R.I.P. Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs, 1955-2011

Are you a Mac or are you a PC?

The first computer I ever laid eyes on was IBM's Big Blue. The first computer keyboard I ever touched was a Commodore 64 plugged into a television. The first legitimate personal computer I ever used was an Apple Macintosh and I continued to do so for nothing more than word processing all the way through college. I plunged forever into the abyss of PC from that point forward, deciding I didn't have the money for a shiny Apple computer. I've owned every iPod that has been made except for the 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch. My son has broken, lost or had stolen just as many. My five year old daughter navigates my Touch as if it were her own. And my wife never feeling she needed anything more than a iPod Nano has never been without one since their creation. I have friends who swear by them, cousins and a sister-in-law who won't even consider touching anything else. The iPhone (as I have been mocked by my blogging and social media peers for owning a Palm Pre), iPad2 and the Macbook Air are in my crosshairs, God willing I am able to make them a priority financially.

My son doesn't remember the evolution of Apple as it exploded back into the mainstream during his young years. My daughter will scratch her head in amazement when she reaches the level of understanding to know that at one point these amazing devices didn't exist a mere 30 years ago.


The news broke last night that the inevitable passing of Steve Jobs had in fact arrived. I use the term inevitable because all you had to do is look at the man to see that something terrible was going on inside his body. Pancreatic cancer is a beast. I read an uninfomed, judgmental post on Facebook yesterday that read something like, "What does it matter to inherit the world, but to lose your soul in the end? He couldn't take any of it with him."

I don't think he was trying.

In all the creating that this man did, how often did his actual income make it to the news as worthwhile information? While Bill Gates (not that he personally advertises his income) sat atop the throne as the richest man in the world, Steve Jobs' name was never in the same pile. This isn't to say he was some kind of perfect man. I don't know if he was nice or kind or whatever. But greedy never crossed my mind. Dominating, yes. Greedy, no.

No, I am of the uniformed opinion that Mr. Steve Jobs, a man I did not know, but certainly admired, had every intention on leaving everything behind. This includes his company's viability. It makes perfect sense that he would abruptly but most certainly knowingly exit Apple rather than die while at the ship's helm. This would have sent our lovely friends on Wall Street into a panic and impacted the financial wealth of his family as well as his former employees for at least a short while.

Now we have all the toys of his imagination and who knows what more to tinker around with as tools of our productivity. As I continue to age in this life I am amazed when I bear witness to things I thought I'd never see in my lifetime. The great inventors of yesteryear, the ones my dad framed on my bedroom walls, were but figments of my imagination. They were all dead. I never thought such people could exist in my lifetime, and yet here was one of the greatest making iPhone announcements every ten or eleven months or so. No different than the college boy, Zuckerberg who took and idea and has made it as everyday as air. It's just a testimony to the fact that life does go on and ingenuity springs eternal. Rest In Peace, Steve Jobs. I'm sure you've got more tech there then you ever dreamed possible here. Or maybe not.

I wonder who the next game changer will be?

PS - I was in 7th grade when this commercial came out during the Superbowl. If you read 1984 and lived through 1984 as I did, this commercial was ALL THAT and a bag of chips.

---