乔布斯传 第250期:NeXT发布会(4)

 　　One of Jobs's management philosophies was that it is crucial,

　　乔布斯的管理理念之一就是，
　　every now and then, to roll the dice 1 and "bet the company" on some new idea or technology.
　　不时地孤注一掷，“把公司压在”一些新点子或技术上，这样做至关重要。
　　At the NeXT launch, he boasted of an example that, as it turned out, would not be a wise gamble:
　　NeXT发布时，他炫耀了一个例子，后来，事实证明这是一场不明智的赌博。
　　having a high-capacity (but slow) optical read/write disk and no floppy 2 disk as a backup.
　　采用高容量（但速度慢）的读写光盘，而不是用软盘来备份数据。
　　"Two years ago we made a decision," he said.
　　“两年前，我们作出了一个决定，”乔布斯说道，
　　"We saw some new technology and we made a decision to risk our company."
　　“我们见识到一些新的技术，并决定赌一赌。”
　　乔布斯传
　　Then he turned to a feature that would prove more prescient.
　　接着，他开始介绍另一个功能--能更好地证明乔布斯的先见之明。
　　"What we've done is made the first real digital books," he said,
　　“我们做出了第一批真正的电子书。”他说，
　　noting the inclusion of the Oxford 3 edition of Shakespeare and other tomes.
　　并提到电脑里包含了牛津版的莎士比亚和其他大部头，
　　"There has not been an advancement 4 in the state of the art of printed book technology since Gutenberg."
　　“自古腾堡以来，印刷书本的技术还未出现过进步。”
　　At times he could be amusingly aware of his own foibles,
　　有时，乔布斯会幽默地展示自己的自知之明，
　　and he used the electronic book demonstration 5 to poke 6 fun at himself.
　　他用电子书演示来取笑自己。
　　"A word that's sometimes used to describe me is 'mercurial 7,'" he said, then paused.
　　“有一个词有时会被用来形容我，'mercuriar。”他说道，然后顿了顿。
　　The audience laughed knowingly, especially those in the front rows,
　　观众们会意地笑了，尤其是那些坐在前排的人，
　　which were filled with NeXT employees and former members of the Macintosh team.
　　多是NeXT的雇员和原麦金塔团队的成员。
　　Then he pulled up the word in the computer's dictionary and read the first definition:
　　接着，他把这个词输进了电脑的词典，读出了第一条释义。
　　"Of or relating to, or born under the planet Mercury."
　　“水星的，与水星有关的或来自水星的。”
　　Scrolling 9 down, he said, "I think the third one is the one they mean: 'Characterized by unpredictable changeableness of mood.'"
　　他边把页面往下拉边说，“我想他们说的应该是第三种意思：'情绪多变'。”
　　There was a bit more laughter. "If we scroll 8 down the thesaurus, though, we see that the antonym 10 is 'saturnine 11.'
　　笑声更多了。“如果我们继续往下拉，就能看到它的反义词'saturnine'。
　　Well what's that? By simply double-clicking on it,
　　这个词又是什么意思呢？只要双击一下这个词，
　　we immediately look that up in the dictionary, and here it is: 'Cold and steady in moods.
　　我们就能马上查到它，来看看：'情绪冷淡稳定。
　　Slow to act or change. Of a gloomy or surly disposition 12.'"
　　行动或改变迟缓。阴郁或阴沉的性格。'”
　　A little smile came across his face as he waited for the ripple 13 of laughter.
　　在等待观众的笑声平息之时，乔布斯脸上出现了一点儿笑容。
　　"Well," he concluded, "I don't think 'mercurial' is so bad after all."
　　“好吧，”他总结道，“这么看来，我觉得'mercurial'这个词也不是那么糟。”