"greatest" American.

[robroy]

Bows down in awe to the King of I tunes

[macmarauder]

scary thought isn't it (geek laugh)

anyways my point was that the whole list if they even did let people vote on the list of 100 greatest americans it would be crap. most people are stupid when it comes to such things. and as much as i would like to see iTunes be on the list it really shouldn't even be in the same class as the 100 list. there are far more influential and great meaning people that should be on the list. but if people actually voted on this list would get alot of popular votes rather than people thinking and learning their history in this country and then making an informed decision. so if something as popular as iTunes might just get the creator on the list even though he shouldn't be there at all. like Opera. what the hell was she even doing there at all. did you know that for all her ranting and preaching of family values, she owns the Jerry Springer show.

now back to iTunes since i love bragging about my little part in computer history. please forgive me but i enjoy it. i didn't actually make iTunes and no it didn't take alot of brilliance, it's just another program the same as any other. do you remember that program i keep referencing every so often. i started on The LifeAlbum back in about 1994 or so. my programing skills are.... well lacking. so i made the whole thing in a high end presentation program called Director ( a Multimedia Developing Program). it was a digital family picture and movie archiving program that allowed you to record your voice for narration of the photo or as an extra, copy music off a audio CD to use for the narration of the picture, or background music for the movie clips, or it would even randomly build an adjustable montage using the CD music as background music. it included it's own searchable database for all the files and i did have a little visualizer for the audio. in 97 i was hired by a company called Lifemessages as a Multimedia Developer and they wanted me to make something similar but far less ambitious. i think i finished around the end of 98 or the beginning of 99. the so called CEO spent all the company money, some on personal stuff like a new BMW, anyway the company went bankrupt and sold the program soon after to some other company and they sold it to Apple. BTW the CEO and Pres. took off to with the money from the sale and stiffed the investers. they told all the investors that i didn't finished the program and it wasn't much. i still don't know how much they got but it must've been alot. Apple hired me as a consultant on the prototype since they like my work. i'm still proud of that today

they chopped it into two programs and made a completely new interface graphics, they chunked my database engine and used the one out of another guys program cause his had compression built in. also i honestly had nothing to do with the particle effects that truly makes it famous. that was someone else and it was based on an effects engine called Pixel Toy. you should see that massively huge amount of programing that went into those first particle effects. it's amazing that this guy ever slept. he must've had nightmares in C++ code. then after giving it some product testing for consumer likeabiltity or something they chunked the whole thing and rebuilt it from scratch so that it wouldn't have any on mine or the others imperfections.

so the answer is yes and no. i only made the main program that it's based on and helped with the prototype. too bad i didn't get to stay for the creation of the beta version.

[blim]

Wow, Macmarauder,

I'm very impressed!! A lot of what you wrote went over my head, but just knowing you had a bit to do with itunes is very cool. Too bad your company had a crook for a CEO, I bet you imagine what could have happened if the company didn't go bellyup! And that was a much better answer than your nine smiley faces post!! I was all set to post a smart*ss "quit teasing me" remark last night, but a kid came home and actually wanted to talk. When teenagers want to talk, the Mom drops everything especially if it begins with "guess what?" Had visions of an accident or ticket, (even felt a grey hair sprout) but it was just a rant about her boss. Phew!!

Liz

[Bubba Bob]

I too am left scratching my head, but that sound very interesting! (and a good money maker at the time)

Are you sure Oprah owns The Springer SHow?

[macmarauder]

blim i told you guys that i was worth alot on paper. half of my pay was in startup company stock and i saved almost all of my money since i was living with my parents. unfortunately i'm not worth much now. i think i'm down to mexican pasos. just kidding. it's amazing how i had no idea of the potential of it, and i didn't even intend for the use of mass downloads of music. it just thought it was something that everyone else was doing anyway.

bubba bob i think opera does. i've heard it on the radio before and a couple of people have said so in conversation. i think she owns alot of shows. like Ricky Lake. maybe someone could correct me here but i can't really think of one truly positive thing that opera has done to get a spot on that list. she's just on there because of name value. the same goes for alot of people on the list. it's like election time in high school all over again.

[blim]

Pshaw, at one time I made as much as my husband. Since I quit working, yeah, we're poor, but we've never suffered, and I've never been happier! A Happy Mommy makes a Happy Family

Heh, "on paper" (I did start an IRA when I worked) I'm well off, too! Well, depending on the stock market, that is....

Liz

[macmarauder]

now to get back on top of the technology world, hmmmm. if i could just get this iTunes warp drive to work.

now for question for you guys. how on earth could they even come up with a top 100 list anyways? there's just so many people throughout history to choose from and what really makes a great american? of course inventors, but i'm a little bias there. anyways what about sports and other celebs? seriously how many can you think of that actually did something great to get on the greatest americans list. or what about the people throughout history who did something great and even helped or saved alot of people but didn't get into the history books. like soldiers danmit.

maybe they should've just said that #1 was the us soldier. not just one person but all as a unit. neah that still wouldn't be fair.

what do you think makes a great american? for other countrymen answer what would you think makes a great person in your country. prepare it might be your country next to come out with a poorly done stupid list.

[blim]

What do I think would make a great American? Gosh, that's a hard question, but I think it would be what would make a great person in general.

Putting others before yourselves, like Mother Teresa (yeah,not American, but she was the first to come to mind), paramedics, firefighters, police officers, coast guard, good soldiers (unfortunately, some aren't, the recent abuse allegations to "terrorists" are shameful) and their families, because without the families support, they couldn't do their jobs properly.

Inspiring others by one's ideas--this is where someone like Leonardo DaVinci (yeah, I know, not American, either) or the guy who invented the microchip come to mind. The ideas they came up with propagated so many other inventions

Inspiring others by one's values or actions--I think of a good teacher here, not the tenured teachers that are just biding their time till retirement, but the teachers that push their students to their full potential. And one doesn't have to be in a classroom to be a good teacher.

And the ability to make others laugh. That could be anyone from a standup comic to a baby. I don't exactly know why that's important, but it must be, right? What a dismal place Earth would be without humor.

Hmmm, now to put these qualities together into one person.....I'd have to think about that!! Like I said, that's a hard question, and as you read, I'm sorta picky.

Liz