Inventor of the Week...

[Intrigued]

I found this interesting list over on MIT's Website:

http://web.mit.edu/invent/i-archive.html

I like this about the PDA:

Palm Computing's first device, the Zoomer, was a failure. It was expensive, slow, and had inefficient text recognition. The company reconsidered its strategy. Its next product, dubbed the Pilot, would be a legendary success.

[Corey]

Steve Jobs, inventor? Uh, OK... Jef Raskin would have had a mighty entertaining word or two to say about that.

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3007449

I wonder exactly what it is that Jobs is purported to have invented? Seems they gave the award to Woz, rightfully so, but then wrongly attached Jobs because he donates a lot of do-ra-me to the you-know-what, nudge-nudge wink-wink, say no more. A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat, eh?

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/apple.html

"their" invention

HEE!

[eric_darling]

Ironically, this would have never made international news had the iPod, a relatively unrelated music player, not brought Apple to a level never before seen this year. The recent relevance of the company is hardly due to a Macintosh computer.

Raskin headed up a small team of developers. I'm not sure anyone can lay sole personal claim to the title of inventor of the Mac. But I guess he does more than anyone else, so fair enough.

But if Raskin deserves mention for that, then Jobs certainly does as co-father of the Apple (which pre-dates the Mac considerably). He and Woz put that joker together in a garage, and while Woz definitely deserves the credit for the invention and technical configuration, Jobs was indeed there at the beginning, and not just as a bystanding cheerleader. Inventor, probably not, though.

Love him or not, Jobs has had a direct impact on the bringing back of the Apple brand. It was shortly after Jobs rejoined Apple in the late 1990s that their computers started to show a new design flair, and a slow return to profitability began. Consider that many die-hard Macintosh users were predicting the death of the company before Jobs' return. I remember it very well. Heck, there was a period of time when UMAX was making Mac clones! (as was another company called Power Computing). That was almost a catastrophe. I don't have a strong opinion on Jobs one way or the other, but his contribution to the continued existence of Apple is irrefutable.

There was another great thread about the Mac recently here, which was spurred by the recent urban myth that IBM would stop making PCs:
http://www.macintouch.com/pchistory.html

[Corey]

To me calling Jobs a great inventor is revisionism, not my cup o' tea. He'll get no play in this hizzy.

Nice to see Dean Kamen got a slot, he's a very Wozian character in his own right. I read through, seems to be a blend of politically correct "iffy" ones, and some really good ones. For my money guys like Woz and Kamen are the real backbone of that game, although I must admit, I'm no fan of people who hoard gigantic sums of cash they don't need, but nonetheless at least guys like that bring something to the table. Kamen's an interesting speaker, there's some of his seminars online. I like the way he always challenges people to do more, to strive harder for whatever it is they want. He's the quintessential "inventor" in my books.

BTW you know who's an awesome cat that never gets mentioned in any of this stuff? Sorenson, founder/owner of sorenson media. He's a far out guy who developed all sorts of cool technology including important communication tools for deaf folks and much more. He's a nice guy, and everybody keeps suing him, but he just keeps going quietly along doing his thing. He's high on my list of people to have a beer with at some point:

http://news.gallaudet.edu/article.asp?id=4951
http://www.sorenson.com/press/press_...l.php?pr_id=79
http://www.sorenson.com/press/press_...l.php?pr_id=65

As far as I know, Sorenson is still 100% privately owned.