“Steve Wozniak’s r
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Nice to hear about Woz every once in a while.
Woz is cool. Seems to know how to enjoy life…
I don’t believe Jobs was the founder of Pixar…
WOZ IS DA MAN!!!
True. Jobs didn’t found Pixar – he bought it from George Lucas when Lucas was going through a very… expensive divorce – and needed some cash.
But, I do believe Jobs was the one who turned them from a special effects house, to making movies. But I could be wrong about that…
BriAnimations:
Just a little off, but only a little.
Pixar was effectively a vendor of high-end single-use 3D modelling/rendering computers based around RenderMan, and created the initial shorts like Luxo Jr., Red’s Dream, and Tin Toy as showreel demonstrators for the capability of the software/hardware that it sold at quite extraordinary prices.
That said, I would imagine though that Pixar was effectively the in-house CGI systems integrator for ILM.
Jobs knows how to manage and get the best out of creatives, a different breed of animal than your mediocre pigeon hole-able corporate drone that’s made to suffer under M$ iron fist from it’s bastion of eternal evil at Redmond.
That was a thinly veiled rant.
Woz is definitely a stud, but this tracking product that his company, Wheels Of Zeus, is developing has some rather frightening applications were the folks in Homeland Security to decide they could use it for more nefarious purposes. Imagine all driver’s licenses and state issued ID cards having one of those chips embedded in it. Or, to take it to the extreme, all newborns having a chip implanted at birth so they can be effectively tracked for the rest of their lives by the government to make sure they didn’t do anything “bad”. The problem here is that people’s ideas of what constitutes being “bad” vary wildly, and I can’t say I’m in agreement with the fundamentalist ideals that are being pushed on America via legislation by our current President and his Attorney General. This is a scary time in America if you peel back a few layers of the onion, beyond what the media is allowed or encouraged to spotlight. Products like the one WOZ has developed have immense potential for good use, but I fear that they’ll enable a lot more control for those who are in power more than anything else. When technology makes a society like the one portrayed in “Logan’s Run” very possible in this very day and age, and you have people in power who mix their own ideals, values and religious views with politics it is not a good thing.
Bizarro Jeff
Hmmm, “tracking of anything from the family dog to products being trucked through harsh regions of the third world.” Sounds a bit ominous that animate objects such dogs or you or me can be tracked minute by minute. I am rather perturbed that anyone could have the capacity or would to have the capacity to scrutinize or surveil my or your movements like this.
The US governement now issues all personnel ID cards with imbedded microchips. Already chips have been approved by FDA that are as small as a grain of rice and are intended to be inserted into the skin.
Remember the 1984 commercial, people. My, my, the irony of it all.
hard to believe george lucas was ever in dire need of $$$ but hey.. even business geniuses can be dumbasses with women (ahem PRE NUP)… come on dude.. you didn’t think that elvis coif was what she was after do ya?
The Woz is way cool. Any of you see Pirates of Silicon Valley? I thought he came out being portrayed in the best light of anybody in that.
The tech sounds way cool but I agree it can be a bit frightening. I have heard that this is already being done with cell phones commercially. There was a story a while ago about some guy in New York tracking his daughter. I don’t think many people have a real idea about how much people can tell about them already from all the high tech out there (anybody see that movie “Enemy of the State” starring Gene Hackman?)
Steve took Pixar and used his vision on it again. Steve’s vision and drive are amazing and world-changing. Just look at what he has done with Apple since coming back. I am so glad Steve and Woz hooked up when they did.
Nice to see so many conspiracy theorists use Macs…
WOZ IS DEVELOPING THE MARK OF THE BEAST! RUN FOR THE HILLS! DON’T LET GEORGE W. HEAR ABOUT THIS OR WE’LL ALL BE DOOMED!
This stuff has some promising uses. Implant a microchip in my daughter so I would know where she was if � God forbid � she was abducted? Hell Yes.
Hey, I have an idea. Let’s not ever do anything at all to improve the quality life lest we find a single abstract negative about it. …the human race is doomed…
Oh Jay…?
Did he mention Homeland Security? The guys Bush put together to, as you put it, keep the government out of our lives?
Less government Jay?
Don’t fear everything new. Any technology can be put to evil use. The same fire that cooks your food can burn your house down, the same radiation that kills cancer in Radiation Therapy can cause cancer in higher doses.
Woz seems like a pretty cool guy in addition to being a pioneer and legend of the first order. In case you don’t know he has a pretty cool website
http://www.woz.org/
Take a few minutes and look around.
tyk:
Using your scenario, the same chip that could locate your daughter obviously also failed to protect her. So, what freedoms are you willing to sacrifice for more governmental control? In whom do you trust?
Anything man can imagine can be done if money, technology, power, or pure perseverance allows it. Conspiracy theory? Hardly, simply a broader view of what can be expected from the human species.
> WOZ IS DEVELOPING THE MARK OF THE BEAST! RUN FOR THE HILLS! DON’T LET GEORGE W. HEAR ABOUT THIS OR WE’LL ALL BE DOOMED
Based on this post, I find it ironic that he first developed the Apple which could be conspiricized as satan tempting Eve (humanity) with the Apple (Fruit of Knowledge) and then developing the chip that some (myself included) consider to be the mark of the beast.
Too bad, I think that Woz is a great guy. But the anti-christ is supposed to come back as someone whom is trusted and develops technology to save and/or help humanity.
Now that I have unleashed the dogs of conspiracy, let them run where they may.
NoPCZone:
“Don’t fear everything new. Any technology can be put to evil use.”
When you are required to have the chip implanted in your body that will allow government to determine where you are and what you spend will you (1) consider this evil and resist or (2) consider this your obligatory service as a “good and compliant” citizen?
macxprt:
Uh, wake up, boy. Them dogs be runnin’ long befo’ you was conscious. Don’t be takin’ credit for nothin’ you didn’t do.
” But the anti-christ is supposed to come back as someone whom is trusted and develops technology to save and/or help humanity.”
Now that you have blown my cover I will personally see to it that that you are properly punished. Nothin’ burns my biscuits more than someone who can’t keep his mouth shut. How is world dictator supposed to get anything done with big mouths like you posting my nefarious plans?
Who can guarantee that this technology will not be used to observe and control individuals? Are there any laws prohibiting mass implantations? Are there any laws exempting people who object to being implanted? Are you willing to be implanted by orders of government, financial institutions, your employer?
It is curious how the technology that exists today was foretold approximately 1990 years ago? Is there anyone intelligent enough to explain this coincidence in terms of statistical probabilities?
Are you guys paranoid or what? Everyone knows the Anti-Christ will come from the Middle East (see Nostradamus’ writings
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />… Woz is American isn’t he?
Stop your worrying and enjoy your Pixar movies and Apple computers.
Oh, and go see just how much fun it is to lose your 3 y/o child for 30 mins at a packed fairground like happened to someone I know. Remember, it’s the application of the technology which defines it as being good or bad, not the technology itself.
(for the record, I’m against tagging people indefinitely, but for certain applications, it will be very helpful… maybe you’ll even be able to tag your own belongings, perhaps invisibly, so that when some druggo steals it, you can find it again, although you might need $100 to get it back again
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
I don’t think you blame the technology for the bad uses it is put to – but the society for allowing it. Here in Spain the March 11 terrorists were tracked down as soon as they tried to activate one of the phone SIM cards they had purchased for yet more atrocities. Thanks to the instantaneous trace that the technology now enable there were stopped in their tracks. Remember, the US space program was founded on the back of Hitler’s V2 rocket program.
The AntiChrist lives in Washington State. Everyone who has used Windows knows that. Woz lives in California.
Whoever tried to turn this into an accusation that people posting in this thread who are concerned about the freedoms we have in this country being infringed on by improper use of technology are trying to demonize Woz for it are completely off base. Woz strikes me as a very sweet guy, and I’m positive the has the purest of intentions for this technology. However, as meat of moose has pointed out, there are people who would love to observe and control the general population of America and regulate what they can or cannot do. Technology such as this, when misused, is an enabler of that very goal. It’s not conspiracy theory. My worry is founded on recent misuse of technology for this very purpose. Do some research on the thousands of video cameras all over Manhattan and the current development of software that will do face and body language recognition and tie all those cameras together, effectively letting the powers that be watch someone 24/7. Then read about their plans to install those cameras in as many cities as they can. Now add this tracking chip into the mix and the fact that you can pretty well be tracked based on phone and computer activity as well as from banking and credit card transactions. It’s not a very large step to have a computer system that pulls all of this information together and, based on certain parameters, flags your account when you do something “wrong” and you find yourself pulled out of your bed in the middle of the night and taken to a detention center where you are held for an indefinite period with no lawyers or visitors because you are a potential terrorist or because you may be a treasonist. Never mind that all you did was not pay your phone bill for three months or something. Don’t think there are laws in place already that won’t allow the government to do that? Think again.
I realize the above scenario is a bit extreme. However, if you look at all the technologies in play today and what the government is doing to tie them together with software and legislation, it’s not such a far-fetched idea and that is what is scary to me. These things aren’t being done to protect us from terrorists. They’re being done to spy on and control our own population.
To the guy who posted as the Anti-Christ…LOL!
Bizarro Jeff