Apple’s 10 Billionth Download Contest Won By 71 Year Old

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It doesn’t really surprise me that Apple’s $10,000 iTunes card give-away was won by a 71 year old man. What WOULD be surprising is if the guy is able to live long enough to collect all those songs. Hey…maybe that was the plan all along? :eek:

“He called me and said, ‘This is Steve Jobs from Apple.’ I said, ‘Yeah right,’ ” Sulcer tells Rolling Stone. “I have a son that loves to play tricks and he does that every now and then — calls me and imitates somebody.” After three or four times of asking “Come on now, who is this,” Sulcer realized that his caller ID read simply “Apple,” and only then did he believe that he was the winner of the contest and a $10,000 iTunes card.
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Amazingly, this is the demographic Apple is targeting with their products. I guess that does tell you something about ease of use.
 
riot8ap said:
Amazingly, this is the demographic Apple is targeting with their products. I guess that does tell you something about ease of use.
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About every elderly people I know has an iPod Nano or iPod Shuffle, especially in my gym. I never seen one with a Touch or iPhone yet though.

So Sulcer's son is the real Fake Steve Job, eh?
 
I know I sure cant buy $10K of stuff from itunes that I "really" want
 
Wait until he finds out this award is added to his income when he does his taxes next year and he owes the US government another $3K.
 
WWCephas said:
Wait until he finds out this award is added to his income when he does his taxes next year and he owes the US government another $3K.
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Sucks when you win stuff instead of money. They all get taxed the same. Remember when Oprah gave her audience a new Pontiac G6? They were all taxed for a car. The car was free, but to accept it cost them money. And don't forget about the other fees associated with a new car.
 
Steve said:
It doesn’t really surprise me that Apple’s $10,000 iTunes card give-away was won by a 71 year old man. What WOULD be surprising is if the guy is able to live long enough to collect all those songs. Hey…maybe that was the plan all along? :eek:
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The humor here has hit a new low. That was an extremely ageist comment. Would you make that same quote, "What would be surprising is if the guy is able to live long enough to collect all those songs." if the contest was won by a terminally-cancer patient? Why would an older person be any different. Very morbid, very immature. Grow up.
 
SNYP40A1 said:
The humor here has hit a new low. That was an extremely ageist comment. Would you make that same quote, "What would be surprising is if the guy is able to live long enough to collect all those songs." if the contest was won by a terminally-cancer patient? Why would an older person be any different. Very morbid, very immature. Grow up.
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I suppose the PC comments have hit a new low here too.
 
SNYP40A1 said:
The humor here has hit a new low. That was an extremely ageist comment. Would you make that same quote, "What would be surprising is if the guy is able to live long enough to collect all those songs." if the contest was won by a terminally-cancer patient? Why would an older person be any different. Very morbid, very immature. Grow up.
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Good sir, I believe you are overreacting.
 
SNYP40A1 said:
The humor here has hit a new low. That was an extremely ageist comment. Would you make that same quote, "What would be surprising is if the guy is able to live long enough to collect all those songs." if the contest was won by a terminally-cancer patient? Why would an older person be any different. Very morbid, very immature. Grow up.
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Well hello there Sir Buzz-Killington
 
SNYP40A1 said:
The humor here has hit a new low. That was an extremely ageist comment. Would you make that same quote, "What would be surprising is if the guy is able to live long enough to collect all those songs." if the contest was won by a terminally-cancer patient? Why would an older person be any different. Very morbid, very immature. Grow up.
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Well, your fallacy resides where you assume dying as a cancer patient is the same as dying from old age. Not everyone gets cancer of dies from it and those that do are often seen as having had shorter lives than "they should have." Hence, the sadness. Everyone will eventually die from old age, if they are lucky enough.
 
I have a feeling that my previous post will start a very long thread, but I take this issue pretty seriously. And if I am over-reacting, tell me exactly what is incorrect about what I said. No one has done that except for the previous poster. So let's see what he said...

Well, your fallacy resides where you assume dying as a cancer patient is the same as dying from old age. Not everyone gets cancer of dies from it and those that do are often seen as having had shorter lives than "they should have." Hence, the sadness. Everyone will eventually die from old age, if they are lucky enough.
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First of all, I said "terminally", meant terminally-ill, but omitted the "ill" word. So a terminally ill cancer patient likely will die from the cancer. But I don't even need to debate that...you are trying to argue that some people deserve to live more than others based on how long they have lived. To look at your argument from another, but equivalent viewpoint, let me ask you. When should people die?
 
By the way, just to clarify, my comments were not directed towards everyone on the forum. I know HardOCP was the #1 team on Folding@Home as well as other DC projects and I believe there are many people here who share a different viewpoint than the pro-ageism and dehumanization of older people expressed in this thread so far.
 
SNYP40A1 said:
By the way, just to clarify, my comments were not directed towards everyone on the forum. I know HardOCP was the #1 team on Folding@Home as well as other DC projects and I believe there are many people here who share a different viewpoint than the pro-ageism and dehumanization of older people expressed in this thread so far.
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What you're missing is that everyone will die less than 100 years from when they are born (and that is best-case scenario), no need to be so anal about things. That terminal cancer patient is going to the same place as EVERYONE else on this planet of ours - the 71 year old has a lower lifespan than someone young obviously, so less time to use the iTunes credit...I still fail to see how Steve's comment was hateful and/or out of line.

I'm sure from a corporate standpoint it would be better to have an older person win (less profit loss possibly due to timespan), and if you think Apple doesn't control who wins that contest then you are clueless. They could of passed up a handful of young people from that download on to get to this guy.
 
SNYP40A1 said:
By the way, just to clarify, my comments were not directed towards everyone on the forum. I know HardOCP was the #1 team on Folding@Home as well as other DC projects and I believe there are many people here who share a different viewpoint than the pro-ageism and dehumanization of older people expressed in this thread so far.
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lol. liberals can put -ism on anything these days huh? hes just saying, someone getting cancer and dying at 30=tragic. someone getting old and dying at 70+=not as tragic. its still sad when old people die, but usually a 90-year-old is ok with it, why shouldnt we be? my grandma says shes "tired of living." shes not suicidal, just super old and satisfied with her life. wants to go be with her dead husband now.
 
ekuest said:
lol. liberals can put -ism on anything these days huh? hes just saying, someone getting cancer and dying at 30=tragic. someone getting old and dying at 70+=not as tragic. its still sad when old people die, but usually a 90-year-old is ok with it, why shouldnt we be? my grandma says shes "tired of living." shes not suicidal, just super old and satisfied with her life. wants to go be with her dead husband now.
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I know when i'm 90+ I won't be expecting to live for another 40 years and be all suprised and sad when I don't. :p

I call it "beingrealistic-ism"
 
ekuest said:
damn liberals at it again. ;)

im shooting for the big one-zero-zero personally, but ill be happy with anything over 80. :D
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Well, 100 is a rather hefty goal if you live in America being that the average life expectancy is only 78. Source CIA(dot)gov

So many factors to consider when you think about it.

I hear skydiving doesn't help your chances though. :(
 
Life itself is terminal...

If it goes to the 10 billionth download customer, isn't it a giveaway, and not a contest?
 
its kinda like when people say "he died of old age"... last i checked its not age that kills, its nature.
 
riot8ap said:
Amazingly, this is the demographic Apple is targeting with their products. I guess that does tell you something about ease of use.
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iTunes is initially hard IMO, props to old people that can use this.
 
bmwphysics said:
What you're missing is that everyone will die less than 100 years from when they are born (and that is best-case scenario), no need to be so anal about things. That terminal cancer patient is going to the same place as EVERYONE else on this planet of ours - the 71 year old has a lower lifespan than someone young obviously, so less time to use the iTunes credit...I still fail to see how Steve's comment was hateful and/or out of line.

I'm sure from a corporate standpoint it would be better to have an older person win (less profit loss possibly due to timespan), and if you think Apple doesn't control who wins that contest then you are clueless. They could of passed up a handful of young people from that download on to get to this guy.
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Not "..to be so anal about things" but a lot of people make it past 100. I think the longest recorded human life was around 122 years. And yes, if nothing else kills us, aging will, unless science can intervene at some point. I personally believe that one day it will, but that's a whole other discussion.

I don't think Apple manipulated the contest in order to control who won. I am not sure if you have worked at a large corporation before, but HR puts in a lot of energy into convincing their employees that they work for an ethical and fair company. Look at all the energy Toyota is putting into protecting their image. I can't say for sure whether the accidents were driver error or a serious problem on Toyota's end. Again, I guess that's a whole other discussion. But the point is that large companies care (or at least the one I work for which is similar to Apple), spend a lot of energy on convincing their employees that they work for a fair and ethical company. They want to be respected for productivity and recruiting reasons. Who would want to work for an Enron? If Apple really did rig the contest, the word would get out. Maybe not on here, but employees talk to each other. And for such a relatively small prize that very few contest winners would actually fully use, it's just not worth the risk for Apple. Again, I don't work there, I don't know what happened at Apple, but I doubt they rigged it.
 
WWCephas said:
Wait until he finds out this award is added to his income when he does his taxes next year and he owes the US government another $3K.
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You are not OBLIGATED to accept the gift if you don't have the means to pay the taxes, we don't the income of this man, but if he is being supported by his kids and have little to no income, the 10k wouldn't make a big impact if any to his taxes. ;)
 
SNYP40A1 said:
I have a feeling that my previous post will start a very long thread, but I take this issue pretty seriously. And if I am over-reacting, tell me exactly what is incorrect about what I said. No one has done that except for the previous poster. So let's see what he said...



First of all, I said "terminally", meant terminally-ill, but omitted the "ill" word. So a terminally ill cancer patient likely will die from the cancer. But I don't even need to debate that...you are trying to argue that some people deserve to live more than others based on how long they have lived. To look at your argument from another, but equivalent viewpoint, let me ask you. When should people die?
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Yes, I said not everybody dies from cancer to point out that someone dying from cancer is an anomaly. I put the 'should' in quotations because there's obviously no designated time where it's acceptable to die. Rational people would say that it's far more acceptable to die of old age (as in, you went as far as you could go) than of cancer (as in, you contract a virus that destroys your body).
 
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