Steve Jobs Dies.

[Roccityroller]

First off, RIP.

Anyone who knows me knows i'm massively anti-apple. not because i'm an android elitest, not becaus I can't afford apple products, and not because i don't want to fall into the Hipster iCult. I don't like it because it is a binding technology that forces you to only interface with other Apple products and limits the customizability (within warranty) of YOUR product.

Anyone who knows me also knows I'm an engineer and a tech nut. I'm a proud engineer (i put enough damn work in and spent enough money on school that i'm allowed to be proud) and recognize that any advancement in technology is a step in the right direction. Steve Jobs helped to mainstream the 'smartphone', a technology that i use on a daily basis for everything from gaming to work. And for that, I respect the man.

Before we start in with all the 'easy' jokes to make (they keep coming to me as i type this), remember, without the work that Steve Jobs did with Apple and developing iOS, iPod, Iphone, iPad, iEverything, we wouldn't have Android, touch screen everything, and tablets as mainstream, 'affordable', and 'connected' as we do today.

So weather you are a Windows phone, Android, iOS, Mac, PC, Linux, or Blackberry user, take a second to remember and respect a man that truly revolutionized the way we all receive, view, and share information today.

RIP Steve Jobs. I hate your phones but I envy your desire and ability to advance technology far beyond what any of us could have imagined as little as 5 years ago.

[Roccityroller]

Interesting story about the birth of what we now know as the 'iSquare' (the shape of every iOS button)... Found on the Android Forums no less.


I remembered this story because it gives some insight at the kind of attention to detail he had:
Bill Atkinson worked mostly at home, but whenever he made significant progress he rushed in to Apple to show it off to anyone who would appreciate it. This time, he visited the Macintosh offices at Texaco Towers to show off his brand new oval routines, which were implemented using a really clever algorithm.

Bill had added new code to QuickDraw (which was still called LisaGraf at this point) to draw circles and ovals very quickly. That was a bit hard to do on the Macintosh, since the math for circles usually involved taking square roots, and the 68000 processor in the Lisa and Macintosh didn't support floating point operations. But Bill had come up with a clever way to do the circle calculation that only used addition and subtraction, not even multiplication or division, which the 68000 could do, but was kind of slow at.

Bill's technique used the fact the sum of a sequence of odd numbers is always the next perfect square (For example, 1 + 3 = 4, 1 + 3 + 5 = 9, 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16, etc). So he could figure out when to bump the dependent coordinate value by iterating in a loop until a threshold was exceeded. This allowed QuickDraw to draw ovals very quickly.

Bill fired up his demo and it quickly filled the Lisa screen with randomly-sized ovals, faster than you thought was possible. But something was bothering Steve Jobs. "Well, circles and ovals are good, but how about drawing rectangles with rounded corners? Can we do that now, too?"

"No, there's no way to do that. In fact it would be really hard to do, and I don't think we really need it". I think Bill was a little miffed that Steve wasn't raving over the fast ovals and still wanted more.

Steve suddenly got more intense. "Rectangles with rounded corners are everywhere! Just look around this room!". And sure enough, there were lots of them, like the whiteboard and some of the desks and tables. Then he pointed out the window. "And look outside, there's even more, practically everywhere you look!". He even persuaded Bill to take a quick walk around the block with him, pointing out every rectangle with rounded corners that he could find.

When Steve and Bill passed a no-parking sign with rounded corners, it did the trick. "OK, I give up", Bill pleaded. "I'll see if it's as hard as I thought." He went back home to work on it.

Bill returned to Texaco Towers the following afternoon, with a big smile on his face. His demo was now drawing rectangles with beautifully rounded corners blisteringly fast, almost at the speed of plain rectangles. When he added the code to LisaGraf, he named the new primitive "RoundRects". Over the next few months, roundrects worked their way into various parts of the user interface, and soon became indispensable.

[saunders420]

Respectable.

[Wiltzuh]

Vice words dude ! I give big respect for everything you just said.
I have probably all apple products they have ever made hahah but i totally agree that we wouldn't have touchscreen everywhere without that man.
Appreciate

R.I.P Steve Jobs

[replicant]

Always hated Apple stuff even when forced to use them in high school and college.
I still can't stand it and I probably never will. A couple of my friends are Apple techs which they never live down around me.
However, I do recognize Jobs as a very innovative person in the technology industry.
He still sucked at anything involving marketing in my opinion, but the man did have vision with his products.
Sad part is that everything now is in Tim Cook's hands even more.
He's another Bobby Kotick. They know how to get things done in business on the cheap, but have no care for the consumers or the world.

RIP Steve

[bengrover]

Wise words Roc. Personally, at first I had doubts on the iPhone, and iPad. Now my iPod, iPhone, iPad, all get used so frequently I'm not sure what I'd do without them.

But nobody seems to realise that even though you may never have touched an Apple product, what the man did will have effected them in some way. Everyone has their opinions on his products and the way he ran his business. But you can't deny he was a great innovator.

RIP.

Plus, didn't he have something to do with Toy Story? Anyone who helped bring that amazing piece of art to my world deserves all the respect I can give.

[emericaridr11]

I remember my families very first computer..... of course it was a Apple

damn shame, a Legend in my mind

[mamba12]

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/CuVqt5Y6nbx49KG.CkoFZw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/thelookout/Screen-shot-2011-10-06-at-11.14.16-AM.png

lol irony

[Seanne1986]

I had actually never heard of him before this news. Guess I'm a little slow when it comes to who runs which company etc =/


R.I.P Steve Jobs. Sure one of the people who made the world as it is today.

[Permy]

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/CuVqt5Y6nbx49KG.CkoFZw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/thelookout/Screen-shot-2011-10-06-at-11.14.16-AM.png

lol irony

who is that?
i get the irony but why is westboro relevant and what they do?

[mamba12]

westboro baptist church. religious nutjobs that picket funerals for american soldiers

[shortz]

RIP Steve Jobs. I hate your phones but I envy your desire and ability to advance technology far beyond what any of us could have imagined as little as 5 years ago.

great post, i feel the same way. cant deny he had a lot of drive and vision.

[skHate88]

They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. Unfortunately, Jobs didn’t have a flash player.

What’s the difference between Cancer and a black man? Cancer gets Jobs.

That's all i've got

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp1tnkjryA1qh192bo1_500.gif

[Ayreon]

never felt the need for an iphone or ipad. but I really liked my ipod before I dropped it in the snow, at night while I was drink and couldnt find it.
Dam i need a new one


RIP Steve.

[MarcoPoloUSN]

"Steve Jobs" is one of the smoothest names ever.

Respect.