established because of the knowledge of imminent death), and retire from all public arenas as one descends into a terminal phase of reduction of their fundamental capacities and faculties. one can not hang on and be in the world when one is being raped by death.

it is sad i can imagine, but my imagination is feeble, and i will not bother thinking about this matter again for a very long time.

i wish there were interesting threads to post to.

^^ you're all correct. but what Steve Jobs had accomplished in terms of GUI design was ground-breaking and revolutionary, and the end product being probably the only one totally, utterly instinctive GUI, user-wise, ever made so far. it doesn't matter whether or not he was the creator - he was the mastermind and his magic was in the choice of the ideas and the people who enabled those ideas to come to life.

his personal life choices have nothing to do with any of this, and whoever feels like they have the right to hold him to the highest standards should probably look into the mirror first.