Steve Jobs has died

Tue Oct 11 21:17:06 UTC 2011

On Tuesday, October 11, 2011 04:00:44 PM Douglas Otis wrote:
> On 10/6/11 7:26 PM, Paul Graydon wrote:
> > On 10/6/2011 4:02 PM, Wayne E Bouchard wrote:
> >> In some circles, he's being compared to Thomas Edison. 

> > It's probably not a bad analogy, like Ford and many other champions of 
> > industry he didn't invent groundbreaking technology 

> Steve demonstrated any number of times, when excellent hardware + 
> software engineering + quality control is applied, even "commodity" 
> products are able to provide good returns.  In this view, the analogy 
> holds when price alone is not considered.

And, like Edison, Mr. Jobs fiercely championed his own technologies over all others; just one example is in the field of electricity where Edison's DC lost the war to Tesla's AC.  Time has yet to tell how well Mr. Jobs' walled garden devices and OS's do, finally.  

Edison would have loved today's intellectual property wars and software patents and their attendent trolls. And Edison would have been right at home with the concept of lock-in.

Brilliant man, Edison was, and he did do a great deal for humanity in general.  But historical facts are historical facts.

Don't get me wrong; I have a great deal of respect for both men, even though I disagree with some of their ideologies and methods.  And the phonograph really was pure brilliance.