Elsewhere via Techmeme.

Interesting home page at Boing Boing:
http://boingboing.net

If you have not seen it, I highly recommend the documentary by Robert Cringely called Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires that aired on PBS in 1996. Cringely made another documentary in the late 1990s about the Internet, but in my opinion, it's nowhere near as interesting as the first one.

This memorable interview was included in the 1996 Cringely documentary:

"Ultimately it comes down to taste. It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things in to what you’re doing. I mean Picasso had a saying he said good artists copy great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas ehm and I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians and poets and artists and zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."

Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC and "garnered" some ideas on how desktop computers should operate.

Here's part 3 of the 1996 Cringley documentary. This third part is called Great Artists Steal, which includes Apple's influence on computers. It's been a long time, since I've seen this. I recorded that documentary in 1996 and watched it many times back in the 1990s.

Fast forward to the 9:45 mark to get to the part about Jobs. "The most dangerous man in Silicon Valley."

created by jr on Oct 05, 2011 at 08:22:13 pm
updated by jr on Oct 05, 2011 at 09:11:41 pm Technology Comments: 8

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Comments ... #

That's unfortunate. Although I'm not too "high tech" or crazy into Apple products, I'll always remember him as an inovator for my time. RIP

posted by steve155 on Oct 05, 2011 at 08:29:31 pm #

posted by INeedCoffee on Oct 05, 2011 at 08:48:45 pm #

Jr: another good quasi-documentary to watch about him and Bill Gates is "Pirates of Silicon Valley".

posted by INeedCoffee on Oct 05, 2011 at 08:50:05 pm #

Bill Gates: :

I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.

posted by jr on Oct 05, 2011 at 10:59:32 pm #

Cringely :

Steve Jobs changed the way people live by making popular everything from desktop publishing to digital music, to revolutionary smart phones and computer-animated films. He changed forever the computer, music, and film industries, doing so through the simple expedient of better design. He redefined the notion of taste in an industry dominated by engineers and a general lack of style.

Jobs was a 21st century combination of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Sam Walton. As an aesthete, a corporate leader, a salesman and a wrangler of geeks there was no person in American business — maybe in the world — who compared to this adopted child of Syrian extraction. Yet who actually knew him? Almost nobody.

I’ll be writing more about Jobs in the coming days, but for now here is the best public moment of insight into this man, the commencement address he gave at Stanford University in 2005.

posted by jr on Oct 05, 2011 at 11:11:28 pm # 1 person liked this

One sentence i've read sums up the scope of his accomplishments and how profoundly he changed all of our lives:

"I saw the news of Steve Jobs’ death on a device that he invented"

How many people can claim that in all human history?

posted by hank on Oct 06, 2011 at 01:20:53 am # 3 people liked this

Measured by impact on world culture, business, and entertainment, he was nothing less than a Thomas Edison for this era.

posted by oldhometown on Oct 06, 2011 at 10:54:03 am #

He was a wiz at marketing, he didn't invent a lot of the things they sold, but his idea on design and marketing was outstanding. Most of what I've heard of him is he was a pain to deal with and could be very tempermental, but he did take a third rate company and turn it into a money maker thats for sure. I personally dont care for apple products but I will admit they are sharp, but the prices are steep.

posted by Linecrosser on Oct 06, 2011 at 12:00:58 pm #

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Steve Jobs - 1955-2011