Spreading the aloha of Macintosh, Hawaiian music and island culture from the sunset side of Haleakala volcano on the wonderful island of Maui

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Friday, January 7, 2005

Founder Follies #1: Steve Bails on MacWorld Webcast and Bill Steps in it at CES News Flash: Jobs kills realtime feed of Macworld keynote speech? link For the first time in several years, Apple Computer may not provide a live feed of its opening keynote presentation at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, reportedly miffed over a series new product leaks, has abruptly pulled the plug on the realtime webcast and satellite broadcast of his Macworld Expo keynote, according to an Apple memo. Steve Jobs Plays With His Lawyers Then Hides Is he paranoid, stupid or just being cautious? The Steve has not only been sticking his lawyers on to anyone who leaks information about Apple's unannounced products, he's now declared that there will be no webcast of next week's MacWorld keynote. Has Mr Jobs been drinking Bill Gates' Kool Aid? For those of you who are unaware of the Mac devotees equivalent of Ramadan, the January Macworld is where new MacPod products are announced to raves and applause by the attendant faithful. This presentation has become as much an icon as the unshaven CEO himself. But somewhere along the line, our founder seems to have lost his nerve and gained a herd of attack litigators that are sent snarling and spitting after anyone who dares pre-release accurate information about the company's 'unannounced products.' Popular rumor sites and chatty individuals are the current focus of Apple's fierce attacks. But instead of quieting the rumors these legal offensives have only served to substantiate them and make Apple look like paranoid asshole clones of the RIAA. Perhaps the success of iTunes has made the mothership think it is now a 'record company' and therefore entitled to all stupidity of that industry. This would be a shame because the vinyl platter business is the most arrogant and braindead pile of oligarchs outside of the DC beltway. There are two reasons I can think of why Steve may have chosen to cancel coverage of his dog and peony show: ONE: After Bill Gates' farkups at CES last week he doesn't want to crash live on a national webcast Microsoft and Bill Gates suffered an embarrassing software failure during Gates' "digital lifestyle" presentation at CES, when the Microsoft PowerPoint software used for the presentation crashed, followed by a systemwide "Blue Screen of Death" crash.... OR: (and here's the good one) TWO: The Faithful Were Planning a Revolt There actually were plans being made for a mass protest during the keynote presentation which involved members of the audience standing up and yelling "STOP SUING US!" This was reportedly being organized through tech Blogs such as Engadget, the idea had probably gained critical enough mass that the entire audience could have become one screaming, pissed-off mob. One thing the Steve does not like is anyone upstaging him. Especially when they are supposed to be his loyal supporters. We'll have to wait until next week to see what transpires. At least life with the big fruit is never boring. 7:42:01 PM    comment []