On Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:56:57 -0800, Michael Scoles wrote: >Yeah, and you know what else? Twitmyer demonstrated classical >conditioning before Pavlov. But Pavlov, like Jobs, recognized what >he had.
First, see: Windholz, George (1986). A comparative analysis of the conditional reflex discoveries of pavlov and Twitmyer, and the birth of a paradigm. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science, 21(4), 141-147. Doi: 10.1007/BF02734512 Abstract: Research on conditional reflex (CR) in Pavlov's Physiological Laboratory has preceded Twitmyer's work on conditioning at the University of Pennsylvania by 3 or 4 years. The events in Pavlov's laboratory lead toward the postulation of a new paradigm that rejected the Cartesians conceptualization of the reflex as a mechanistic response to stimuli by replacing it with the Darwinian notion of the organism's adaptation to the environmental conditions. The Pavlovian paradigm rejected the Wundtian method in favor of the objective, conditional reflex method. NOTE: Pavlov gets the credit but, as Rosenzweig points out in his 1959 American Journal of Psychology article, they were many who preceded him with similar ideas. Rosenzweig's article precedes Dallenbach's in that issue which claims priority for Twitmyer. Second, complete the analogy: Twitmyer : Pavlov :: Jobs : ? What exactly is it that Jobs was supposedly first at? My guess would be self-promotion but that doesn't answer the question of what exactly he did that was so significant. If one examines the Wikipedia entry on Apple (yadda-yadda), I think one would have to admit that his biggest contributions occurred when he came back to Apple in 1996 but that was in consumer electronics and not computers. . And just one quote from the Wikipedia entry: |Steve Jobs began working on the Apple Lisa in 1978 but in 1982 |he was pushed from the Lisa team due to infighting, and took over |Jef Raskin's low-cost-computer project, the Macintosh. A turf war |broke out between Lisa's "corporate shirts" and Jobs' "pirates" over |which product would ship first and save Apple. Lisa won the race |in 1983 and became the first personal computer sold to the public |with a GUI, but was a commercial failure due to its high price tag |and limited software titles.[37] So, what was Jobs first at in terms of computers? -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu >>> "Mike Palij" <m...@nyu.edu> 10/7/2011 8:25 AM >>> On Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:29:22 -0700. Michael Sylvester wrote: >As the only mobile DJ on Tips(now performing) at Marcos El Bistro in Daytona >Beach,Steve has made my job easier.The old days of carrying boxes of vinyl >records to play on the the beach during Spring break took a toll on my >turntables and other equipment.Even when cds emerged,it became a pain to >ensure >that there would be no skipping.But in this digital era,I can now store in >computer files,then click and play.As facilitative playing music has become >for >DJ. Professor Sylvester, I have no idea what you think Steve Jobs did in terms of actual contributions to information technology (however, for a glimpse of his bullying administrative style, see this NY Times article on his style as a "Boss"; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/technology/steve-jobs-defended-his-work-with-a-barbed-tongue.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26 ). If you think that Jobs was somehow influential in the development of digitally recorded music, you should clear up such misperceptions by taking a look at the Wikipedia entry (yadda-yadda) on the development of the mp3 format; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/technology/steve-jobs-defended-his-work-with-a-barbed-tongue.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26 Jobs and Apple are conspicuous by their absence. Note that digital music in form of mp3 and other formats were widely available on the internet during the 1990s, often "free" (i.e., no royalties were paid to the artists or copyright holders) and Jobs just developed systems that would "monetize" this situation and simplify the collection of royalties as well as limit the use of the music (through the use of "digital rights management" or DRM). For more on the history of the iPod see the Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipod And for DRM, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Rights_Management Again, I don't think that Jobs did not do anything technically to earn respect, he was just an overseer and marketer. Although people make a lot of noise about the Apple II, few appear to remember that that there were other systems available before Apple, notably computers running the CP/M operating system -- for those unfamiliar with CP/M, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cp/mhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cp/m Bill Gates & Co would use ideas present in CP/M in their development of MS-DOS. CP/M allowed the use of serious software such as the wordprocessing program Wordstar, the spreadsheet Muliplan, Turbo Pascal, dbase II and so on. To get the Apple II to do serious work, one had to get a special processing card for it that would allow one to run CP/M on the Apple in order to use Wordstar, Multiplan, dbase II, etc. Other computers and systems at the time included the Commodore system, the Radio Shack TRS-Dos, etc. My first personal computer was a KayPro with a full software package (Wordstar, dbase, etc.) which made it a much better value than the Apple computers or even the early MS-DOS machines. As for the "remarkable" Macintosh, all one had to do was compare it next to an IBM PS/2 running the operating system OS/2 which was a powerful windowing system which even ran a windows version of SPSS that had all of the capabilities of mainframe versions (such as that on the VAX and Wylbur -- the MS-DOS SPSS-PC was a joke in comparison to OS/2 SPSS). For more background on OS/2 see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS/2 OS/2 is still around but in specialized application like ATM machines. Like Betamax in videotape, OS/2 did not catch on in popularity. >Dr.Mike,I think though, that Steve has killed Classic rock.In fact he >probably killed other music too.I do not think that there is any substitute >for >the old vinyl versions of classic rock-the art work on the album covers,the >musicians contributing to the songs,and reading a short bio of theartist and >songs. I doubt that these young kids downloading today the Eagles,the London >sessions of Led Zepellin, or Traffic (Live at the canteen) or Jimi Hendrix can >read about the historical background when downloading to iTunes.Some kids >still believe that Woodstock was a dope and for unlawful carnal knowledge >party. I really have no idea what you're talking about here. All the kool kids can get their tunes from a variety of sources, especially after the hackers and the crackers break the DRM. I may be wrong but I don't think Jobs contributed much in the way of new technology, theory, or equipment. I do believe he was an expert marketer who, like his "The Big Chill" (it's a movie, rent it) contemporaries, sold out his ideals for a little bit of heaven on earth for him and his own. I think he accomplished this by making products for people who have too much discretionary income and felt the need to buy "toys" that they really didn't need. For these reasons, when I think of Jobs and "Apple Culture" I am reminded of Neil Postman's book "Amusing Ourselves To Death". For those unfamiliar with Postman, see the Wiki entry on him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman >Thanks anyway Steve.Looking forward to iHeavenly tunes and and an >iStairway to heaven version 2. >Feedback requested. Whatever. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14588 or send a blank email to leave-14588-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
