No confíes en una computadora que no puedas tirar por la ventana

Steve Wozniak

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C'est MoBuzzTV qui nous propose de découvrir l'interview de Steve Wozniak co-fondateur de Apple. A l'occasion du Congres "Internet dans les classes" à Madrid c'est le présentateur Gabemac qui nous fait l'interview. Bon visionnage ! ;)

Natalie's sister, Adrienne, was here last week and somehow we started talking about computers and she started talking about her Mac and I made the comment, "Nobody has Macs."  By "nobody," I mean general consumers or anyone not working in graphics or imaging.  Apple represents 4% of the personal computing market.  All those stickers on the backs of Accords you see... those people bought iPods.  They've probably never touched a Mac computer.  How often do you see them in a Best Buy?

"Everybody has Macs," she assured me.  I was puzzled.  "Really?" I thought.  Maybe because this was California.  They're progressive people.  Maybe that's where the concentration of Macs had been because surely they weren't in my local bank or the DMV or the Blockbuster around the corner.

So a few days later I am watching My Life On The D-List on Bravo and Kathy Griffin is dating Steve Wozniak, creator of the Apple PC and all-around billionaire genius who enjoys Segway polo and buying suits from Men's Warehouse (two for $100 he'll tell you... he's not cheap, he's just a nerd).  So I Wikipedia him and the first paragraph says blah blah blah invented the first Apple I in 1975 while attending the University of California at Berkeley with Steve Jobs.

Adrienne attends the University of California at Berkeley.  No shit everybody has Macs.  It would be like drinking Powerade at the University of Florida.

Again, proven correct and the Gods shine on me.

So this morning I am reading Roger Ebert's review of Tropic Thunder (2008) and in the final paragraph he says it's better than Ben Stiller's directing debut, Zoolander (2001).  Well, he's wrong.  Ben Stiller directed Reality Bites (1994) and The Cable Guy (1996) before Zoolander.

I can do without Reality Bites.  Cable Guy and Zoolander and both the works of a misunderstood genius.

So the highlight of my week is getting to email a person ridiculously smarter than me in film and telling him he was wrong.

So what led him to the lawn of the Indiana State Museum?   SegwayFest 2008 is here in Indianapolis this weekend, and since all the other playing fields were reportedly taken up by Drum and Bugle Corps practices for the DCI World Championships (also in Indy)...the front lawn of the museum was chosen as the perfect polo-playing location.

As I've said before so many times....there's never a dull moment around the Indiana State Museum!  Here's a link to Fox59's coverage of the event.

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Comedienne Kathy Griffin reportedly is engaged to millionaire Steve Wozniak.The funnywoman was spotted wearing a ring on her wedding finger at the Emmy Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles.

Come si vede da questa foto, Woz è tra i partecipanti della versione america della trasmissione Il Prezzo è giusto. Peccato che non abbia giocato...

He said he always imagined that one day computers would be able to serve as virtual teachers, giving students one-on-one instruction that cannot be delivered in traditional ways.

Education Was a Primary Motivation

Established as Apple Computer, Inc., on April 1, 1976, The company kept its longer title until 2007, when it changed to Apple, Inc. Started in Cupertino, California, the American corporation was incorporated on January 3, 1977.

Founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, Apple, Inc., designs and manufactures consumer electronics and software for the electronics. Apple products include laptops, desktops, numerous iPods, and the iPhone; while software includes the Mac OS X Operating System, Final Cut Pro, iLife, and iTunes.

Apple, Inc., has 20,000 employees and 200 retail stores in 5 countries as of 2007. The company also boasts $24 Billion in annual sales.  Apple, Inc., also has an online store as well as iTunes which sells music, movies, audio books, pod casts, TV shows, and iPod games.

The company’s first logo was designed by Jobs and Wayne. The logo depicted Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. The logo did not last long, and was quickly replaced by a rainbow colored apple silhouette drawn by Rob Janoff. The apple, very similar to the logo used currently, had a distinctive bite in it. The logo was revamped in 1998 and was given a monochromatic color. The Apple logo is one of the most recognizable brand logos in the world. Apple includes its logo as sticker with the purchase of the company’s products.

The first Apple slogan was “Byte Into An Apple.” In the beginning, Apple used singular slogans for the company as a whole; however, today the company uses individual slogans for each of their products.

To introduce the Macintosh computer in 1983, Apple created an 18-page brochure that was sent out with a number of magazines. For a special post-election edition of Newsweek in 1984, Apple purchased each of the 39 ad pages in the magazine – spending $2.5 Million.

Also in 1984, Apple ran a promotion titled “Test Drive A Macintosh,” where people could take home a computer for 24 hours and then return it.

1984 is most famous for Apple’s Super Bowl advertisement to introduce the personal computer. Aired in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, the $1.5 Million commercial, titled “1984,” was directed by Ridley Scott. The commercial was modeled after George Orwell’s novel 1984.

The commercial showed a heroine, Anya Major saving humanity from conformity – or “Big Brother,” - meant to depict IBM. The voiceover in the commercial stated “On January 24, Apple Computers will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 wasn’t like 1984.”

Apple’s Super Bowl commercial in 1985 was far less successful. The commercial, titled “Lemmings.” Created for the launch of Mac Office, the ad depicted blindfolded business people following each other off of a cliff. The last man in line stops and pulls his blindfold off, while the voiceover states, “You Can Look Into It...Or you can go on with business as usual.” The commercial was developed into a print advertisement for newspaper.

Apple consumers are unusually free thinking and unusually devoted. Surveys by J.D. Power show that Apple has the highest brand and repurchased loyalty of any other computer manufacturer. Apple’s consumers are youthful, artistic, creative, and well-educated. These consumers react best to artistic, free-thinking advertising messages. Each new Apple store opening draws crowds of thousands who stand in line for hours.

Apple is an environmentally conscious company in four specific areas: product and package design, manufacturing, energy efficiency, and recycling.

In the late 1990’s, Apple’s New York advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day compiled the “Think Different” campaign. The campaign consisted of both television and print advertisements. Running for 60 seconds, the commercials included black and white footage of Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminister, Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Hensen with Kermit, Frank Lloyd Write, and Picasso. The commercial ended with a close up of a young girl opening her eyes – and therefore seeing the possibilities in front of her.

[youtube-http://youtube.com/watch?v=4oAB83Z1ydE]

A shortened, 30 second, version of the commercial aired during the series finale of Seinfeld. Rather than close with the shot of the young girl, the commercial ended with Jerry Seinfeld.

Print versions of the campaign made appearances in magazines including Time and Newsweek. Some of the ads referenced products, while others just displayed the Apple logo and the current tagline “Think Different.”

The “Think Different” campaign was created almost entirely in house by TBWA/Chiat/Day in Los Angeles. The slogan was brought back three times after its retirement to be placed in ads on Apple’s online Home Page:

2000 – When Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize

2005 – When Rosa Parks died

2007 – When Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize

Numerous parodies of the campaign have been created and can be found online.

In 1990, Apple released the “What’s On Your PowerBook?” campaign. The company’s print ads and TV spots featured celebrities explaining how they use their PowerBook and how the PowerBook helps them with their lives.

In 1995, Apple created print and TV ads that responded to the introduction of Microsoft’s Windows 95 Operating System.

In 1998, the iMac slogan became “I Think, Therefore iMac.”

In 2002, Apple coined the term “Switcher.” A Switcher is someone who switches from Microsoft Office to the Mac Operating System. The “Switch” commercial showed real customers explaining their switch. The television commercials were directed by Errol Morris, and both the TV and print ads directed consumers to the Apple Website. The “Switch” actors in the US were different than those used for the “Switch” commercials in Japan. As with the “Think Different” campaign, numerous parodies of the “Switch” campaign can be found online.

Current commercials for the iPod show dark silhouettes dancing against brightly colored backgrounds and holding visible, white iPods. The commercials have been created for both print and television.

The iPod Nano commercials have a black background, with the iPod Nano glowing to show that the newest iPod Nano’s are colored.

The songs in the television commercials are both by known and relatively unknown artists. Some of the ads also feature the silhouettes of celebrities, including Eminem, U2, Jet, Wynton Marsalis, Ceasars, and Bob Dylan.

The ads in the iPod campaign have a consistent, unified style that can be found in print, television, posters, and public transportation wraps.

In 2006, Apple introduced the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” campaign. The television commercials are directed by Phil Morrision, with actors Justin Lang (Mac), from Accepted, and John Hodgeman (PC), from the Daily Show. The idea was created by TBWA/Media Arts/Lab. The premise of the ads is that Mac can do everything PC can do, but Mac can do it quicker and safer, with more creativity and versatility.

In the commercials, Mac wears more casual, laid-back attire, while Mac Wears business attire and is uptight and overly concerned with work.

The US version of the ads air in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, while different actors are used for similar ads in Spain, Japan and the UK. In Japan, the country’s famous comedy duo The Rahmens, star in the commercials, while the spots in the UK use famous UK comedy duo Mitchall and Webb.

There are 42 different versions of the commercials in the US with 8 additional online-only spots which run for 20 seconds and reference online ad features. There are 12 spots in Japan and 15 in the UK. Not surprisingly, there are numerous parodies of the spots online.

Apple also advertises on Free Rice – a program online created in 2007 to fight world hunger. Apple is also in discussions with New York Yacht Club to sponsor America’s Cup.

I feel sorry fro WOZ!!!!

Kathy Griffin says she never went all the way with her ex, Apple co-founder billionaire Steve Wozniak.

"We were dating, but were just friendly. I never f----d him or anything!" she told Usmagazine.com during a visit to our NYC offices last Thursday.

"The truth is," she added, "we really were friends the whole time."

They definitely had their laughs together, she said.

"When we went to the Emmys together, I put on this really huge engagement ring and didn’t tell him," she told Us. "There are these great photos of me posing with this great big fake diamond ring.

"He didn’t notice!" she added. "I was like, 'Oh, by the way at the Emmys, I had on a fake engagement ring!' And he was like, 'Oh, that’s very funny.'"

She announced their split in April (they met in 2007 after he watched her perform).

After they called it quits, she said "he met someone very quickly and then they [got] engaged."

No hard feelings, said Griffin, who plans to visit Wozniak (who appears on her Bravo reality show) in Saratoga, New York, on July 11.

(Via usmagazine)

The BBC inteviewed Woz about the early days of Apple, the creation of the first personal computers, and his thoughts on Bill Gates. Check out the video here.

If that short video caught your attention you might be interested in reading more about Woz and the early days of computing. I recommend Steve Woziniaks autobiography iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon.

The season opening of My Life on The D List wouldn’t have attracted my attention other than the fact that Kathy unveiled her new boyfriend. He’s a successful, retired dorky computer geek, who consults for huge computer companies, teaches high school students in his spare time, who charms her with hacking her iPhone, teaching her to ride a Segway and volunteering to help her celebrity friends with their IT problems. He’s overweight, eccentric, and more than a bit socially awkward.

He also happens to be a billionaire.

Read the rest of this story on ZDNet Between The Lines.

This book also talks about the other people that made Apple possible. Mainly Steve Wozniak, they talk about him and Steve and how they became friends. Another interesting thing that you find out in this book is Steve's earlier jobs before he even came close to starting Apple. I thought it was very interesting. I really like this book.

I would suggest this book to anyone who is interested in Apple as a company. And if you are interested in Steve Jobs and want to know a lot more about his life and how he came to "power" in Apple. Here is the link to Amazon to buy iCon: Steve Jobs.

"At long last Woz tells his side of the story. iWoz takes us inside the mind of the ultimate nerd and inspires us with the sheer joy that he has always found in iconoclasm, invention, and intellectual discovery. His account was worth waiting for: it adds intriguiging new information to the history of the origins of the personal computer revolution."--Alan Deutschman, author of The Second Coming of Steve Jobs

Order iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon from Amazon for $2.99

Don't have Amazon Kindle? You can always purchase it from here
Or if you prefer to read the Print editions instead, you can get it from here

Other Kindle Books of Interest
iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business
The Google Story
Bill and Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company
Tough Choices: A Memoir
Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software

Alguna vez hablamos sobre las curiosidades del CEO de Apple, pues esta ocasión verán como dio inicio toda esta idea para llevar a una compañía hasta lo más alto, les hablo sobre la película Pirates of Silicon Valley, es una cinta que todo geek tiene que ver y claro todo amante de la tecnología, en especial los Maqueros jeje.

Preparen palomitas de maiz y pónganse cómodos, saludos!...

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7039094381603369679&q=pirates%20of%20silicon%20valley&hl=es]

Y para los que quieran practicar su ingles, aquí les dejamos la película en su idioma original.

Sinopsis y datos de la película:

Es un docudrama no autorizado escrito y dirigido por Martyn Burke. Basado en el libro Fire in the Valley: The Making of a Personal Computer, de Paul Freiberger y Michael Swaine, este film documenta los comienzos de la computadora personal a través de la rivalidad entre Apple Computer (Apple II, Apple Lisa y la Apple Macintosh) y Microsoft (MITS Altair, DOS, IBM PC, y Windows).

La historia central del film comienza a principios de los años 70, y termina en 1985, con un brindis por el cumpleaños de Steve Jobs, poco antes de ser despedido de Apple Computer por su compañero John Sculley.