Steve Jobs never wrote code, who cares? his code would have probably sucked

Some things that get written up are random things that aren't an issue.  For example?  Steve Jobs didn't write code covered in Business Insider.

Steve Jobs Never Wrote Computer Code For Apple

Publicly answering an email over at his site, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak goes into a few details on Steve Jobs's technical background.

"Steve didn't ever code," writes Wozniak. "He wasn't an engineer and he didn't do any original design, but he was technical enough to alter and change and add to other designs."

Why does the visionary CEO need to write code? To inspire the coders to write better code?  

Introvert-Friendly Career - Computer Programmer

Spending time alone with a computer could be a dream come true for any introverted techie. For them, life as a computer programmer might sound like a dream that could also pay the rent.

"From my understanding, computer programmers work by themselves, in the world of ideas," Anthony says. "That's more on the introverted side because introverts are more comfortable alone and like working on their own."

 

 

 

Apple products work because there is a huge amount of effort to hide the technical issues and just make things work.  Who cares if the code is beautiful if it doesn't solve an end user problem.

BTW the article got the introverted and extroverted pictures switched.  Here is the extrovert post.

Extrovert-Friendly Career - Computer Support Specialist

If you're a computer geek - sorry, computer aficionado - who isn't afraid of terms like face time and small talk, you might be hard-wired for a computer support specialist career.

"I think as a computer support specialist you have to feel comfortable interacting with people, unlike a computer programmer where you'll be working alone for long periods," Anthony says. "You'll want to make sure people are at ease so you can get information about their computer problems and then be effective in solving them."

John Sculley tells the rest of the story, How Steve Jobs was fired

I was at Apple from 1985 - 1992, and didn't have a meeting with Steve Jobs or John Sculley during that time.  I did meet with John Sculley in 1996 when I had my job at Microsoft and we discussed publishing technologies.  I still can't remember why or how I got a meeting with John Sculley.  Must have been at time when working for Microsoft meant a lot or maybe my job was a bigger deal than I thought.  Too long ago.  Can't remember. :-)

Forbes just posted a presentation where John Sculley provided a retrospective of what led to Steve Jobs leaving Apple.

John Sculley Just Gave His Most Detailed Account Ever Of How Steve Jobs Got Fired From Apple

After years of silence, former AppleAAPL +1.61% CEO John Sculley has recently been moving more into retrospective mode.  On Thursday, Sculley gave perhaps his fullest public account ever of the circumstances surrounding Apple’s firing of Steve Jobs, spending eight extemporaneous and uninterrupted minutes on the most infamous human resource decision in business history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The video is here.


The video can be seen here:

This article provides the rest of the story of what happened in the Apple Board room.

What happened in the Microsoft Board room when Steve Ballmer was asked to retire?  There is no way a Microsoft board members is going to talk to the press. Not unless they want to chance giving up their board seat.

The one area I would disagree with John Sculley is where John says the problem with the original Mac was Moore's Law and processor was not powerful enough.  The Mac Plus which came out 2 years later had the same processor, but 1MB instead of 128K, SCSI, and dual sided floppies which gave the IO speed and capacity to do more serious work.  The processor was not the problem.  But, John may be referring to when the Mac II shipped with a 68020 is when the money really started coming in.  My time on the Mac II was some of the funnest times.

 

Mobile Devices set up for a three company competition - Apple, Google, and Microsoft

With Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia phone devices it looks like there is a three company race against Apple and Google.  Phones and Tablets are the growing faster than any other technology device.

One way to think about Mobile device companies is a three company competition.  Here is a post on three company competition and its history.

COMPETITIVE MARKETS AND THE RULE OF THREE 
by Jagdish N. Sheth and Rajendra S. Sisodia 
Strategy 

The “Big Three” no longer have the automobile market to themselves, but almost every market, including the one for cars, is ruled by three dominant firms. That reality does not prevent other firms from being successful. However, all firms, regardless of their market share, must still understand The Rule of Three and how it will affect their strategy and attempt to operate efficiently.

Over the past several years, the world economy, principally in the developed free market economies of Europe and North America, has been characterized by a unique economic phenomena-the combination of mergers and demergers at record levels (demergers are the spin-offs of non-core businesses). As a result, the landscape of just about every major industry has changed in a significant way, moving inexorably toward what we call the “Rule of Three.” The recent economic downturn has slowed but not halted this fundamental evolution, nor has it altered its basic direction.

We note that the Rule of Three is much more than an interesting theoretical construct; it is a powerful empirical reality that must be factored into corporate strategizing. Understanding the likely end-points of market evolution is critical to the ability of executives to develop strategies that will result in success.

Can you see the Media Bias? Rush Limbaugh says Apple is Republican, Google/Samsung are Democrats

The whole idea of unbiased media works when you want to be the one source of news.  When it comes down to it though very few people want to hear both sides of the story without any bias.  Even when people read both sides, they are looking for information to support their views.  

CNET focuses on the battle between Apple and Google.

Rush Limbaugh: Apple is Republicans, Google is Democrats

In a scholarly analysis of tech blogging, the great Republican commentator offers that 9 out of 10 blogs hate Apple. Because Apple is like the Republican Party. Oddly, though, Limbaugh last year was himself mad at Apple.

Rush Limbaugh blog post focuses Tech Blogs starting to notice media bias.  I agree it is entertaining to watch the bias influence coverage.

It's a teachable moment out there.  Fascinating.  Study of the media is fascinating.  To watch the sports media, folks.  Because they're all liberal, they're all formulaic. They're all liberal by default.  They don't know anything else.  And you can predict, if you become familiar with it, with them, you read their stuff often enough, you can predict when something happens in the NFL, you can predict how 95% of the reporters are gonna take it and how they're gonna report on it.  You can predict, just like you can in news media.  It's incredible.  It's a fascinating study to me. 

What I find interesting is Rush Limbaugh doesn't want to point to who the biased tech blogs are because it would drive more traffic to them.

RUSH: An e-mail: "Rush, why don't you name some of these left-wing tech blogs you're talking about?"  Folks, I've thought about it, and there's nothing to be gained by it.  If I call 'em out, all they're gonna do is get happy that I'm giving them attention and elevating attention.  It's not gonna change them.  If I start naming people, the same thing.  It's one of these unfortunate things.  This program is so big that certain things I can't talk about because, believe me, these people do not need -- I know I'm making this all sound interesting, but they don't need to be bigger.  They don't need more readers.  The more readers they have, the more damage they would do.  And all I would do, if I mention them by name or by name of author is make 'em bigger and it would not accomplish here what I'm -- I know it's frustrating.  If this were just a local show in Podunk state, I could tell you everything, but it's the biggest show in media.  And put these little chumps on the map and they'd never be bigger, but it wouldn't change, just make 'em snarkier and ruder.  Just the way things work.

Greenpeace praises Apple's Green Data Center efforts, shifting target to Amazon and Microsoft

Silicon Republic reports on Apple's latest solar project in Reno by interviewing Greenpeace's Gary Cook.

The good guys are.

"With Google, Facebook, and now Apple all announcing major new deals in recent months for new renewable energy to power their data-centre operations, the race to build an internet powered by renewable energy is clearly in full swing," he said.

The bad guys are.

"Microsoft and Amazon - both of which still power their internet using the dirty electricity that causes global warming - ought to take notice," he said.

"In the race for a clean internet, Apple is leaving both of those companies in the dust."

We'll see if Google, Facebook, and/or Apple get an advantage with a low carbon data center strategy.  They are all probably relieved that Greenpeace will focus on their competitors - Amazon and Microsoft.