Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

[sa547]

Well, those who work with technology, whether they like or hate Jobs, whatever OS or platform they're using, or they don't know much about him except he's the face of Apple for years, there's a reason for some techs, including me, to be much concerned. Whatever he does, his company's decisions and products have far-reaching influence that's impossible to ignore (and sometimes entertaining, with flame-baiting advertisements back in the day that reminded me of wrestlers dissing each other before grappling).

Right now, we wonder where that company would be heading once they have to move on with the passing of their leader... and I guess though there's uncertainty ahead, Apple may have to make use of any helpful suggestions coming from their fan community to survive.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Truly a devastating loss. Not just to the technology industry... not just to the United States, but indeed the entire world. He changed the way the world thinks about not only technological gadgets, but also computers and global communication. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a PC user, but Steve Jobs is undeniably a genius, a legend of our times.

I got an iPhone 4S for my birthday this year. Rest in peace, man. You will be sorely missed.

@sa547: Steve Jobs appointed the successor. Even if the company loses some of its headway in terms of innovation for the short term, there are others to carry the banner, so to speak. As long as they keep the mindset of "people will want what we make" and continue to challenge our (the consumers') expectations, they'll be fine.

[sa547]

I know. It's just that it'll remains to see how the new CEO would measure up to the new age.

[Malkuth]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

I think the main criticism of Apple among techies is how their product is inherently a "black box", a closed system. As a user you have no influence over your hardware, and little over the software. The PC, by contrast, is an open platform. If you want you can take your PC apart, change the parts, put in a new OS, whatever. It requires little knowledge to do so, and what knowledge you need is all out there and easily accessible.

For HW, I can partially agree, desktops were easy to modify, if there were drivers from the manifacturers for your OS, but laptops were a pain. Then over time laptops became so cheap, that you can just buy a new one, or in the case of MacBooks they had such higher quality (at a price of course) that you needn't to.

For SW, I completely disagree, since the move to NEXT OO core, OS X is no harder to program even at the closest to hardware levels than any *nix OS, not to mention that the core is open-source. Another bonus in my book, are the higher level APIs in Obj-C are just a joy to work with, especially on the Macs, since iOS still uses memory referencing, or at least last time I worked on it.

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

I think it rankles a lot of us how apple claimed to be going "beyond" the PC, that the PC would die. Personally, while the exact standards defining how PCs are built is bound to change, I don't think the future is closed systems like the Apple, I think the true future isn't in "boxed" electronics like Apple products, or even even consoles like the PS3, the future is in the PC. In the future, every computer will be a PC.

As long as we understand that PC is not Intel X Microsoft, I agree, but very few even in the industry can make that distinction

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

The other element is how Apple has this whole "anti-establishment" credibility among hipsters, that Apple isn't part of the corporate machine like Microsoft is. While Microsoft is a frequent target for it's many anti-competitive practices, and lack of OS transperency, Apple makes Microsoft look saintly. At least Microsoft doesn't control what hardware you use. Likewise Microsoft exerts significantly less control over what software you can use compared to Apple products like the IPad or IPhone.

Microsoft does something worse it controls what software you will use

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

If I'm going to pick the Software corporation I'm going to swear loyalty to, I'll go with Google first. At least Google has consistently shown a commitment to open standards, open software and independent hardware platforms, even if I prefered that they did a bit less data mining.

Google isn't really much better these days, I still remember my shock when I learned that extensions to Chrome written outside Google legally belong to Google.

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

The Apple future of computing is not one I desire, I don't want my computing experience to be dictated by a single company. I like having the graphics cards of ATI, with the processors of Intel, with an Iomega hard drive, a Samsung display and a Linux OS (or Microsoft etc.). Not whatever Apple happens to choose.

Despite making completely different choices in companies, I completely agree with your rationale. For me Jobs while in 80s Apple, but especially during the NEXT/pixar period, lead teams of talented and unconventional developers to the creation of some amazing hardware and software, during the last decade, he lead teams of designers and salesmen to the creation of some popular products (good, but not as innovative and lasting as the first two decades). He himself did not do anything, but that's the role of leader, not to create but to envision, manage, and drive the capable people.

[ArrowSmith]

Basically the combination of Jobs as visionary + Jonathan Ive's design talent is what has made Apple the behemoth they are today. Jobs was smart enough to give Ive everything he needed and get out of his way.

[subwaygyal]

great ideas frm a great mind who was a great man that will be greatly missed :'(

[Siegel Clyne]

'Steve Jobs,' by Walter Isaacson: review - SFGate

"Jobs saved enough money for a half-year pilgrimage to India, and seriously considered moving to Japan to train as a Buddhist monk. But his Los Altos Zen master, the late Kobun Chino Otogawa, persuaded him to stay in Silicon Valley, where he founded Apple Computer instead."

Zen Buddhism and Steve Jobs - Issues in Perspective

First, Steve Jobs was a man of much inner turmoil and unsettledness. He told Isaacson that “For most of my life, I’ve felt there must be more to our existence than meets the eye.” Much of his early childhood was spent searching for that “unseen something.” Isaacson relates that when he was 13 years old, he talked with a Lutheran pastor about human suffering and starving children. The pastor did not give him satisfactory answers so he refused to attend church again. He then turned to Eastern mysticism, to meditation and to even psychedelic drugs. He also began to study Zen Buddhism. He especially focused on the lectures of Shunryu Suzuki, a Zen master from America. In 1974, Jobs travelled to India in search of a guru that could serve him personally. According to Daniel Burke of USA Today, “Upon returning [from India] he found one in his hometown of Los Altos, California, where a Suzuki disciple, Kobun Chino Otagawa, had opened the Haiku Zen Center. Jobs and this Zen master quickly forged a bond, discussing life and Buddhism during midnight walks. ‘I ended up spending as much time with him as I could,’ Jobs told Isaacson. ‘Zen has been a deep influence in my life ever since.’” In 1976, Steve Jobs ended his regular practice of Zen Buddhism. His work at Apple was consuming more and more of his time. Nonetheless, his contact with Kobun continued. Indeed, Kobun officiated at his wedding in 1991. When Kobun died of drowning in 2002, evidence indicates that Jobs took this death very hard. According to Isaacson’s biography, as reported by Burke, Jobs believed that Zen meditation taught him to concentrate and ignore distractions: “He also learned to trust intuition and curiosity—what Buddhists call ‘beginner’s mind’—over analysis and preconceptions. More visibly, Apple’s sleek, minimalist designs reveal Jobs’s zeal for Zen aesthetics—the uncluttered lines of calligraphy and Japanese gardens, according to Isaacson’s book.”

AppleInsider | Steve Jobs' love affair with Japan

Jobs didn't rely on austere external beauty alone and another Japanese influence played a part in creating the technologically progressive internals of products Apple would release. Sony co-founder Akio Morita was a noted friend of Jobs, and the Apple chief said that he was inspired by the excitement behind the Japanese firm's transistor radios and Trinitron TVs.

Another takeaway from Sony was Jobs' signature black mock turtleneck and jeans "uniform" that was inspired by Sony's requirement for an employee dress code. Japanese designer Issey Miyake was commissioned to produce hundreds of the shirts, which Jobs wore for the rest of his life.

Outside of business, Jobs simply enjoyed most everything Japan had to offer. From the culture to the food, he was enamored; often taking trips to the country's old capital of Kyoto to soak-in the surroundings and eat the food

Even though he lived on a vegan diet, Jobs often made exceptions for Japanese fare like sushi and soba noodles. The chef of Café Mac, Apple's cafeteria, was sent to the Tsukiji Soba Academy to learn the art of soba making. Jobs reportedly even created his own concoction called "sashimi soba," or raw fish with buckwheat noodles.

In the U.S., Jobs would frequent Japanese establishments, being a regular at Jinsho, a Silicon Valley sushi-ya and Keigetsu, a sushi and kaiseki restaurant. The eateries ultimately became the spots where he would bring close friends and family to say goodbye before he passed away on Oct. 5, 2011.

And so forth.

Steve Jobs's frequent visits to Kyoto and his admiration for Japanese culture explain why the Temple of the Golden Pavillion (Kinkaku-ji) and the Ryouanji Rock Garden at Ryōan-ji, two Japanese Zen Buddhist temples located in Kyoto, appear in the Nature section of Desktop Pictures for Mac OS X Leopard, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Mac OS X Lion, etc.

I have the Kinkaku-ji Temple and the Ryōan-ji Rock Garden among the images rotating in random order on the desktops of my Early 2011 MacBook Pro 17" laptop and my Mid 2010 Mac mini Server.

Well, Steve Jobs is just one of many in the West who has been influenced by Japan - its art, design, people, and culture - ranging from American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, American Arts and Crafts architects Charles and Henry Greene (developers of American bungalow homes and ultimate bungalows), American artist James Abbott McNeil Whistler, American artist Mary Cassatt, French Impressionist painter Édouard Manet, French Impressionist painter Claude Monet, French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas, French Impressionist composer Claude Debussy, French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gaugain, French Post-Impressionist artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh, etc., to Irish playwright, poet, essayist and Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats, German playwright Bertolt Brecht, American playwright and novelist Thorton Wilder, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, American filmmaker George Lucas, American animator, director and chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios John Lasseter, Canadian-born animator Richard Williams, and many, many more.

A few of my numerous sources on the subject:

"The Japanese Influence in America" by Clay Lancaster

"Japonisme: The Japanese Influence on Western Art in the 19th and 20th Centuries"/"Japonisme: The Japanese Influence on Western Art Since 1858" by Siegfried Wichmann

"Influence of Japanese Art on Design" by Hannah Sigur

For more information and sources on the widespread Japanese influence around the world, particular in the West, you can google things like:

The Japanese Influence on Western Architecture

The Japanese Influence on Design

The Japanese Influence on the Arts and Crafts Movement

The Japanese Influence on Western Art

The Japanese Influence on Art Nouveau

The Japanese Influence on Printmaking

The Japanese Influence on Western Theatre

The Japanese Influence on Western Cinema

The Japanese Influence on Fashion

The Japanese Influence on Cutlery

The Japanese Influence on Video Games

And so on.

In a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh that he penned from Arles in the South of France, dated June 5, 1888, Vincent van Gogh wrote:

About this staying on in the South, even if it is more expensive, consider: we like Japanese painting, we have felt its influence, all the impressionists have that in common; then why not go to Japan, that is to say to the equivalent of Japan, the South?

Only it's bad policy to stay here alone, when two or three could help each other to live cheaply.

I wish you could spend some time here, you would feel it after a while, one's sight changes: you see things with an eye more Japanese, you feel colour differently. The Japanese draw quickly, very quickly, like a lightning flash, because their nerves are finer, their feeling simpler.

I am convinced that I shall set my individuality free simply by staying on here.