So who is really big brother?

In 1984 when the Macintosh computer was released Steve Jobs
authorized an amazing televison commercial based on the George Orwell book “1984”.

If you haven’t see it recently, take a look: 1984 Macintosh TV Commercial

It was directed by Ridley Scott fresh from filming the science fiction story, “Blade Runner”.

At this time Jobs is in competition with IBM’s PC and he
knows he is loosing the numbers game.

The ad paints IBM as the big monolith who is sucking our
brains and turning us into robots. Theywant total control.

The reality I have learned after reading the Steve Jobs
biography is that he is the total control freak.

He made the engineers building the Macintosh design new
screws so no one from the outside could get “under the hood” and change anything inside. At this time lots of computer users were still hobbyists who loved to open the box to see how it works and personalize it.

Businesses needed to have an open architecture so they could add more memory or application programs.

By making the Macintosh so closed Jobs limited the sales. It was the computer he created…but not the computer all his customers might have wanted.

A great commercial, a doomed computer.

A computer is just a “bicycle for the mind”

During his Lost Interview in 1990 Steve Jobs describes a
computer as a “bicycle for the mind” because it could make a person more efficient and more effective.

This is such a good metaphor but I'm afraid I still operate at a
walking pace. I don’t use the computer everyday. I still read real books and write checks to pay bills. Perhaps there just isn’t enough of that “insanely great stuff” which needs to be sped along.

Perhaps I put up these speed bumps on purpose…something to think about.

It did occur to me so what is I did treat the computer as a “blank,
white canvas” to see what I come up with.

More to follow…

Steve Jobs...what if?

Reading about Steve Job’s younger life there were so many pieces that could have been different and changed the whole story.

What if the first couple had not decided they wanted a baby girl instead of a boy.

What if the Jobs family had stayed in SF rather than taking job in Palo Alto and moving to the Peninsula, also known as Silicon Valley. Steve was able to join the Hewlett Packard Explorers club where he met working engineers who gave talks on current technology like lasers, holography and desktop computers.

What if he had had another father. Paul Jobs, worked on cars in his garage and was a perfectionist. He had an appreciation for clean design and detailing. A real can-do kind of guy he would buy junk cars, fix them up and sell them for a healthy profit. The money would be used to send Steve to Reed College.

What if he hadn’t gone to Homestead High School where he took an electronics class. It was there he met an older graduate, Stephen Wozniak. They both loved the same music, playing pranks and electronics. Their first collaboration was building Blue Boxes so students can make long distance calls illegally. From there they …well Woz designed and built Apple I…and the rest is history.

So what was Steve Job’s most creative idea and what was his dumbest idea?

Who is Hemingway’s Paris Wife?

Heard a good interview with Paula McLain, the author of “The Paris Wife”. She got the idea for the book after reading Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast”. This book was published posthumously in 1964. It’s a collection of stories or memories an old Hemingway puts together describing his young days in Paris.

Interestingly the descriptions of his first wife Hadley are sentimental and rather silly. Their young days of Paris poverty are romantically simple and filled with good eating.

He writes several introductions to the book which are not used. Here’s one:

“This book is fiction. I have left out much and changed and eliminated and I hope Hadley understands. She will see why I hope. She is the heroine and the only person who had a life that turned out well and as it should except certain of the rich.”

She is his heroine!?!

He also writes about her:

“I put my arm around her and felt our hearts beating through our sweaters and I brought my right hand up on her neck smooth and the hair thick against it under my fingers that were shaking.”

Something I learned about Hemingway from this book which I did not know is apparently he suffered from "post tramatic stress syndrome" as a result from his experiences in WWI. He had to sleep with a light on, he had horrible nightmares and he had a bad track record of keeping friends. He's a damaged hero who writes about his ghosts.

What’s so good about sea air?

“Her doctor had urged the trip in response to a spell of poor health – sea air had long been understood to have great curative effect for almost anything that ailed one – but it would seem she needed little persuading.”

So what’s so good about sea air? Is it just the change of air because city air was so bad. Does sea air have restorative qualities? Or is the truth, travel, just getting up and out to see something new and interesting is good for our health?

On a cynical note, if your local doctor sends you off on a trip and you continue to get very sick somewhere else you’re off his books.

More scientific research on this subject to follow…now I must go to my laboratory…no lightweight blog here!

What is Shangri-La?

Shangri-La is a creation of British author, James Hilton, in his 1933 novel “Lost Horizon”It’s a valley hidden somewhere in the Tibetan mountains. The people who have accidently found their way there have learned how to stop the aging process so they live hundreds of years which gives them the greatest gift…time.

“And, most precious of all, you will have Time – that rare and lovely gift that your Western countries have lost the more they have pursued it. Think for a moment. You will have time to read – never again will you skim pages to save minutes, or avoid some study lest it prove too engrossing.”

So no excuses for not reading the book group selection…

The goal of the Shangri-La monks is to preserve culture; literature, music, history since they fear a time where man will create the weapon which will destroy civilization as we know it.

The atom bomb was used in 1945.

“Lost in Shangri-La"’s author, Mitchell Zuckoff, describes the earlier novel, “Lost Horizon”.

“Often read as an adventure tale, Hilton’s book is really a meditation on finding peace and preserving humanity in a world spiraling toward self-destruction. Hilton saw“civilization” trapped in a ruinous cycle, careening from one war to the next, each more deadly and destructive than the last.”

Our “Lost Horizon” hero, Conway, is a veteran from the WW I trenches. Once a brilliant, talented student, musician and athlete currently he is rather unstable and “passionless”about life.

Remarkably the High Lama of Shangri-La recognizes Conway as a kindred spirit and entices him to give up the outside world and stay to replace him once he finally dies. Conway must decide if he should take up the mission of the monastery. For good or bad, he chooses to leave.

I like the twist at the end of the book when we are reminded the whole tale about Shangri-La is just a travel story written by our unstablehero, Conway. So did he make the whole thing up? Does Shangri- La exist?

Zuckoff writes, “It’s no wonder, then a pair of veteran war correspondents looked wistfully on a fertile valley, sealed from the outside world, its natives ignorant of Nazis and kamikazes, and thought of the paradise Hilton had given his fictional paradise.”

It really is a jungle out there.

I’m “enjoying” Matterhorn much more than I thought I would. I really want to find out what is going to happen to the characters; Mellas, Fitch, Hawke, Jackson and the rest. The day in day out information about living and fighting in the jungle (so I love minutia) is fascinating. The relationships between the men are so immediate and real . Since the book is set in 1969 tension between black/white Marines is an important part of the story. The “subtle” politics between officers is another form of combat being fought in the jungle.

Since the original plan was to compare Matterhorn to For Whom the Bell Tolls let’s start with our “heroes”.

Jordan has volunteered to fight in Spain for the Republic. He is experienced and confident. Mellas also signed up for the military, he’s not a draftee. He just didn’t think he would end up fighting in the jungle. On the bright side, now that he’s here, all of this will look good on his resume when he gets home to run for political office. He is so painfully inexperienced. Marlantes describes how uncomfortable he is talking with his men, the other officers, everybody. He doesn’t know the right questions to ask, he can’t remember anyone’s name. He's exhausted. He’s clueless. What a different opening for a book.

One of his soldiers has had a headache for weeks. What should he do about it?

" 'Do I have to deal with it now?' Mellas asked. He instantly regreted asking the question. He knew he was whining. "

Mellas is so over his head. When leading one of his first missions he’s advised by his soldiers to call for air power to blow up an elephant??…at least they think it’s an elephant making the noise in the jungle…but they’re not sure, and he/they will never know.

So who is the real enemy here? In camp they daily battle leeches and foot rot. As an officer one of his duties is to check the feet of his men to make sure they don’t get “immersion feet”.

On his first big “security patrols” one of his men is killed by a tiger. How do you explain that to a soldier’s family?

Next: But that would be murder…