We've said it before and we'll say it again: you just can't beat a Steve Jobs article for some rollicking good fun. For instance, take the San Francisco Examiner's latest feature article on the man, which focuses both on his role in Apple's rebirth and his involvement with Pixar, the digital movie company responsible for both Toy Story and A Bug's Life. While the Apple-related info isn't anything particularly revealing, it's still a charge to hear Steve talk about how all those other computer companies "aren't even computer companies-- they're part of the distribution channel," because all they do is integrate parts from other suppliers rather than concentrate on making a better computer from the ground up. The really interesting stuff, though, is hearing Steve's take on the way that Antz beat A Bug's Life into theaters.

Steve says that he's "disappointed" that Dreamworks, the company headed by ex-Disney honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg, would "purposefully set out to make a film along the same lines" as Pixar's pet project. There was no coincidence involved in the two films' similarities; according to director John Lasseter, "what Dreamworks did has completely changed the community of animation," which used to be a friendly and open community, but now must treat its ideas as heavy-duty trade secrets, for fear of rivals beating them to the punch. Sure sounds like the computer industry to us. Says Lasseter, "I feel like Pixar was the development department for Dreamworks."

Hmmm, Dreamworks cast as a rival digital movie house who stole Pixar's idea and beat them to market with a shoddier implementation... Anyone else seeing any parallels, here? How about if we mention that old conspiracy theory about how Bill Gates owns a chunk of Dreamworks, and deliberately rushed Antz out the door in order to add a heaping helping of worry to Steve's already-overfilled plate, while Steve was working so hard to get Apple back in shape? Or perhaps you haven't noticed the eery resemblance between the main character in Antz and a certain filthy-rich software peddler residing in the Redmond area? It's déjà vu all over again. Coincidence? Ha! Just watch-- in fifteen years, the government will be showing videotaped testimony of Katzenberg in the Dreamworks antitrust trials.