Auch Steve Jobs musste ab und zu in den sauren Apfel beissen ... "
Albert Einstein
Liliputins. What, the heck, is this ?
http://www.stihi.ru/2012/08/18/
***
in den sauren Apfel beissen (Deutsch)
Redewendung
Bedeutungen:
[1] eine unangenehme, undankbare Aufgabe uebernehmen, einen Nachteil hinnehmen
Synonyme:
[1] eine Kroete schlucken, die bittere Pille schlucken
Beispiele:
[1] Ich werde wohl in den sauren Apfel beissen und die Nachtschicht uebernehmen.
;bersetzungen
Englisch: [1] bite the bullet ; en, grin and bear it ; en, swallow the bitter pill ; en
Russisch: [1] ïðîãëîòèòü ïèëþëþ () ; ru /die Pille herunterschlucken/
***
Apple (1976–1985)
"Basically Steve Wozniak and I invented the Apple because we wanted a personal computer. Not only couldn't we afford the computers that were on the market, those computers were impractical for us to use. We needed a Volkswagen. The Volkswagen isn't as fast or comfortable as other ways of traveling, but the VW owners can go where they want, when they want and with whom they want. The VW owners have personal control of their car."
—Steve Jobs.[13]
Jobs began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Wozniak in 1975.[47] In 1976, Wozniak invented the Apple I computer. After Wozniak showed it to Jobs, who suggested that they sell it, they and Ronald Wayne formed Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs's Los Altos home on Crist Drive.[48] Wayne stayed only a short time, leaving Jobs and Wozniak as the active primary cofounders of the company.[49] A neighbor on Crist Drive recalled Jobs as odd, an individual who would greet his clients "with his underwear hanging out, barefoot and hippie-like."[23] Another neighbor, Larry Waterland, who had just finished his PhD at Stanford in chemical engineering, recalled dismissing Jobs's budding business: " 'You punched cards, put them in a big deck,' he said about the mainframe machines of that time. 'Steve took me over to the garage. He had a circuit board with a chip on it, a DuMont TV set, a Panasonic cassette tape deck and a keyboard. He said, 'This is an Apple computer.' I said, 'You've got to be joking.' I dismissed the whole idea.' "[23] Jobs's friend from Reed College and India, Daniel Kottke, recalled that he "was the only person who worked in the garage ... Woz would show up once a week with his latest code. Steve Jobs didn't get his hands dirty in that sense." Kottke also stated that much of the early work took place in Jobs's kitchen, where he spent hours on the phone trying to find investors for the company.[23]
Steve Jobs with Wendell Brown at the launch of Brown's Hippo-C software for Macintosh, January 1984
They received funding from a then-semi-retired Intel product marketing manager and engineer Mike Markkula.[50] Scott McNealy, one of the cofounders of Sun Microsystems, said that Jobs broke a "glass age ceiling" in Silicon Valley because he'd created a very successful company at a young age.[46]
"For what characterizes Apple is that its scientific staff always acted and performed like artists – in a field filled with dry personalities limited by the rational and binary worlds they inhabit, Apple's engineering teams had passion. They always believed that what they were doing was important and, most of all, fun. Working at Apple was never just a job; it was also a crusade, a mission, to bring better computer power to people. At its roots that attitude came from Steve Jobs. It was "Power to the People", the slogan of the sixties, rewritten in technology for the eighties and called Macintosh."
—Jeffrey S. Young, Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward (1987).[13]
After she returned from her own journey to India, Brennan visited Jobs at his parent's home, where he was still living. It was during this period that Jobs and Brennan fell in love again, as Brennan noted changes in him that she attributes to Kobun (whom she was also still following). It was also at this time that Jobs displayed a prototype Apple computer for Brennan and his parents in their living room. Brennan notes a shift in this time period, where the two main influences on Jobs were Apple and Kobun. By the early 1977, she and Jobs would spend time together at her home at Duveneck Ranch in Los Altos, which served as a hostel and environmental education center. Brennan also worked there as a teacher for inner city children who came to learn about the farm.[20]
In 1977, Jobs and Wozniak introduced the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire. It was the first consumer product sold by Apple Computer and was one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products,[51] It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak. Jobs oversaw the development of the Apple II's unusual case[2] and Rod Holt developed the unique power supply.[52]
Jobs usually wore a black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by Issey Miyake (it was sometimes reported as St. Croix brand), Levi's 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 sneakers to work.[53][54] He said his choice was inspired by that of Stuart Geman, a noted applied mathematics professor at Brown University. Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson "...he came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style."[53]
As Jobs and Apple became more successful, his relationship with Brennan grew more complex. In 1977, with the success of Apple now a part of their relationship, Brennan, Daniel Kottke, and Jobs moved into a house near to the Apple office in Cupertino.[20] Brennan eventually took a position at Apple in the shipping department.[20][55] Brennan's relationship with Jobs was deteriorating as his position with Apple grew, and she began to consider ending the relationship through small changes. In October 1977, Brennan was approached by Rod Holt, who asked her to take "a paid apprenticeship designing blueprints for the Apples."[20] Both Holt and Jobs felt that it would be a good position for her, given her artistic abilities. Holt was particularly eager that she take the position and puzzled by her ambivalence toward it. Brennan's decision, however, was overshadowed by the fact that she realized she was pregnant and that Jobs was the father. It took her a few days to tell Jobs, whose face, according to Brennan "turned ugly" at the news. At the same time, according to Brennan, at the beginning of her third trimester, Jobs said to her: “I never wanted to ask that you get an abortion. I just didn’t want to do that.”[20] He also refused to discuss the pregnancy with her.[2] Brennan herself felt confused about what to do. She was estranged from her mother and afraid to discuss the matter with her father. She also did not feel comfortable with the idea of having an abortion. She chose instead to discuss the matter with Kobun, who encouraged her to have and keep the baby, and pledged his support. Meanwhile, Holt was waiting for her decision on the internship. Brennan states that Jobs continued to encourage her to take the internship, stating she could "be pregnant and work at Apple, you can take the job. I don’t get what the problem is.”[20] Brennan however notes that she "felt so ashamed: the thought of my growing belly in the professional environment at Apple, with the child being his, while he was unpredictable, in turn being punishing and sentimentally ridiculous. I could not have endured it."[20]
Brennan thus turned down the internship and decided to leave Apple. She states that Jobs told her "If you give up this baby for adoption, you will be sorry" and “I am never going to help you.”[20] Now alone, Brennan was on welfare and cleaning houses to earn money. She would sometimes ask Jobs for money but he always refused. Brennan hid her pregnancy for as long as she could, living in a variety of homes and continuing her work with Zen meditation. At the same time, according to Brennan, Jobs "started to seed people with the notion that I slept around and he was infertile, which meant that this could not be his child." A few weeks before she was due, Brennan was invited to have her baby at the All One Farm in Oregon and Brennan accepted the offer.[20] When Jobs was 23 (the same age as his biological parents when they had him)[2] Brennan gave birth to her baby, Lisa Brennan on May 17, 1978.[20][56]
"Dear Mike, This morning's papers carried suggestions that Apple is considering removing me as chairman. I don't know the source of these reports, but they are both misleading to the public and unfair to me. You will recall that at last Thursday's Board meeting I stated I had decided to start a new venture, and I tendered my resignation as chairman. The Board declined to accept my resignation and asked me to defer it for a week. I agreed to do so in light of the encouragement the Board offered with regard to the proposed new venture and the indications that Apple would invest in it. On Friday, after I told John Sculley who would be joining me, he confirmed Apple's willingness to discuss areas of possible collaboration between Apple and my new venture. Subsequently the Company appears to be adopting a hostile posture toward me and the new venture. Accordingly, I must insist upon the immediate acceptance of my resignation. I would hope that in any statement it feels it must issue, the Company will make it clear that the decision to resign as chairman was mine. I find myself both saddened and perplexed by the management's conduct in this matter which seems to me contrary to Apple's best interests. Those interests remain a matter of deep concern to me, both because of my past association with Apple and the substantial investment I retain in it. I continue to hope that calmer voices within the Company may yet be heard. Some Company representatives have said they fear I will use proprietary Apple technology in my new venture. There is no basis for any such concern. If that concern is the real source of Apple's hostility to the venture, I can allay it. As you know, the company's recent re-organization left me with no work to do and no access even to regular management reports. I am but 30 and want still to contribute and achieve. After what we have accomplished together, I would wish our parting to be both amicable and dignified. Yours sincerely, Steven P. Jobs."
—Steve Jobs, letter of resignation from Apple Computer, September 17th, 1985.[13]
Jobs went there for the birth after he was contacted by Robert Friedland, their mutual friend and owner of the All One Farm. While distant, Jobs worked with her on a name for the baby, which they discussed sitting in the fields on a blanket. Brennan suggested the name "Lisa" which Jobs also liked and notes that Jobs was very attached to the name "Lisa" while he "was also publicly denying paternity." She would discover later that during this time, Jobs was preparing to unveil a new kind of computer that he wanted to give a female name (his first choice was "Claire" after St. Clare). She also states that she never gave him permission to use the baby's name for a computer and he hid the plans from her. Jobs also worked with his team to come up with the phrase, "Local Integrated Software Architecture" as an alternative explanation for the Apple Lisa[57] (decades later, however, Jobs admitted to his biographer Walter Isaacson that "obviously, it was named for my daughter"[58]). Brennan would come under intense criticism from Jobs who claimed that "she doesn't want money, she just wants me." According to Brennan, Apple's Mike Scott wanted Jobs to give her money, while other Apple executives "advised him to ignore me or fight if I tried to go after a paternity settlement."[20]
When Jobs denied paternity a DNA test was given that established him as Lisa's father. It required him to give Brennan $385 a month in addition to returning the money she had received from welfare. Jobs gave her $500 a month at the time when Apple went public, and Jobs became a millionaire. Brennan worked as a waitress in Palo Alto. Later, Brennan agreed to give an interview with Michael Moritz for Time magazine for its Time Person of the Year special, released on January 3, 1983, in which she discussed her relationship with Jobs. Rather than name Jobs the Person of the Year, the magazine named the computer the "Machine of the Year".[59] In the issue, Jobs questioned the reliability of the paternity test (which stated that the "probability of paternity for Jobs, Steven... is 94.1%").[60] Jobs responded by arguing that "28% of the male population of the United States could be the father."[20][60] Time also noted that "the baby girl and the machine on which Apple has placed so much hope for the future share the same name: Lisa."[60]
Jobs was worth a million dollars when he was 23 (1978), 10 million when he was 24, and over 100 million when he was 25. He was also one of the youngest "people ever to make the Forbes list of the nation's richest people – and one of only a handful to have done it themselves, without inherited wealth."[13]
In 1978, Apple recruited Mike Scott from National Semiconductor to serve as CEO for what turned out to be several turbulent years. In 1983, Jobs lured John Sculley away from Pepsi-Cola to serve as Apple's CEO, asking, "Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?"[61]
In 1982, Jobs bought an apartment in the two top floors of The San Remo, a Manhattan building with a politically progressive reputation. Although he never lived there,[62] he spent years renovating it with the help of I. M. Pei. In 2003, he sold it to U2 singer Bono.
In 1984, Jobs bought the Jackling House and estate, and resided there for a decade. After that, he leased it out for several years until 2000 when he stopped maintaining the house, allowing exposure to the weather to degrade it. In 2004, Jobs received permission from the town of Woodside to demolish the house in order to build a smaller contemporary styled one. After a few years in court, the house was finally demolished in 2011, a few months before he died.[63]
In early 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh, which was based on The Lisa (and Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface).[64][65] The following year, Apple aired a Super Bowl television commercial titled "1984." At Apple's annual shareholders meeting on January 24, 1984, an emotional Jobs introduced the Macintosh to a wildly enthusiastic audience; Andy Hertzfeld described the scene as "pandemonium."[66]
Despite the fanfare, the expensive Macintosh was a hard sell.[67] Shortly after its release in 1985, Bill Gates' then-developing company, Microsoft, threatened to stop developing Mac applications unless it was granted "a license for the Mac operating system software. Microsoft was developing its graphical user interface ... for DOS, which it was calling Windows and didn't want Apple to sue over the similarities between the Windows GUI and the Mac interface."[68] Sculley granted Microsoft the license which later led to problems for Apple.[68] In addition, cheap IBM PC clones that ran on Microsoft software and had a graphical user interface began to appear. Although the Macintosh preceded the clones, it was far more expensive, so "through the late '80s, the Windows user interface was getting better and better and was thus taking increasingly more share from Apple."[69] Windows based IBM-PC clones also led to the development of additional GUIs such as IBM's TopView or Digital Research's GEM,[69] and thus "the graphical user interface was beginning to be taken for granted, undermining the most apparent advantage of the Mac...it seemed clear as the '80s wound down that Apple couldn't go it alone indefinitely against the whole IBM-clone market."[69]
Sculley and Jobs's visions for the company greatly differed. The former favored open architecture computers like the Apple II, sold to education, small business, and home markets less vulnerable to IBM. Jobs wanted the company to focus on the closed architecture Macintosh as a business alternative to the IBM PC. President and CEO Sculley had little control over chairman of the board Jobs's Macintosh division; it and the Apple II division operated like separate companies, duplicating services.[70] Although its products provided 85% of Apple's sales in early 1985, the company's January 1985 annual meeting did not mention the Apple II division or employees. Many left including Wozniak, who stated that the company had "been going in the wrong direction for the last five years" and sold most of his stock.[71] The Macintosh's failure to defeat the PC strengthened Sculley's position in the company.
In May 1985, Sculley (encouraged by Arthur Rock) decided to reorganize Apple, and proposed a plan to the board that would remove Jobs from the Macintosh group and put him in charge of "New Product Development." This move would effectively render Jobs powerless within Apple.[13] In response, then Jobs developed a plan to get rid of Sculley and take over Apple. However, after the plan was leaked and Jobs confronted, he said that he would leave Apple. The Board declined his resignation and asked him to reconsider. Sculley also told Jobs that he had all of the votes needed to go ahead with the reorganization. A few months later, on September 17, 1985, Jobs turned in a letter of resignation to the Apple Board. Five additional senior Apple employees also resigned and joined Jobs in his new venture, NeXT.[13]