“Did computer geek Steve Jobs have a system meltdown? On Friday, the svengali-like CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animated [sic] Studios lashed out at author Fredric Alan Maxwell after he sent Jobs a 4,000-word article he wrote for Fast Company magazine about the untold story of Jobs’ biological father, a Syrian immigrant and political science professor named Abdulfattah Jandali,” Lloyd Grove reports for The New York Daily News.
“‘Are you a nut case?’ Jobs demanded, signing the oneliner ‘Steve.’ Maxwell fired back: ‘Are you?’ The Montana-based author has been pushing Jobs’ buttons for a while, even conducting 18 months of research for an unauthorized biography before Penguin Group’s Portfolio imprint pulled the plug earlier this year,” Grove reports. “He finally sent Jobs the piece about his birth father after Fast Company killed it.”
Full article here.
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It’s “Pixar Animation Studios,” not “Pixar Animated Studios.” This Maxwell guys seems to excel at having his work killed before it ever gets published.
“‘Apple runs as a cult of Steve Jobs, who has a well-known reality distortion field,’ Maxwell told Lowdown.”
Wow, such penetrating original insight!
The birthdad of the birthdad of the Mac! woohoo! Somebody call Oprah!
I can imagine that for adopted people the identity and history of their biological parents is a sensitive issue. What is the point of an article like this?
This is his only proof:
“His identity was outed, albeit obscurely, by Jobs’ sister, Mona Simpson.”
Obscurely, eh? What if this jackass is wrong? Look, this guy may be frustrated and bitter, but this is unethical for a professional writer.
Sooooooooooooooooooo What???!!!!
Personally I think anyone who exploits another person private life as a means to make money are scum. What ever happened to common decency?
go to amazon and search for this guy’s previous (and apparently only) book, which was a biography of steve ballmer. the reader reviews are TERRIBLE, citing him for bad research and factual errors. apparently, he even refers to internet explorer as a ‘search engine’.
i’m sure jobs has done his homework on the guy…
Jobs had a dad???
WTF, I thought Jobs was the product of an immaculate reception <rotflh>
don’t worry…
i too am diging up dirt about family members of Fred Maxwell. Apparently, he’s got a mom that eat his sister whole after her birth, which of course, means that ol Fred should be shouldered with that burden, because it somehow means something about him.
seriously – he found out my biological fathers name – that means he’s got some l33t google skillz, and not much of a soul.
for what its worth, i’ve seen him club baby seals on the weekends up off pier 39.
I actually think this guy IS a little bit of a nutcase… he’s desperate for a story… but not only that… he really wants to piss people off.
“What ever happened to common decency?”
answer: it never existed.
MDN can’t be from NYC so 3 words for ya: Consider the source.
NY Daily News wouldn’t hire Maxwell because he hasn’t sunk to their journalistic standards yet.
Steve’s ‘Dad’ was Paul Jobs. I believe he sold electronics parts.
Most ‘men’ will concede that it takes more than the ‘contribution’ of a tablespoon of biological matter to earn the title ‘Dad’.
Maxwell is a dick. A tiny one. I hope that he is neither a dad nor father.
I thought Jobs was an inarticulate mass of lifeless tissue brought to life by Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman
Jobs hit the nail on the head – the guy IS a nut-case, pure and simple.
” Pixar Animated [sic] Studios”
WTF is [sic]. Sorry, noob here.
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I think anyone has a right to get shirty when a little prick uses information purely to further his own somewhat tardy career and then deems to let the person he is targetting know about it to wind him up further still. That said it would be far better if you can, to ignore such leeches because sending that email was done deliberatly to gain publicity and in replying it simply achieves that very aim for him. However that is easy to say and rather less easy to fulfill when confronted by such provocation.
feeze got it right:
“Personally I think anyone who exploits another person private life as a means to make money are scum. What ever happened to common decency?”
How dare this Maxwell twat go digging around in something so personal, and then try and rub SJs face in it!!!
Maxwell needs a good kick in the nuts. Well done to the publishers for withdrawing their support.
Gotta love Steve Jobs.
“I’m writing a biography of you,” Maxwell reminded him, to which Jobs replied, “Lucky you.”
The author of the article needs someone to dive into his past… Wonder what we might find… Its not the past that matters but what you do with the present and the future. By the way didn’t we all come over on the boat at one time in our families history!!!!!!!!!
HPod:
“Sic (Latin), [sic] or (sic) representing “thus”, “as it is written here”, “thusly”. This is a short-hand indicating that a quoted source contains an error. For example, “I’ve missspelled this” becomes “I’ve missspelled [sic] this”, when quoted by a later author who sees the spelling error and wishes to indicate that the source material contained the error, it was not introduced by the quoting author.””
Read the book, “iCon.” It is a great book about Steve Jobs history!
MW: door
HPod,
In writing and/or journalism, the term ‘[sic]’ is usually used to indicate that somebody f*cked up.
The quoter will usually quote a written statement verbatim (latin: ‘word for word’) and will use the term to acknowledge the fact that a writer made an error while simultaneously indicating that THEY are not the one who is an idiot; the person who originally wrote the piece is.
In this particular case, the term ‘Pixar Animated Studios’ as opposed to ‘Pixar ANIMATION Studios’ (which is Pixar’s full name) was used.
The quoter (MDN) is pointing out that fact, while giving full credit to the ill-informed Mr. Maxwell.
The following is from ‘dictionary.com’:
[sic] – Pronunciation Key (sik) adv. —
“Thus; so. Used to indicate that a quoted passage, especially one containing an error or unconventional spelling, has been retained in its original form or written intentionally.”
[Latin sc. See so- in Indo-European Roots.]
Hee hee. I like Steve.