iJobs

I am most certainly taken back by all the attention paid to the passing of Steve Jobs.  I am not referring to the business world.  I'm referring to the outpouring of love from Mr. Jobs' consumers.  Many people whose lives have been made easier, dare I say more enjoyable, because of his contributions to technology which have become ingrained in our society.  People were deeply saddened by Steve Jobs' death.





When I was in fourth grade I took a summer school class called "microcomputers."  When I was less than a teenager, computers took up an entire room.  Therefore in this new age, if it fit on a desk it was a "microscopic" computer - hence microcomputer.  We were pretty clever in the 1970's.  Of course this microcomputer class gave children my age an opportunity to learn about and play with the tools of the future.  Please re-read the previous sentence out loud like a loud radio announcer: THE TOOLS OF THE FUTURE and echo the future part.  Future, future, future . . .


I thought these new Apple microcomputers were pretty neat with games like "Lemonade Stand" in which you were given a lemonade stand, a small budget, and the day's temperature.  You could charge as much as you'd like for each glass of lemonade.  Based on how hot it was and how well you priced your lemonade, then the microcomputer would calculate how much of a profit you'd make or how much money you'd lose.  It was an early lesson (perhaps the my favorite) on supply and demand.  Obviously I have never forgotten the lesson.


Years later in 10th grade I took "Intro to Computers."  It was a fairly informative class and went over the entry level basics to programming.  My crowning achievement of the class was being able to write a program that converted an English word into Pig Latin.  I was pretty darn proud of myself.  To be clear in that class back then, I don't believe there were computer languageS.  There was binary and some logic-based commands (at least that's what my memory tells me.)  The brainiest kid in school, David Edelman, was in the class.  While I was working on my Pig Latin program, he was showing the teacher how to program other things.  Apparently his parents saw the advantages of these microcomputers and had already begun sending him to computer camp during the summer.  (Editor's note: please don't confuse Edelman's computer camp with my "lemonade store" summer school elective.)  I didn't pursue my computer education more because my teacher was a nitwit.  She admitted to the class that she had killed her cat accidentally when she ran the dryer not knowing the cat was inside.   She heard some thumps and strange noises but didn't pay them any mind.  Perhaps I should have continued my computer education back then, its not like the majority of my teachers were geniuses.


In 12th grade, IBM had begun mass-marketing "personal computers" at the expense of Apple's.  I remember in my journalism class using the "over-priced"  MacIntosh computers.  The instructor, again I didn't like this one either, insisted on using the MacIntosh because it was a better product and could do so much more than IBM PCs.  In the late 1980's, Apple lost a lot of business and opened the door to competitors by not lowering their pricing.  Mayhap they should have played their own game "lemonade stand."  What I vividly remember about the MacIntosh, other than knowing my parents would never spend $1,000 to own one, was how cool the "white" screen was and how it looked like we were typing on paper.


Many moons later I used Microsoft Office for the first time just as it was killing "Word Perfect."  A lot of people remarked how cool MS Office was because it had a white screen.  All I thought was, this was just like the MacIntosh I used in high school years and years ago.  Somehow Mr. Billy Gates was able to snatch some magic away from Apple.  I guess in the following years, Billy Gates mass-produced his Microsoft on cheaper, clunkier PC's.  While Gates was watering his money-tree orchard, Jobs and Apple were staying true to their vision of what a computer and the computer experience should be.  In doing so, Apple created a tight-knit group of Mac-loving artists and techies.  Much like Elvis versus the Beatles, Pepsi versus Coke, the Mac versus PC ownership became a defining label for an indivdual's personality type.


I always used and defended PC's.  I used to them at all the places I had worked, plus my broke-ass could afford the ridiculously cheap "e-machines" at Best Buy.  However most of my cool and creative friends used Macs or wanted one desperately.


Years later a new invention came out.  It was called an "iPod" whatever that meant.  For the people who have forgotten, MP3 music technology was already being used by serious music lovers.  But this iPod thing-a-majig was different.  My memory of the early days of the iPod is fuzzy.  Mostly because I wasn't interested in it.  But just like a viral youTube video, the iPod EXPLODED!  In the beginning, you would see one young adult on the subway with a pair of white earphones, then 10 people, then 20 people, until I was the only adult younger than 75 on the subway without an iPod.  I continued to ignore them while everyone else raved and raved about them.  I had my cd's and my cd walkman.  For those too young to remember, you had to walk very carefully while playing your CD walkman otherwise it would skip over and over again - generally during the best parts.


It was the December of 2006 when I got my very own iPod nano and an iPod shuffle for Christmas (from two different gift-givers).  Though the Nano looked pretty darn cool, I sold that and kept the Shuffle.  The Nano was from an in-law while the Shuffle was from my mother.  Plus I could sell the Nano for more!  I utilized the Shuffle and practically liked it.  I just didn't have time to waste ripping my cd's and burning it onto my iTunes.  Now I have an 8GB nano which is running out of room for music.  I use it every day to walk to work and when my mind lingers sometimes I still marvel at the design of the Nano and the technology that I will never, ever understand.


Let's continue to flash forward shall we?  In early 2010, my attention and curiosity for the Amazon Kindle was growing feverish.  Books on demand?  Up to 1,500 stored in a device as thin as a pen?  I've  got to have it.  At the time, the Kindle was out of my price range and nowhere near "need" or "gotta have."  Someone told me or I read somewhere that Apple was going to release something very soon that would do what Kindle could do plus a whole lot more.  Consider my curiosity piqued.  I was at work (I was in Japan at the University of Maryland University College) and I took time to watch the live webcast.  It was the first time I had watched an Apple webcast.  The first thing I thought was, "What the hell happened to Steve Jobs?  Did he grow grotesquely fat and then have gastro-bypass surgery?"  He spoke about some more iPod and iPhone developments while his Apple groupies "oohed" and "aahed."  Then he introduced the iPad.  I was really impressed and thought, "that's what I want for my 40th birthday."  But again Apple priced it out of my range.  I did however sign up for the iPad waiting list just in the off-chance Flounder wanted to buy me something ridiculously expensive.  I remember reading about the iPad the next day.  Most of the critics were beyond intrigued by the thought of an iPad.  Kindle and other e-reader manufacturers slammed it for its inabilities.  However the stupidest complaints were critics who couldn't get over the name - iPad.  They HATED it.  Look at our society now.  Everyone has an iPad, wants an iPad, or is saving to buy it for a loved one as a super cool surprise.


(Editor's Second Note: you may notice that I didn't talk about the iPhone/iTouch.  I am loathe to use phones.  Don't like doing it at work, don't have a land line at home, and prefer to keep my flip-top closed.  I wasn't ever attracted to the iPhone because cellular phones to me should be kept in a pocket or a briefcase or the top drawer of a desk.  I could care less what else it could do because my tunnel vision would only allow me to see the iPhone as a cellular phone.  If you're curious "visionary" is not my middle name.  This is why I missed the whole iTouch fad as well even though my wife now uses an iTouch - sparingly!)


The individual who created or drove the creation of these gadgets died this week.  The Apple groupies cried, the Techies mourned one of their idols one of their gods, and the internet was ablaze with searches and quotes of Steve Jobs.  Of particular interest was his commencement speech at Stanford.  I read it.  I liked it.  I thought it had some good messages.  It was very quotable.  Don't believe me how quotable it was?  Go read facebook or Twitter.


For me personally, the stranger whose passing was the saddest to me was Jim Henson.  He created the Muppets.  He seemed like a generally nice person who only wanted to educate and make kids laugh (kids being age 2 to 106).  Well this week many other people, friends, and colleagues are mourning the death of Steve Jobs.  In the 1980's, Jobs was a driving force for Apple, a company that changed how the world would compute.  In the 90's he was a driving force for Pixar, a company that would change how animated movies would be made.  In the early 2000's he changed the way the world listened to and purchased music (can you say "bye - bye" music stores), and in the later 2000's continued to push the envelope for his Mac line, iPod line, iPhone line, and iPads.


Perhaps in an effort to determine how many people one person touched, you can count how many times the people touched that one individual.  Every time someone uses a Mac (or a PC that was born from the first Apple microcomputer), every time someone uses an iPod, iPhone, or an iPad; every time someone watches a Pixar film, then they are touching Steven Jobs.  That's a lot of touches and a lot of love.  People cried this week that the world lost a great entrepreneur, a great engineer, a great salesman, and a great man.  Like so many other things, this too shall pass.  Jobs talked about death as being the greatest part of life.  So please, by all means, continue to mourn his passing, but remember you still have him and he is still very much a part of your life.  Don't believe me then go use the computer, go make a phone call, go listen to some music . . .


Good night Mr. Steve Jobs.  Thank you for sharing.  Thanking you for giving of yourself.  Peace be with you.