Steve Jobs' Funeral Today, No Public Memorial Event Planned

Have we lost a sense of perspective?

Do people honestly believe this sort of thing, or are they writing it just to get a reaction:

"You changed the world and made a bigger impact on our lives than anyone have done before you, and probably ever will."

"There should still be a public memorial though, maybe not a memorial service but a national 1 or 2 minute silence around the globe or in the USA and UK or something along those lines or maybe events celebrating Steve's life taking place in Apple stores around the world."

"While I certainly respect the family's decision to do as Steve would have wished, I do find it odd that they would not hold some sort of public memorial for a man who had such a profound impact on the lives of so many people."

"Obama, Cameron, Merkel, Burlesconi etc need to get together and arrange a national minutes silence in Steve's honour in their countries so that everyone can pay their respects."

"There is an Apple device in almost every household and in the households that there aren't there is almost certainly a pc with a mouse or a DVD of Toy Story, Steve's life and work exists in almost every home in those countries so it is right that there should be a minutes silence for Steve"


Steve Jobs did great things, but surely nobody really believes that he had "a bigger impact on our lives than anyone have done before", that we should respect his wishes for privacy but "hold some sort of public memorial" (i.e. not respect his request for privacy at all) and that because there "is an Apple device in almost every household" we should have a period of international mourning. (Using the "in every household" logic means we'd be having minute's silences for the creators of LCD panels, cellphones, remote controls, CDs, paperclips....!)


"I wonder how many people actually cried when Einstein died, or Beethoven died, people who have never met them."

I expect you'd be shocked by how few. The reaction to Einstein's death is easily researched in papers' archives, as it was only 1955 - and it's noticeably different to today. And nobody could argue that Einstein didn't change the world profoundly.


"Jobs was generous. Jobs gave his time. So much of it, he even said he agreed to the biography so his children could know him better."

I hope you can see how incredibly sad that statement is. Maybe he could have given a little less time to us, and a bit more to those who really would have felt its absence?

I am very sad that an extremely talented man, who was only 56, has died, leaving a family and children.

I think that is the real tragedy, but I fear that people are losing perspective.
 
Say, ...

... does anyone of you know whether there is one particular online forum, where people gather and tell their stories meeting Steve Jobs in person and having funny times? I already heard some of them (my favorite is the F1 keyboard "hack"), but spreaded all over the place.

It was kind of amazing that when Michael Jackson died, a forum thread on gearslutz.com blossomed and you could read wonderful intimate stories of people who worked with him.

Anyone? Or maybe we could collect them right here?
 
You are saying something very strange here: "make prpoer moves to be greener and not just a token PR excercise" (spelling mistakes are yours). Most people know that Apple has always been one of the companies with the "greenest" products - they just didn't talk about it. Their "PR excercise" (sic) started when Greenpeace produced a damning report (damning in two ways: Damning against Apple, but then damning against Greenpeace when you learned how they produced their report). Greenpeace just collected statements from companies about what they promised to achieve in the future. But as an example of the fallacy, they awarded HP top points for promising to get rid of certain chemicals in their packaging within two years, and none to Apple because they made no such promise. Turned out that Apple didn't make any promises because they had already got rid of those chemicals for quite a while.

I could probably shoot down your other arguments as well if I could be bothered to decipher them.

The typos are ironic in the context...

I was typing it with one hand, but on the poor keyboard on the iPhone, as here is no other option to use the much superior keypad found on 'other' phones allowing quicker input. (the T9 layout)

But thats another discussion about restrictions and choice...
 
I think people need to keep a sense of perspective. Steve Jobs was a very smart and successful businessman. He did not do what he did based on public interest, he did is based on making money for himself and his company - which is absolutely fine, but I really don't think we should be having national or global (!) silences to celebrate his life. I am sorry for him and his family, but let us not completely lose perspective and let us also not be "grief tourists", taking on grief that is not ours to take on.

I think that you misread Jobs. If he acted purely out of greed then Apple would not be the 5% or less of overall computers sold each year. They may even have switched to Windows by now, as long as they sold more Macs then Steve would be happy. Fortunately he focused more on the user experience that Apple could provide. The technology was not as important as how people could use the Mac or an iOS device.

Perhaps you see greed because it is familiar but in my opinion someone like Steve Jobs is a unique person that is rarely understood by others.
 
I think that you misread Jobs. If he acted purely out of greed then Apple would not be the 5% or less of overall computers sold each year. They may even have switched to Windows by now, as long as they sold more Macs then Steve would be happy. Fortunately he focused more on the user experience that Apple could provide. The technology was not as important as how people could use the Mac or an iOS device.

Perhaps you see greed because it is familiar but in my opinion someone like Steve Jobs is a unique person that is rarely understood by others.

Of course he acted out of greed? He wanted to get rich, sure he innovated and changed products but at the end of the day he was an entrepreneur. The reason they sell low computer volumes is Microsoft, and price. MANY people do not see the cost of a Mac as good value, next to a PC. They don't care about the Apple brand.
And if it wasn't about greed, how then exactly did he let his business become the second most valuable on the planet? Compassion?

I'm sorry but is a joke to think Steve Jobs or any other CEO in anyway deserves the same level of funeral reserved for Servicemen and Women, politicians. World Leaders, Royalty.
 
Of course he acted out of greed? He wanted to get rich, sure he innovated and changed products but at the end of the day he was an entrepreneur. The reason they sell low computer volumes is Microsoft, and price. MANY people do not see the cost of a Mac as good value, next to a PC. They don't care about the Apple brand.
And if it wasn't about greed, how then exactly did he let his business become the second most valuable on the planet? Compassion?

I'm sorry but is a joke to think Steve Jobs or any other CEO in anyway deserves the same level of funeral reserved for Servicemen and Women, politicians. World Leaders, Royalty.

He could have got a lot richer than he did if that was what he really wanted to do

He took a $1 a year salary, as a CEO of a profitable company with billions in the bank he could have easily taken tens of millions in salary

He refused a salary from Disney, again he could have made millions as a board member and consultant but he didn't

He could have positioned his products at a higher price range, he could have set the price of iPod's, iPad's and iPhone's a lot higher and people would still have paid that price

Steve wasn't about money, sure he was not a pauper but his motivation was to be the best not be the richest.
 
Touching Gestures

Just got back from Spain. Couldn't believe the very poigniant book of rememberance in the FMAC store in Murcia.

I was so sad at Steve's passing, it really was too soon. No one can deny his genius at turning a box of electronics into a device that inspires creativity in a way no one else has. What has impressed me more has been his ability to inspire people to be the best they can be in their lives, their jobs, and their recreation. Just look at the people who work at Apple to see the results of Steve's inspiring spirit.The world needs more people like him in all spheres, then we really can turn it around.

RIP Steve, and all the strength in the world to your family in this difficult time.
 
Not sure I agree ....

Part of my "sense of perspective" here is in realizing the fundamental change in society the personal computer brought about. If Steve Jobs wasn't considered one of the key individuals involved in making that a reality, I'm not sure who is? The Apple // and later, //e, //c and //gs were hugely important in turning the idea of a "home computer" into reality. Almost all the other inexpensive 8-bit computers of that era were introduced AFTER the Jobs & Wozniak duo put theirs together and started marketing it.

The Macintosh, again, was instrumental in pushing things forward to the idea of operating systems using a point and click mouse interface and a graphical display.

I think some of the people simply writing him off as "a very successful businessman" but little else aren't aware of the whole history of the PC. If they were, they'd realize it's his EARLY accomplishments that matter the most. Everything else he contributed is more evolutionary, but still based around advancing the ideas he kicked off back in 1977 with the Apple computer.


I think people need to keep a sense of perspective. Steve Jobs was a very smart and successful businessman. He did not do what he did based on public interest, he did is based on making money for himself and his company - which is absolutely fine, but I really don't think we should be having national or global (!) silences to celebrate his life. I am sorry for him and his family, but let us not completely lose perspective and let us also not be "grief tourists", taking on grief that is not ours to take on.
 
Of course he acted out of greed? He wanted to get rich, sure he innovated and changed products but at the end of the day he was an entrepreneur. The reason they sell low computer volumes is Microsoft, and price. MANY people do not see the cost of a Mac as good value, next to a PC. They don't care about the Apple brand.
And if it wasn't about greed, how then exactly did he let his business become the second most valuable on the planet? Compassion?

I'm sorry but is a joke to think Steve Jobs or any other CEO in anyway deserves the same level of funeral reserved for Servicemen and Women, politicians. World Leaders, Royalty.

It is way more of a joke to think that royalty or politicians deserve more than being tossed into a dirty lake somewhere. Those people do nothing for the world while Steve Jobs actuall did, regardless of his motivations, which nobody knows but him.

Personally, I think he was a competitor. He treated Apple like the teams I coach and just wanted to be the best at what he was doing. That's what I think motivated him. But, just like everyone else, I don't know for sure either.
 
Agreed. This is not a religious forum, but i seriously take issue with them. They say (via Twitter for iPhone) that they want to protest his funeral because



Don't Christians believe that God uses people to change the world? Don't Christians believe that God gives people free will? How would they expect Steve Jobs to not give people free will if God does give free will? Them and people like them are the reason Christianity and religion as a whole are hated in today's world.

/sermon

Those idiots aren't Christians. They are a moron group of fringers who purpose is to discredit religion via posing as religious people with extreme positions. Pay them no attention.
 
I still have my //c, and it still works! Bought it in 1985 for $585 when a computer store in Minneapolis went bust (happened alot back then).

Last I saw mine it was in the top shelf of my brother's closet in the house we used to own together before I got married. He still lives in that house and it may still be there. I'd be a bit nervous to turn it on though because I recently read that the capacitors from that era don't take kindly to not being used for years and then suddenly being switched on. I loved that machine.
 
Funeral convoy

I was in SF on Friday when traffic was stopped for a smallish funeral convoy.

It crossed onto 19th ave and continued south.

There were at least a dozen motorcycle cops plus a good eight cop cars.

Does anyone have any idea if that was in fact Steve Jobs?

Marc
 
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