Comments for Taming Chaos

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by Jackson Hill

Jackson Hill — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:18:07 +0000

being a computer programmer myself makes me very proud of my job.*;

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by Jan

Jan — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:11:00 +0000

Interesting analysis. However the fact that Apple products are created and used by misfits and potential geniuses does not make every Apple user a genius. The fact that Apple buyers think it does is a testimony to the genius of Apple marketing. Thechnologically it’s still rubbish, but hey – can’t fault the marketing.
The greatest problem with A. is the closedness of any A. system, making innovation hard and stifling technological creativity. After market add-ons are limited to cute woolly socks to protect your iPhone, and A.-approved software (don’t show any nipples, or else…)
So there you have it: marketing superiority and technological retardation.

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by Ivo

Ivo — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:50:25 +0000

I have to agree with hangingwater in questioning all the computer science bits of your analysis.

First of all, object-oriented programming is just a more advanced form of structured programming (here called “procedural programming”). The same structure is still there (modules = classes, subroutines = methods, etc.) but now modules can also contain data structures. This does not necessarily make the program more scalable or flexible.

The program is also still executed by one deterministic execution thread, so there is still one ‘truth’ dictated from above.

The reason that Windows (NT/XP) was not developed entirely in an object-oriented language is because it was developed about a decade earlier than OS X (late 1980s). Object-orientation was quite young at that time and there weren’t many languages that supported it. Some parts of it are actually written in such a language (C++).

That this doesn’t affect portability (or “flexibility” as you call it) is proven by the fact that Windows has been ported to a number of different architectures without problems (Alpha, SPARC, Itanium, etc.).

Finally, you’re just making stuff up about Apple’s code base and the use of OS X on iPhones. They run on a different OS called iPhone OS, which bears as much resemblance to OS X as Windows Mobile does to Windows Vista (i.e. very little).

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by hangingwater

hangingwater — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:06:33 +0000

An interesting take, but I have to question the idea that MS Windows isn’t object-oriented and Mac OSX is.

I’d also question the idea that object orientation is philosophically at odds somehow with notions of hierarchy – in fact hierarchy is fundamental to object-orientation (objects are instances of classes, classes inherit attributes and functionality from their parent classes, etc.).

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by bonelyfish

bonelyfish — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:15:51 +0000

Very interesting and provoking. Thank you.

Surely Apple sees things different. Just take a look at how every of its product deviates from conventional (IT) wisdom. In fact I am impressed when knowing that Jobs insisted there should not be any screw visible on iPod, and the expensive manual polished iPod’s back.

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by Bob

Bob — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:45:23 +0000

Bravo, very well written.

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by Steve

Steve — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:44:00 +0000

I too came here via RD. This is a great article and an interesting analysis to why people always complain about Apple, parroting what ‘the man’ tells them too. Disappointing I guess, but hopefully Apple will continue to pioneer and eventually people will see the light. Thanks again!

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by Codar

Codar — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:06:26 +0000

“Cocao” –> “Cocoa” (in the last paragraph)

Except from that, a great post! Thanks for leading me here from RD.
In Apple’s “Think different”-ads, they used to say: “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

It used to be about Einstein, Picasso, Branson, Edison, Lennon and all the other geniusses – but over the years, it seems more and more like they were talking about their future self…

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by jean-paul

jean-paul — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:28:43 +0000

Superb analysis, thank you (and some great observations to chew on too)!

Comment on Why Apple products are ‘misfits’ by mobiusloop

mobiusloop — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:39:02 +0000

I bookmarked an excellent find on the internet today. Thank you and RD for leading me here.