
Where’s Steve? - naish
http://www.cringely.com/2009/02/wheres-steve/
======
jballanc
You know what? I stopped using chat a while back too...and the drop off was
sudden enough that a few of my friends called to check in on me and see if
everything was ok. You know why I stopped using chat? Because I was busy, and
chat is a distraction.

Why all the fucking conspiracy theories? Honestly...the horse is dead
already...

~~~
RK
I just started a related experiment: I disabled SMS on my phone. We'll see
what happens.

~~~
unalone
How do you disable SMS? I've wanted to do this for a while.

~~~
RK
I'm currently using T-mobile and was able to disable SMS from my account
settings on the T-mobile website (My account -> Change services).

I'd bet there's a similar feature from other carriers, mostly for parents to
limit their kids' phones...

------
froo
Oh look, yet another article commenting on a public figure's health.

Didn't people in general get sick of these when Britney Spears was going
through her mental breakdown?

All we need is someone like iJustine to do a Chris Crocker ripoff with "Leave
Steve Alone!"

Seriously, the man is sick... respect his goddamn privacy.

It's becoming pathetic now.

------
CalmQuiet
Something about this Cringely post leaves me rather nauseous.

Oh, the drama building up over Bob's "grafs"... and thanks to all the "insider
info" about Steve's personal chat status... leading into the gradual decay (as
Bob paints it) of Steve's ability to use his computer.

And then it's followed by Bob's boilerplate "listen to this post in Bob's
sexy, sexy voice."

With friends like this, anyone would do well to become a "control freak."

------
defunkt
_Steve came online each day and remained there for hours and hours as you’d
expect a Silicon Valley mogul to do_

I'd expect a Silicon Valley mogul to be on iChat very rarely.

------
bsaunder
Maybe he was getting harassed and created a new stealth id?

~~~
herval
Like Dan Lyons? That would be cool!

------
sqs
I understand Apple investors wanting to know more about his condition. If they
want to pursue that, I think they're justified. But there's a big difference
between spreading gossip and exercising one's shareholder rights.

Yes, Steve Jobs gave up his expectation of the level of privacy you or I enjoy
when he became the CEO of a massively successful, publicly traded company. But
that doesn't mean that it's right to violate his privacy.

If you are an Apple shareholder trying to exercise your rights, that's fine.
But 99% of the stuff written about Jobs' condition feels intrusive, and I
would feel uncomfortable writing it myself.

------
DenisM
If it's real AAPL will tank when news breaks out officially.

Then again the article author maybe playing for just such an effect. Who
knows?

~~~
froo
As with most things I read on the net now, I consider it internet gossip until
there is confirmation from someone who is an actual authority on the matter.

For all we know (assuming the story is true), Steve has just unplugged to take
some time to recover.

I know first hand how quickly internet gossip can get out of hand.

Last year I wrote a blatantly untrue story on a blog I ran during October - it
was a message directed at MTV employees who I knew read the blog on an almost
hourly basis (I worked this out from grepping the logs and cross referencing
that with MTVNE ip ranges).

Within less than a day, this blog post had gone from rumour

[http://www.bestactever.com/2008/10/28/rick-to-perform-at-
ema...](http://www.bestactever.com/2008/10/28/rick-to-perform-at-emas-hell-
yeah/)

To being reported on an MTV owned blog

[http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/10/28/while-you-were-
changin...](http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/10/28/while-you-were-changing-
your-name-to-lady-caca/)

To frontpage news on both Yahoo UK and cnet (I only have a screenshot of the
Yahoo site) and it was the top story on Yahoo's site for more than 16 hours.

<http://files.marklancaster.org/images/yahoo-page.jpg>

Moral of the story - don't believe everything you read on the net.

~~~
DenisM
That was an awesome hack. What moved you to do this?

~~~
froo
To see if it was possible, which apparently it is.

------
davidw
People don't seem to like something about this article, and I can see that -
it's not fun to speculate about someone's health when there's a potentially
serious illness involved.

But let's turn this around: how would you cover it?

There are billions of dollars riding on Jobs' health, and any news about it.

~~~
Tichy
It's not speculating about Steve's health that made me dislike the article,
but the way it was done. I think it really was about "look here, I have a
friend who chats with Steve", and not about caring for the AAPL investors.
Those were just lame excuses for gossiping (my impression anyway).

~~~
davidw
I agree that it's kind of an ugly article. However, all articles about Steve's
health, bar a hypothetical one saying he's completely fine and over whatever
he has, are going to be a bit distasteful. So the question was - how should
Apple, Steve, and various and sundry journalists approach the issue? It's not
an easy question.

~~~
Tichy
I guess official statements at timed intervals would do. As for gossip
snippets like that, I don't know. Suppose you would be the first to get hold
of such information, would you feel a duty to society to publish it? Or is
publishing it more of a vulture thing to do?

~~~
davidw
Would shorting the stock and making a lot of money be a vulture thing to do if
you knew he was getting worse? If you knew he was making a full recovery
before anyone else did, would buying the stock be a vulture thing to do?

~~~
Tichy
At least if you buy or sell stock, you put yourself on the line. But it is a
difficult question. As I said, I guess I didn't really dislike the reporting
about Steve Jobs health indicators, as the spirit of it. I don't know enough
about philosophy to discern whether that makes for a meaningful distinction.

------
rms
Spending time with his family.

------
Tichy
That post made me cringe.

It felt like he delighted in having a tiny snippet of gossip and made up
excuses to announce it big. Eeew.

------
donniefitz2
Maybe Steve is on a walkabout, traveling the country by foot, meditating.

