乔布斯传 第91期:伟大的艺术家窃取灵感(2)

 It's not as if Xerox¹ executives ignored what their scientists had created at PARC.

施乐的管理层并没有忽略他们的科学家在帕克创造出来的东西。

In fact they did try to capitalize on it, and in the process they showed why good execution is as important as good ideas.

事实上，他们的确尝试过利用这些研究成果--而这一过程恰恰证明了为什么好的执行力和杰出的创意同样重要。

In 1981, well before the Apple Lisa or Macintosh, they introduced the Xerox Star, a machine that featured their graphical user interface², mouse, bitmapped display, windows, and desktop³ metaphor⁴.

在苹果的丽萨和麦金塔电脑问世之前，早在1981年，施乐就推出了他们的“施乐之星”，这台电脑上运用了图形用户界面、鼠标、位图显示、窗口以及桌面概念。

But it was clunky (it could take minutes to save a large file), costly⁵ ($16,595 at retail⁶ stores), and aimed mainly at the networked office market.

但它运行缓慢（保存稍大一点儿的文件需要耗费数分钟），价格昂贵（零售价高达16595美元），且主要瞄准的是计算机网络化的企业市场。

It flopped⁷; only thirty thousand were ever sold.

它的销售情况十分不好，仅仅卖出去3万台。

Jobs and his team went to a Xerox dealer⁸ to look at the Star as soon as it was released.

施乐之星刚刚发布，乔布斯和他的团队就去一家施乐经销商那里查看情况。

But he deemed it so worthless that he told his colleagues they couldn't spend the money to buy one.

但他觉得这台机器毫无价值，他告诉同事们根本犯不着花钱买一台。

"We were very relieved," he recalled. "We knew they hadn't done it right, and that we could—at a fraction of the price."

“我们都松了一口气，”他回忆说，“我们看得出来，施乐没能把产品做好，但我们可以，而且价格要便宜得多。”

A few weeks later he called Bob Belleville, one of the hardware designers on the Xerox Star team.

几个星期之后，乔布斯给施乐之星团队的硬件设计师之一鲍勃·贝尔维尔去了电话。

"Everything you've ever done in your life is shit," Jobs said, "so why don't you come work for me?"

“你这一辈子做出来的东西都是垃圾，”乔布斯说，“干脆来为我工作吧。”

Belleville did, and so did Larry Tesler.

贝尔维尔同意了，一起跳槽的还有拉里·特斯勒。

In his excitement, Jobs began to take over the daily management of the Lisa project, which was being run by John Couch, the former HP engineer.

乔布斯十分兴奋，开始插手丽萨项目的日常管理，该项目当时的负责人是曾经的惠普工程师约翰·库奇。

Ignoring Couch, he dealt directly with Atkinson and Tesler to insert his own ideas, especially on Lisa's graphical interface design.

乔布斯完全忽略了库奇的存在，直接与阿特金森和特斯勒通气，灌输自己的想法，尤其是关于丽萨的图形界面设计。

"He would call me at all hours, 2 a.m. or 5 a.m.," said Tesler. "I loved it. But it upset my bosses at the Lisa division."

“他会在任何时间给我打电话，凌晨两点或者早上5点”,特斯勒说，“我喜欢这样。但是丽萨项目的头儿们不高兴了。”

Jobs was told to stop making out-of-channel calls. He held himself back for a while, but not for long.

乔布斯被要求停止越级管理。他安静了一段时间，但很快又按捺不住了。

1 xerox   

n./v.施乐复印机，静电复印

参考例句：

• Xerox and Lucent are two more high-tech companies run by women.施乐和朗讯是另外两家由女性经营的大科技公司。
• You cannot take it home,but you can xerox it.你不能把它带回家，但可以复印。

2 interface   

n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系

参考例句：

• My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
• This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了，适用范围广。

3 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

4 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

5 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

6 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

7 flopped   

v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的过去式和过去分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅

参考例句：

• Exhausted, he flopped down into a chair. 他筋疲力尽，一屁股坐到椅子上。
• It was a surprise to us when his play flopped. 他那出戏一败涂地，出乎我们的预料。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。