TED Community » Llewelyn Leonard

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.40 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A comment on Talk: Steve Jobs: How to live before you die

  Oct 13 2011: Steve Jobs was a clever business & marketing person.
  He did not, however, change the world.
  A lot of people are clearly just reacting to his death and exaggerating his influence. Frankly, Apple products are awfully limiting, and those who think his products are extremely great are clearly laymen who don't know much about the domain.
  From all the accounts I've read, he wasn't a particularly pleasant person, so it bugs me that people are now acting like he was Jesus or something along those lines.
  I'm not trying to disrespect Steve Jobs, as he was clearly good at what he did, but many people are just delusional for saying he had an enormous impact. Steve Wozniak had a far greater impact on computing today. Somebody else mentioned Bill Gates having a huge impact as well. I have to say that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have hindered computing in many ways, with their closed source practices, corporate greed and trying to destroy competition, and ultimately poor design.

• A reply on Conversation: Do the benefits of the Hemp plant and its derivatives outweigh the dangers involved? or is the prohibition simply something else entirely?

  Sep 8 2011: Thank you for that, I weas actually not aware of those reasons, that has given me something to think about.
  I knew corporate greed was to blame somehow!

• A comment on Conversation: Music publishers should release and sell versions of albums with the lead guitar (or other instrument) missing.

  Sep 7 2011: Some artists have done this - for example Steve Vai released "Naked Tracks", five cds of his music without lead/melody guitar.
  The trouble as some have already mentioned is that there is not much of a market for it. Some artists, such as Steve Vai, however do understand this and so provide such a product to their fans, but it's usually guitar-centric artists that do so.
  As an alternative, if you've ever played Guitar Hero, you'll know that the songs shipped with it have a rhythm track and lead guitar track seperate.

• A comment on Conversation: There should be a form of TED within schools, like an afterschool club, for young people to discuss ideas in a friendly environment.

  Sep 7 2011: That's certainly a great idea.
  I think it's important to promote the whole TED message of spreading ideas and creativity.
  There is a small issue however, which I can demonstrate with a real life example.
  A few weeks ago, I sent a friend (a 20 year old female), the link to ted.com, and encouraged her to watch some talks. Now this is someone who usually seems interested in educated conversation, but I was met with the response of, "It doesn't seem like my kind of thing." Sadly most young people are more interested in mindless entertainment at the moment, than actively engaging in educational/creative discussion on topics that make a difference in the world.
  I guess this is most likely caused by school environments that scare children away from anything involving deep, logical thought.

• A comment on Conversation: Do the benefits of the Hemp plant and its derivatives outweigh the dangers involved? or is the prohibition simply something else entirely?

  Sep 7 2011: I have yet to see a logical argument againt the legalization of cannabis.It makes no sense to me how harmful drugs such as alcohol and tobacco are perfectly legal, but cannabis is not. A drug that is impossible to overdose on, and has medical benefits.Could anyone give me a reason why it is not legal?
• +2

  A comment on Conversation: What stands in the way of allowing assisted suicide in first world countries?

  Aug 30 2011: The idea of "sanctity of life" and people forcing their beliefs on others is another reason why. Although thinking about it, it could be greed - killing yourself saves you from a long stay in hospital with a terminal illness, which earns people money. To be honest, I'm really not sure why this is considered illegal. We put down animals when they have medical conditions that make life unbearable for them.

• A comment on Talk: Onyx Ashanti: This is beatjazz

  Aug 26 2011: I must start my comment on this performance by saying that although my music tastes vary greatly from Blues to Death Metal and everything in between, I'm usually not a fan of dance and electronica.
  
  That being said, this performance was truly amazing! I look forward to seeing and hearing more from you! The amazing concept of incorporating your physical expression into your music so seamlessly just adds new dimensions to the aural performance, rather than just the physical performance.
  I love the bass line! Actually, I loved all of it!
  
  Incredibly groovy sir, keep making music. Haters will hate, but Beatjazz will continue regardless!