Discovery orders Steve Jobs documentary with 'Mythbusters' hosts

Entertainment Weekly ^ | 10/11/2011 | by James Hibbard

[Swordmaker]

Discovery has ordered a documentary on the life of the late Steve Jobs, with the Mythbusters duo on board to host. The network is teaming with NBC’s Peacock Productions for iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World, a one-hour special. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who celebrate the spirit of innovation on Discovery’s hit Mythbusters, will host the show.

“Someone once said that to follow the path that others have laid before you is a very reasonable course of action, therefore all progress is made by unreasonable men,” Savage said. “Steve Jobs was an unreasonable man. He didn’t simply give the public what they wanted, he defined entirely new ways of thinking about our lives in the digital space: productivity, creativity, music, communication, media and art. He has touched, directly and indirectly, all of our lives.”

The special has already lined up interviews with several key names to talk about the Apple co-founder and CEO, including: Lee Felsenstein, founding member of the Homebrew Computer Club, Daniel Kottke, who traveled to India with Jobs and who later become an early Apple employee, and John Draper, an engineer who gave Jobs his start. Musicians Stevie Wonder and Pete Wentz will talk about how Jobs’ innovations impacted their careers.

The documentary premieres Sunday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. and will air across Discovery’s portfolio of networks in 210 countries and territories.

[Swordmaker]

Discovery Channel will air Steve Jobs documentary on Sunday, October 16, 2011, at 8:00PM, hosted by the Mythbusters—PING!

Steve Jobs Documentary Ping!

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[submarinerswife]

I like these guys. Jamie and whats-his-name.

[tallyhoe]

Did you know that Apple got their Windows operating system from Xerox?

[Krankor]

From what I understand, he was somewhat of a jerk when dealing with subordinates. I also understand he wasn’t above being dishonest in his business dealings. The coup de grace- denying paternity of one of his kids- even claiming he was sterile. I wonder if the “Mythbusters” will mention this?

[fremont_steve]

Just a little history - John Draper was also known as the Phone Phreak “Captain Crunch” taking his name from a whistle that was available in the same-named serial as a prize that would reliably emit 2600 Hz. The two Steve’s had a period where they were building “Blue Boxes” to sell to other phone phreaks. Draper also wrote the first text editor available for the IBM PC - EasyWriter.

[Swordmaker]

Did you know that Apple got their Windows operating system from Xerox?

No, I did not know that, because it isn't true. Apple was already developing its own GUI at the time of the visit.

Apple developed their windows GUI on their own with some ideas they bought from Xerox for $7 million in pre-IPO stock by observing what Xerox was doing at its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in two visits that totaled only 16 hours for six people. Apple took NO CODE and only observed. Steve Jobs arranged the visit because they were working on a GUI and his primary GUI engineer had been one of the software engineers at PARC and said they should see what they were researching there. So Steve approached Xerox' management and worked out a deal to do just that. The two GUIs are very different although they superficially look similar.

Apple, on its own developed movable self repairing windows, drop down and nested hierarchal menus (Xerox's appeared wherever the mouse pointer was), Menu bars, drag and drop copying, as well as drag to an icon to invoke the icon's abilities, overlapping windows, and a host of other features of the windowing GUI that were not at all present in the smalltalk windows that Xerox showed on those visits.

Before you add the myth Apple got the mouse from Xerox that's usually included in this canard, that is also untrue. Apple got that from the Stanford Research Institute, where it was actually invented by Douglas Englebart in the 1960s... and Apple, unlike Microsoft, and Xerox, actually licensed it for their use.

[Swordmaker]

From what I understand, he was somewhat of a jerk when dealing with subordinates. I also understand he wasn’t above being dishonest in his business dealings. The coup de grace- denying paternity of one of his kids- even claiming he was sterile. I wonder if the “Mythbusters” will mention this?

Yes, he could be... and he thought he was sterile. But two years later he found he was not and claimed her... In fact the LISA computer is named for her. There were a few early incidents where he was less than honest with Woz... but later he has been extremely honest in his dealings, always giving credit where it was due. In the case of Wozniak, the $600 Atari deal was more than made up by the fact that he made Woz a multimillionaire hundreds of times over. Woz was going to be happy with an "atta boy" from the members of the "Home Brew Computer Club" for making the Apple II. Steve turned it into the most valuable corporation in the world.

[glyptol]

Now that he has passed, and can’t speak for himself, just look at the people trying to milk the corpse.

[martin_fierro]

A matched set!

[Talisker]

Apple developed their windows GUI on their own with some ideas they bought from Xerox for $7 million in pre-IPO stock by observing what Xerox was doing at its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in two visits that totaled only 16 hours for six people. Apple took NO CODE and only observed.

Yes, he could be... [a jerk when dealing with subordinates]

... he thought he was sterile. But two years later he found he was not and claimed her... In fact the LISA computer is named for her...

There were a few early incidents where he was less than honest with Woz... In the case of Wozniak, the $600 Atari deal was more than made up by the fact that he made Woz a multimillionaire hundreds of times over. Woz was going to be happy with an "atta boy" from the members of the "Home Brew Computer Club" for making the Apple II. Steve turned it into the most valuable corporation in the world.

[mountaineer1997]

I hope the show discloses that Steve was inspired by his LSD experiences....Many of us, if we are candid, will reported life changing inspiration by the same catalyst in the 70’s. Jobs reported that his LSD tripping was among his top three most profound influences.

[kidd]

My understanding is that Apple adapted the Xerox idea of a mouse and improved on it.

[MrEdd]

A clever marketer of technologies already in use is gone. Plenty more where that one came from.

[Talisker]

I hope the show discloses that Steve was inspired by his LSD experiences....Many of us, if we are candid, will reported life changing inspiration by the same catalyst in the 70’s. Jobs reported that his LSD tripping was among his top three most profound influences.

Steve Jobs said a lot of things.

Like, for example, The Elevator Question.

Ever hear of it?

No?

It goes like this:

You work at Apple, and you get into an elevator, and Steve Jobs gets into the elevator with you, and the doors close.

Steve looks at you and says, "what do you do here"?

Here's the fun part: you have until the door opens to convince him you're valuable enough to keep your job.

Fun Fact: No Apple building was taller than four stories.

Other Fun Fact: Jobs didn't just actually fire people this way - literally as he walked out of the elevator - he enjoyed it.

Jobs hemorrhaged excellent talent, right in the middle of Silicon Valley, where people could - and did - walk down the street and get another job, with stock options, at a better salary, if you pissed them off.

He didn't care - he was notorious for this. He wrecked projects, teams, divisions, year after year after year.

And why? Because he could. He was Steve Jobs.

And if you were too valuable to screw with, you got "The Honeymoon." Where Steve would praise you to everyone, everywhere. Invite you over, take you out, be mesmerized by you. And you know why he'd do it? Because after you were nice and pumped up, then he could give YOU the Elevator Question, and either fire you, or ridicule in front of the entire company.

Merit didn't enter into it - only vulnerability.

Not a "nice guy"?

You have no idea.

There's a reason he and the Clintons got along so well, and it goes way beyond mere politics.

[SunkenCiv]

John Draper, a.k.a. Captain Crunch, I believe.

Dan Kottke’s a cousin (distant I think) to Leo Kottke, in case anyone wondered.

[Swordmaker]

My understanding is that Apple adapted the Xerox idea of a mouse and improved on it.

Doug Engelbart of Stanford Research Institute invented the Mouse, not Xerox... and Apple licensed it from SRI. The did improve on it. Some others added more buttons. Apple eventually accepted the need for more buttons.

[SunkenCiv]

> Did you know that Apple got their Windows operating system from Xerox?

Did you know that Windows is actually a Microsoft product?

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.archaeology.org/1107/features/mos_technology_6502_computer_chip_cpu.html

[ThomasThomas]

How can they do a show with out blowing any thing up?