“Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs, predicted ‘horrible problems’ in the coming years as cloud-based computing takes hold.
Wozniak, 61, was the star turn at the penultimate performance in Washington of ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,’ monologist Mike Daisey’s controversial two-hour expose of Apple’s labor conditions in China,” Robert MacPherson reports for AFP. “In a post-performance dialogue with Daisey and audience members, Wozniak held forth on topics as varied as public education (he once did a stint as a school teacher) and reality TV (having appeared on Dancing with the Stars).”
“‘I really worry about everything going to the cloud,’ he said. ‘I think it’s going to be horrendous. I think there are going to be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years,’” MacPherson reports. “He added: ‘With the cloud, you don’t own anything. You already signed it away’ through the legalistic terms of service with a cloud provider that computer users must agree to. ‘I want to feel that I own things,’ Wozniak said. ‘A lot of people feel, ‘Oh, everything is really on my computer,’ but I say the more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we’re going to have control over it.’”
MacPherson reports, “Prior to Saturday at the Woolly Mammoth theater in Washington, Daisey and Wozniak had met once before, in California after a performance of ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ in its original version in February 2011. Wozniak was moved to tears, but a year later Daisey came under fire when it emerged that sections of his one-man show dealing with the Foxconn plant in China where iPhones and iPads are assembled had been fabricated. Public radio show ‘This American Life,’ which had broadcast portions of ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy,’ went so far as to issue a retraction. Daisey meanwhile reworked his script, albeit without toning down his powerful delivery.”
Mike Daisey (Photo: Greg Sandoval/CNET)
“Many in the audience echoed Daisey’s concern about Foxconn’s work force, but Wozniak said he expected labor conditions in China to evolve as the nation grows richer. He also commended Apple for its oversight of its factories,” MacPherson reports. “‘We know we (citizens and consumers) have a voice. We can speak (about labor conditions), but we can’t act like, oh, Foxconn is bad or Apple is bad,’ he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Appearing onstage with a proven liar while undercutting iCloud, Apple’s strategy for the next decade or more: All-around excellent decision-making there, Woz!
The only positives here for Woz: Yes, we must be very careful with cloud computing. Agreed. And, yes, Woz, you do look somewhat slimmer onstage next to that big fat liar! (Stay away from that thing’s mouth, lest you disappear in one gulp.)
One More Thing: According to Wikipedia, Apple is still issuing Woz token paychecks that amount to roughly $120,000 per year. Why? So he can jet around to do things like give the Apple co-founder’s stamp of approval to a glutton who spreads lies about the company under the banner of “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” of all things? Or is it to cast doubts on a central Apple product for which billion-dollar data centers have been and continue to be constructed? Or is it so he can be photographed with and interviewed about his various iPhone knockoffs, all of which infringe with abandon on Apple’s patented IP?
Makes a lot of sense, Tim.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Trevor7578” and “Citymark” for the heads up.]
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