Pair of Twiggys

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: geneb

    >> When people decided Steve Jobs had become a god?

    > Right about the time that whole "computer for the rest of us" started...

Yes, of course: nobody had thought of a cheap personal computer before him.
(Which reminds me, does the CHM have a Datapoint 2200? If not, we really out
to try to round one up for them.) Or even a personal computer. (Ditto for the
LINC.)

Although I suppose you might have been talking about the software. I mean,
without that whole display/windows/menu/mouse thing he invented, to allow
ordinary people to use a computer, where would we be?


Look, I fully admit that Steve Jobs was a _very_ sharp person who had a
_tremendous_ influence.

(Every time I hear someone saying marketing people are useless - first up
against the wall, etc - I reply 'No, only bad ones - which is a lot of them.
The very best ones, like Steve Jobs, are worth their weight in triple-refined
iridium. A _good_ marketing person can tell you what customers _want_. A
_truly great_ one can tell you what they _need_, but don't yet even realize
they do.')


However, the people (and there are quite a few of them) who have gone way off
the deep edge, and have turned him (and Apple) into some sort of overblown
cult, just don't have a balanced perspective.

There are plenty of people out there who deserve at least as much credit for
the information society we now live in, who are almost totally unknown to the
population at large; starting (probably) with Licklider.

	Noel