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Steve Jobs' take on the Segway: "I think it's coming along," said Tim, "though we expect—" "I think it sucks!" said Jobs. His vehemence made Tim pause. "Why?"
by andreyf 17y ago
Steve Jobs' take on the Segway:
"I think it's coming along," said Tim, "though we expect—" "I think it sucks!" said Jobs.
His vehemence made Tim pause. "Why?" he asked, a bit stiffly.
"It just does. [...] Its shape is not innovative, it's not elegant, it doesn't feel anthropomorphic."
This is from "Code Name Ginger: The Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World". The chapter with the meeting with Jobs is available here:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3533.html http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/3533.html
- Xichekolas 17y agoWhile not Steve Jobs, I will always remember Maddox's thoughts on the Segway: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=segway_more_complicated_than_it_needs_to_be http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=segway_more_...
- stevejohnson 17y agoThe campus police at my university use exactly that: basically a Segway with a third wheel on the back.
- rythie 17y agoOur campus police use a golf cart
- pingswept 17y agoI liked that rant, until I reached the part making fun of FETs: "What the hell does a FET do? Nobody knows, but I guarantee some nerd spent months writing a graduate thesis on why it's important (and failing)." That's just ignorant. FETs are week ~3 of an intro EE class. It's like saying "What the hell does a function do?" to make fun of C.
- mixmax 17y agoWell nobody except programmers know what a function does.
- mahmud 17y agoNot even the great majority of programmers know what a function does; programmer talk must sound like the script of Idiocracy to mathematicians ("Hey, this function returns an integer and sets a flag on error".)
- Xichekolas 17y agoWell it is Maddox (if you are unfamiliar, read some of his other rants). His goal is not so much technical commentary as make-you-angry commentary. He makes ZSFA look like an apology. In fact, this was actually the least inflammatory writing I've probably ever seen from him. So yeah, rest assured he put that in there just to rile people up.
- philwelch 17y agoHah, he even links to Trevor Blackwell's built-in-a-weekend-in-Python Segway that pg references.
- herdrick 17y agoThat was so great. That article opened my eyes to visual design - or started the process. (And the Bezos thing shocked me - how could such a smart and accomplished guy be such conspiracy theorist? Weird.)