back to article 'Prophetic' Steve Jobs autograph telling kid to 'go change the world!' among Apple memorabilia at auction

Wealthy people continue to assign inordinate value to items associated with the rich and/or famous so here's yet another auction of relics touched by our lord and saviour Steve Jobs (peace be upon him). Among the paraphernalia set to be flogged by Boston-based RR Auction is a signed Apple II manual addressed to the son of …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Trollface

    "The kid went on to work for IBM"

    Has he been fired yet ?

    He should be in the right age range by now, no ?

    1. Danny 2

      Re: "The kid went on to work for IBM"

      I was made redundant when I was 22, and my IBM pal said, "Well you've been there five years now, at least you'll have your five months redundancy money to tide you over."

      "No, no, five weeks!"

      I guess that is a proud boast for younger readers but it was a cry of desperation then.

      I get a £100 pa pension from Texas Instruments when I'm 65. I'm both grateful and confused because I never worked for them, but I don't qualify for a state pension so I'll take it.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: "The kid went on to work for IBM"

      He must have be fired, he's flogging off the family silver at auctions.

    3. NoneSuch Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Marketing Bollocks

      "Bobby Livingston, executive VP at RR Auction, said in a statement: "Steve Jobs inscription powerfully conveys his grand ambition and vision for the future of Apple and personal computing as a whole," with the auction house adding: "Jobs' inscription was prophetic..."

      Sounds like buzz words to bump up the price on a signature auction.

      When Jobs was in charge, Apple employees were afraid to get in the same elevator as him our of fear they would lose their job on the short ride. Hardly the prophet he's made out to be today.

    4. gandalfcn Silver badge

      Re: "The kid went on to work for IBM"

      "After completing an MBA at Wharton, Julian set up several successful small businesses, including a software venture whose games were distributed with JVC video cameras.":"

  2. User McUser
    WTF?

    Wait, what?

    [...] a software venture whose games were distributed with JVC video cameras.

    Ummmm, what? Why would a video camera come with video games? So confused...

    1. Valeyard

      Re: Wait, what?

      For the hilarious moment when the wedding videographer ran out of batteries playing tetris waiting for everyone to arrive

    2. gandalfcn Silver badge

      Re: Wait, what?

      Possibly games to be played on other things, you know, like the free gifts given with many purchases. Like collectable cards, plastic tat and so on.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Go change the world

    By doing LSD, missing the meaning completely, ignoring a daughter and screwing over your partner, lumbering through a whole decade of failure, and finally getting a successful product out only to have it made the lowest common denominator, then trying to fight cancer without science, and after you're gone your flagship invention is propping up the world of advertising

    Jobs changed the world alright.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Go change the world

      I agree with everything but the cancer part, that's not really cool and who's to FACTUALLY say what prevents death from cancer? Go out on your own terms.

      KnobJobs aside, I continue to shake my head at the fact that the people who pay for these have no clue who actually made them. With every sale, the name of that person becomes more and more faint and forgotten. But hey, Al Gore invented the internet.

      P.S. The first successful Apple product was the trailblazer for the iPhone, which was the iPod (although that seems to be forgotten as well... but I guess it's all about NOW! NOW! NOW!).

      P.S.S. I'm not sure you're using " lowest common denominator" (LCD) correctly :-/

      1. 9Rune5

        Re: Go change the world

        who's to FACTUALLY say what prevents death from cancer?

        Doctors? Cancer researchers?

        Wasn't Steve's particular type of cancer one that is commonly curable? (unless you go all-in on a cure prescribed by your local shaman who graduated from the University of Wallaballoo)

        1. Sloppy Crapmonster

          Re: Go change the world

          Pancreatic cancer, which is probably going to kill you whatever you do.

          ISTR Jobs went and did some stupid new-age regimen when he got it, but because he had the cancer he did, it didn't much matter what stupid thing he did. There wasn't any smart thing to do. Although he was in the position to spend any amount of money for as long as it took for him to die.

          1. 9Rune5

            Re: Go change the world

            Your reply made me question my memory.

            A little googling made me none the wiser.

            This (https://www.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-60029720111021) article published by Reuters features a biographer portraying Steve as a crackpot (and I think I read this quote a few years ago).

            I think that he kind of felt that if you ignore something, if you don’t want something to exist, you can have magical thinking

            However, then there are articles that simply state (as you say) that pancreatic cancer is not a walk in the park. E.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924574/

            However, what many journalists failed to note is that the evidence supporting any specific conventional treatment approach (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy) for GEP-NETs comprises a slim literature, and the evidence base for use of CAM therapeutic approaches for GEP-NETs is virtually non-existent.

            (they, as far as i can tell after skimming through the article too fast, then go on to advocate more research into alternative medicine, which makes me more than a little suspicious)

            So now I don't know what to think, except hope I don't suffer anything like that any time soon.

          2. RM Myers

            Re: Go change the world

            Steve Jobs had Islet Cell pancreatic cancer, which is a rare and "milder" form that can be cured if caught early, which his was when he had a CAT scan for a kidney stone.However, he ignored his doctor's advise to have surgery immediately, and instead tried alternative treatments. By the time he agreed to have surgery, the cancer had progressed. Had he had surgery when initially advised, his survival chances would have been much better.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Go change the world

        "P.S. The first successful Apple product was the trailblazer for the iPhone, which was the iPod "

        I admit I'm getting older and more likely to confuse my historical facts, but I could swear that one or more of the Apple II, Apple IIe, original Macintosh, and iMac came out before the iPod.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Go change the world

        Fair.

        I am touchy about cancer and lost my mother to it, we tried as much as we could.

        I get your point that it's personal but I don't understand not trying EVERYTHING possible if you got the resources. Pancreatic is fatal but if you're not trusting medical science to even have a go, why you'd trust bullshit is beyond me.

        But yeah. Jobs is a... I can respect some of the early IPhone stuff. I had the iPod touch then the second iPhone. Great stuff at the time

        In that post though I said he screwed his partner.. .I actually meant Woz, though his wife also counts.

        He did change the world. Just not for the better (or, to be absolutely fair, if it was for the better, it has now been lost)

        1. gandalfcn Silver badge

          Re: Go change the world

          " (or, to be absolutely fair, if it was for the better, it has now been lost)"

          "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

      4. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Go change the world

        who's to FACTUALLY say what prevents death from cancer?

        Certainly not some mystical woo snake-oil peddler.

    2. gandalfcn Silver badge

      Re: Go change the world

      Maybe being abandoned by Abdul Fattah Jandali, his father, had something to do with his problems.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Go change the world

        He was adopted, boohoo. He wasn't abandoned.

  4. Mike 16

    Should have been more specific

    Like the old Lily Tomlin bit:

    "I always wanted to be someone. Now I realize I should have been more specific."

    Of course, "change the world" without the qualifier "for the good" is pretty much how humans have acted.

  5. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Childcatcher

    That's just the 80's

    Remember those days when people would just try and be nice to kids.

    These days what happens? We steal their data and sell all their information via social media companies; back then nobody had privacy statements requirements, these days a kid would get a "free account, please get your parents to sign the privacy statement and enter their email, phone number, and location" and they would start getting adverts.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
    Alert

    >>Well-heeled Apple fanbois are sure to watch the sale with interest

    Well, perhaps. But the auction will be won by some a*hole with no interest on computer (or even Apple's) history, as a quick money turner.

    We will see exactly these same items go to auction again in one year or 2 years' time at most, obviously with a price 50% - 100% higher than today.

    1. Stork Silver badge

      Or a fraction.

      1. Dante Alighieri
        Coat

        fractions

        but x 2/1 is technically a fraction too...

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