Thanks to my brother I've been a Mac fan for a long time. Also thanks to my brother and his family I own 15 shares of stock in Apple, the only stock that I own. When those shares of stock were bought for me, they cost around $20 each. Today those same shares of stock were being sold at about $376.00 each.
The following blog is a tribute to Steve Jobs, his enormous influence on Apple and by extension his enormous influence on the world. No one will ever confuse me as the world's best writer. However I've been moved by the loss of Jobs and the tributes by many people. I was thinking about this today and I've been moved by Jobs death more than many people I actually known. He's received tributes from celebrities as well as common people like myself. Some of the tributes of the common man have been the most touching. Here's a selection of those tributes:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/steve-jobss-death-world-reacts/story?id=14679556
Before I start I'd like to thank those websites who I got most of the information in this blog from. Thanks to wikipedia.org, abcnews.com (which of course has an app for the iPad), my own faulty memory and Rolling Stone.
Speaking of Rolling Stone, they've collected a series of quotes from various celebrities, here's the one's I like the most. My favorite quote is from President Obama:
"Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world... The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented." (I especially love that last line.)
This quote is from Patton Oswalt: "RIP Steve Jobs. Closest thing we had to Tony Stark." I loved the truth and humor of that statement.
This is what Brad Paisley said "I am glad I get to live in the world Steve Jobs enhanced."
Last but not least. Honestly I don't know what to think about the following message from Neil Diamond. I find it maudlin, sentimental, touching and right on. Yes, I have very mixed feelings about it. He simply wrote: "iSad".
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24th, 1955. Jobs shared a birthday with my daughter. Every year as we celebrate her birthday it reminded me that it was also Steve Jobs birthday. I'll continue to do so every February 24th, only now it will be with a bit more wistful feeling. Jobs was born an illegitimate child and was given up for adoption at birth. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. Jobs went to high school in Cupertino, which is where Apple's headquarters are. After graduating high school, he went to one semester at Reed College before dropping out of college. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or a homage but he has a son named Reed. As he talks about in the below video, he dropped in on other classes over the next 18 months.
Jobs then started on the path that he's so famous for. He cofounded Apple with the legendary Steve Wozniak in 1976. That timing seems appropriate. When America was celebrating its 200th birthday, the founding of Apple was occurring in that California garage. Only 4 years later Apple had exploded and Jobs was a multimillionaire. At 26 he was on the cover of Time magazine. Just 4 short years later though Jobs was no longer working at Apple. He was fired from the computer company he cofounded at the age of 30. Shortly thereafter he founded NeXT, a lot of which makes up a large amount of the current Mac OS.
In 1986 he bought the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, which became Pixar. In fact for awhile Jobs was CEO of both Pixar and Apple. Both companies very much had Jobs fingerprints all over them. It's not a coincidence that Apple is the best computer company in the world and Pixar has made some of the best movies over the last several years. Without Jobs influence would we have ever met Woody, Buzz or Nemo? Nemo who lends some of its iconic status to the first season of "Lost".
I also love the irony of Jobs being kicked out of Apple in 1984 which is the year of the release of the Macintosh, a later descendent of what I'm writing this blog on. There's no way else to spin it but Apple went into a funk for the next dozen years. Since I've been an Apple fan for a long time I remember those dark days. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Apple went out of business or was bought by another company.
Speaking of Rolling Stone, they've collected a series of quotes from various celebrities, here's the one's I like the most. My favorite quote is from President Obama:
"Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world... The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented." (I especially love that last line.)
This quote is from Patton Oswalt: "RIP Steve Jobs. Closest thing we had to Tony Stark." I loved the truth and humor of that statement.
This is what Brad Paisley said "I am glad I get to live in the world Steve Jobs enhanced."
Last but not least. Honestly I don't know what to think about the following message from Neil Diamond. I find it maudlin, sentimental, touching and right on. Yes, I have very mixed feelings about it. He simply wrote: "iSad".
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24th, 1955. Jobs shared a birthday with my daughter. Every year as we celebrate her birthday it reminded me that it was also Steve Jobs birthday. I'll continue to do so every February 24th, only now it will be with a bit more wistful feeling. Jobs was born an illegitimate child and was given up for adoption at birth. He was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. Jobs went to high school in Cupertino, which is where Apple's headquarters are. After graduating high school, he went to one semester at Reed College before dropping out of college. I'm not sure if it's coincidence or a homage but he has a son named Reed. As he talks about in the below video, he dropped in on other classes over the next 18 months.
Jobs then started on the path that he's so famous for. He cofounded Apple with the legendary Steve Wozniak in 1976. That timing seems appropriate. When America was celebrating its 200th birthday, the founding of Apple was occurring in that California garage. Only 4 years later Apple had exploded and Jobs was a multimillionaire. At 26 he was on the cover of Time magazine. Just 4 short years later though Jobs was no longer working at Apple. He was fired from the computer company he cofounded at the age of 30. Shortly thereafter he founded NeXT, a lot of which makes up a large amount of the current Mac OS.
In 1986 he bought the computer graphics arm of Lucasfilm, which became Pixar. In fact for awhile Jobs was CEO of both Pixar and Apple. Both companies very much had Jobs fingerprints all over them. It's not a coincidence that Apple is the best computer company in the world and Pixar has made some of the best movies over the last several years. Without Jobs influence would we have ever met Woody, Buzz or Nemo? Nemo who lends some of its iconic status to the first season of "Lost".
I also love the irony of Jobs being kicked out of Apple in 1984 which is the year of the release of the Macintosh, a later descendent of what I'm writing this blog on. There's no way else to spin it but Apple went into a funk for the next dozen years. Since I've been an Apple fan for a long time I remember those dark days. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before Apple went out of business or was bought by another company.
Read part 1 of that excellent story here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040417011718/www.jeffgoodell.com/articles/appl15.html
Here's part two:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040417012142/www.jeffgoodell.com/articles/apple16.html
Apple was a rudderless boat without Captain Jobs to steer it. Thankfully Apple brought back Jobs in 1996 by buying Next. (Also by Apple bringing back Jobs, he was able to bring in jobs for Apple.) He resumed being Apple's CEO in 1997, a position he held until August 24th of this year. Then due to medical issues he had to step down as CEO. After he stepped down he remained the chairman of the corporation, which was a new position created just for him. Jobs was paid $1 annual salary for every year he was CEO.
I don't think I need to get too specific about some of his/ Apple's milestones. In 2001 Apple debuted both the iPod and the Apple Retail Stores. (Do you remember the Apple retail options before then? I think they were called Comp USA, which had a special Mac section. It seemed to be understaffed and under promoted.) In 2003 Apple launched the iTunes Music Store in which revolutionized the music industry. I wish I could find the exact quote speaking about how amazing iTunes was. In my reading I came across a statement made by a music expert, which I believe was on billboard.com. Anyway paraphrasing the expert, he said "before Apple came along digital music was math, afterwards it became recess".
There were digital music players before the iPod. Did you know that? Do you remember those? Do you know anyone who had one? Either did I to all three questions. Anyway I guess these so called digital players only held 20 to 30 songs. When the first iPod came out it could hold up to 1000 songs. Think how revolutionary that must have seemed. It's what comes from thinking differently. Thank goodness Apple wasn't a corporate America business.
Here's a scary thought without Jobs and Wozniak's vision and Xerox's PARC imagine what computers would look like in a world dominated by Windows. That would make a scary alternate universe. What do you call Apple if it had to abide to the limited thinking of corporate America? Microsoft :)
Quickly some other highlights. In 2007 Apple Computer both introduced the iPhone, which has gone on to revolutionize the cell phone industry. Also in 2007 Apple Computer, Inc. announced it would now be simply known as Apple Inc. It was meant to deemphasize that it was only a computer company. In 2010 the iPad was announced and it has revolutionized tablet computing.
Back to the quotes about Jobs that Rolling Stone has collected. This is what Sebastian Bach says: "RIP Steve Jobs. Thanks for allowing me to put my whole CD collection in my pocket." Think of how revolutionary that still is.
Jobs married Laurene Powell in 1991 and they have 3 kids. Before marrying her he briefly dated Joan Baez and had a blind date with Diane Keaton. He also personally delivered computers to people he admired. Jobs has a biological sister, who also is gifted with creativity, that's Mona Simpson. Among other books she wrote "Anywhere But Here", which later was made into the Natalie Portman movie. She also has written a book with a very Steve Jobsian like character, a book I haven't read yet.
Steve Jobs commented on many of these formative times in his famous commencement speech at Stanford. Enjoy.
In the above speech he talks about three transforming times from his life. Three things that made him Steve Jobs. He referred to the pancreatic cancer which is what probably killed him. (The official cause of death wasn't released.) He ended up taking 3 medical leaves from Apple as he fought the cancer. Don't feel bad for Jobs $1 annual salary, when he died it's estimated he was worth about $8.3 billion dollars. Yes that's billion, not million.
Jobs died yesterday at the too early age of 56, he was surrounded by family. His family said he died "peacefully". Again no official word on the cause of his death. Although he had been fighting cancer for 8 years and he had a liver transplant in 2009. When it was announced yesterday that he died, people surged on to their computers and shared with friends that he had died. I found out he had died from a friend's Facebook post, his death was the Facebook theme of the night.
That began an outpouring of emotion and love for Jobs that has continued today. Here's a story today at ew.com about the shrine is that is being made at Apple's 5th Avenue cube shaped store. Many times ew.com is written with a snarky tone, but I found this article by Adam B. Vary to be incredibly moving. Read it here:
http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/10/06/mourning-steve-jobs-on-the-scene-apple-store/
As I mentioned above some of the best sentiments have come from the common man, these have gained the name of iVisuals. I've even seen iPads with a picture of a flickering candle. Google today has a link at their site that takes you to Apple's home page. At Apple's homepage if you click on Jobs picture a statement comes up. At the bottom of that statement is this sentence, "If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com".
The picture found at Apple's website is also the same as the cover of the forthcoming biography of Jobs written by Walter Isaacson. Ironically Isaacson also wrote a book about Einstein, who many people are comparing Jobs to today. One of the hints that I knew that Steve Jobs might not be long for the world when the notoriously private Jobs authorized a biography to be written about him. The release of the biography has been moved up from November 21st to October 24th. To no one's surprise it's #1 on amazon.com's best seller list. amazon.com also has a place on it's home page in honor of Jobs. Clicking on that link takes you to Apple's homepage. Can you imagine how many hits Apple's website is getting today?
Has Apple and Jobs affected my life any? Yes very much so. I'm writing this blog on my MacBook. When I exercised this morning I listened to my iPod. Today I'm enjoying listening to music on Spotify, but most days I listen to about 165 songs on iTunes. So thanks to Apple and Steve Jobs for having enough faith in yourself and your skills to start Apple in your parent's garage all those years ago. Thanks to surrounding yourself with brilliant people like Steve Wozniak, Jonathan Ive, Tim Cook and many others. Thanks for your vision and having the fortitude to hold other people to it in that billions of us can enjoy the products of that vision daily.
I don't think I need to get too specific about some of his/ Apple's milestones. In 2001 Apple debuted both the iPod and the Apple Retail Stores. (Do you remember the Apple retail options before then? I think they were called Comp USA, which had a special Mac section. It seemed to be understaffed and under promoted.) In 2003 Apple launched the iTunes Music Store in which revolutionized the music industry. I wish I could find the exact quote speaking about how amazing iTunes was. In my reading I came across a statement made by a music expert, which I believe was on billboard.com. Anyway paraphrasing the expert, he said "before Apple came along digital music was math, afterwards it became recess".
There were digital music players before the iPod. Did you know that? Do you remember those? Do you know anyone who had one? Either did I to all three questions. Anyway I guess these so called digital players only held 20 to 30 songs. When the first iPod came out it could hold up to 1000 songs. Think how revolutionary that must have seemed. It's what comes from thinking differently. Thank goodness Apple wasn't a corporate America business.
Here's a scary thought without Jobs and Wozniak's vision and Xerox's PARC imagine what computers would look like in a world dominated by Windows. That would make a scary alternate universe. What do you call Apple if it had to abide to the limited thinking of corporate America? Microsoft :)
Quickly some other highlights. In 2007 Apple Computer both introduced the iPhone, which has gone on to revolutionize the cell phone industry. Also in 2007 Apple Computer, Inc. announced it would now be simply known as Apple Inc. It was meant to deemphasize that it was only a computer company. In 2010 the iPad was announced and it has revolutionized tablet computing.
Back to the quotes about Jobs that Rolling Stone has collected. This is what Sebastian Bach says: "RIP Steve Jobs. Thanks for allowing me to put my whole CD collection in my pocket." Think of how revolutionary that still is.
Jobs married Laurene Powell in 1991 and they have 3 kids. Before marrying her he briefly dated Joan Baez and had a blind date with Diane Keaton. He also personally delivered computers to people he admired. Jobs has a biological sister, who also is gifted with creativity, that's Mona Simpson. Among other books she wrote "Anywhere But Here", which later was made into the Natalie Portman movie. She also has written a book with a very Steve Jobsian like character, a book I haven't read yet.
Steve Jobs commented on many of these formative times in his famous commencement speech at Stanford. Enjoy.
In the above speech he talks about three transforming times from his life. Three things that made him Steve Jobs. He referred to the pancreatic cancer which is what probably killed him. (The official cause of death wasn't released.) He ended up taking 3 medical leaves from Apple as he fought the cancer. Don't feel bad for Jobs $1 annual salary, when he died it's estimated he was worth about $8.3 billion dollars. Yes that's billion, not million.
Jobs died yesterday at the too early age of 56, he was surrounded by family. His family said he died "peacefully". Again no official word on the cause of his death. Although he had been fighting cancer for 8 years and he had a liver transplant in 2009. When it was announced yesterday that he died, people surged on to their computers and shared with friends that he had died. I found out he had died from a friend's Facebook post, his death was the Facebook theme of the night.
That began an outpouring of emotion and love for Jobs that has continued today. Here's a story today at ew.com about the shrine is that is being made at Apple's 5th Avenue cube shaped store. Many times ew.com is written with a snarky tone, but I found this article by Adam B. Vary to be incredibly moving. Read it here:
http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/10/06/mourning-steve-jobs-on-the-scene-apple-store/
As I mentioned above some of the best sentiments have come from the common man, these have gained the name of iVisuals. I've even seen iPads with a picture of a flickering candle. Google today has a link at their site that takes you to Apple's home page. At Apple's homepage if you click on Jobs picture a statement comes up. At the bottom of that statement is this sentence, "If you would like to share your thoughts, memories, and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com".
The picture found at Apple's website is also the same as the cover of the forthcoming biography of Jobs written by Walter Isaacson. Ironically Isaacson also wrote a book about Einstein, who many people are comparing Jobs to today. One of the hints that I knew that Steve Jobs might not be long for the world when the notoriously private Jobs authorized a biography to be written about him. The release of the biography has been moved up from November 21st to October 24th. To no one's surprise it's #1 on amazon.com's best seller list. amazon.com also has a place on it's home page in honor of Jobs. Clicking on that link takes you to Apple's homepage. Can you imagine how many hits Apple's website is getting today?
Has Apple and Jobs affected my life any? Yes very much so. I'm writing this blog on my MacBook. When I exercised this morning I listened to my iPod. Today I'm enjoying listening to music on Spotify, but most days I listen to about 165 songs on iTunes. So thanks to Apple and Steve Jobs for having enough faith in yourself and your skills to start Apple in your parent's garage all those years ago. Thanks to surrounding yourself with brilliant people like Steve Wozniak, Jonathan Ive, Tim Cook and many others. Thanks for your vision and having the fortitude to hold other people to it in that billions of us can enjoy the products of that vision daily.
Steven Paul Jobs 1955-2011 R.I.P.
themusicaddict
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