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On the passing of Steve Jobs


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While many of us have a love-hate relationship with Apple and it's products, we can't deny that Apple, like Hewlett Packard defined American opportunity by growing from a parent's garage into one of the largest companies in the world.

 

I remember when the first Apple computers were introduced onto the hobby market as kits, crude and lacking a keyboard and monitor but later gaining these attributes. Then the Apple I was released and the real beginning of home or micro-computing was born. The reason I remember, and I suspect that Craig shares many of the same memories as I do, is because at the time I was attending university for my BSEE, learning assembly language on an DEC PDP-11, and hated just about every freekin minute of it. I was also working on an IBM-360 and a Burroughs B6700 programming in Fortran IV, a little ALGOL and COBOL. When Basic was introduced along with the Apple operating system, the future of individual computing (ie. not associated with a large institution) became established. The founders of Apple (other than one) were just about my age and came from a similar background... engineering & electronics oriented hobbiests with a knack for reading between the lines and delivering good products with real world value.

 

While Apple has a unique approach to design, marketing and retail, nobody can deny Apple's (and the visionary "leader") success and accuman in reading the market and giving the average user or consumer what they didn't know they really wanted/needed.

 

Anyway, RIP Steve Jobs.

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A wave of emotion hit me when I went to casually read the news on MSNBC, and saw an oversize picture of his smiling face and it's caption underneath. I was shocked. Even though I've never owned an Apple product, his impact on my life has been enormous. Thank you Steve Jobs for all you've done for all of us.

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RIP. He changed my world more than my family did. I got my first Apple in 1988, abandoned everything Wintel from that moment on and banned them from my home. I have never relented. It is factual to say that Apple defined my career at NASA and has put the food in my mouth for the last 23 years. I am unable to fully grasp the impact although it was expected.

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My first computer was a Macintosh 512Ke in 1985. I still have it and about another dozen or so stored downstairs and 5 that are running right now including what I'm typing this on. That and 6 or 7 iPods, an iPad, 2 iPhones, a couple Airport Extremes and software like Final Cut Studio and DVD Studio Pro. Yep I am a fanboi but they earned my trust and admiration. I understand that others don't care for Apple but Steve Jobs was more then Apple. I am very sad tonight. RIP Steve. The world was changed by your vision and that vision will be missed.

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Like so many others, I had a feeling this was coming, just not this soon. Although not a musician per say this guy has been one of the industries biggest 'influencers' of the last 40 years. So much music is made, played or recorded on his products, and iTunes saved the music industry uncertain plunder. Whether you love or hated him he was probably one of the most creative minds our generation ever came across.

 

On a more serious note... and coming from the concern of a cancer survivor, a deeper cut for me is the evidence than no matter the access to money, technology and medical science, cancer will indeed take your life if it intends to. Seeing him speak a month ago, and seeing his gaunt appearance I knew immediately that he was the walking dead. It's a shame that he couldn't win that battle. In his case like so many others, you are never offered a choice really.

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Steve Jobs was a genius. I am not an Apple fanboi but in a previous life (advertising & marketing business) I was touched deeply by Apple and their products. As a matter of fact, Apple changed the advertising and marketing world by providing any business owner the opportunity to buy a desktop computer, some software and basically have their own in-house advertising agency for less than a typical monthly agency retainer fee. This progression basically forced me to change careers about ten years ago. The advent of the desktop WYSIWYG programming and ease of use of the Apple products meant we either changed business models or got out of the business... I chose the latter with no regret.

 

Anywho, Apple has an unbelievable fan base and cult like following for virtually all of their products and although this is a somber time, I thought I might lighten the mood just a tad with a tribute to Mr. Jobs, RIP.

 

 

 

Stix

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While many of us have a love-hate relationship with Apple and it's products, we can't deny that Apple, like Hewlett Packard defined American opportunity by growing from a parent's garage into one of the largest companies in the world.

Snip

Anyway, RIP Steve Jobs.

 

 

Good words well put.

Thank to Apple and to this country that it grew in, and thrives in.

 

Frank

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On a more serious note... and coming from the concern of a cancer survivor, a deeper cut for me is the evidence than no matter the access to money, technology and medical science, cancer will indeed take your life if it intends to. Seeing him speak a month ago, and seeing his gaunt appearance I knew immediately that he was the walking dead. It's a shame that he couldn't win that battle. In his case like so many others, you are never offered a choice really.

 

Also as a guy who has had a few run ins with Cancer, I had the same thoughts.

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I own only an iPod, and have actually never touched a Mac computing product, but I certainly can appreciate what Jobs and Apple have done for the industry. I actually watched the beginnings from the outside and viewed their products as a curiosity, and then as the tool of educators, but not as a "serious business computing system". It's been very interesting to see the consumer product grow to enormous popularity and actually change how business is done.

 

It should be interesting to see where Apple goes under new leadership.

 

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs.

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My first "real" home computer was an Apple IIe. And I remember when the Apple IIGS came out. There was one chip on the mother board that was the Apple IIe. I remember thinking "DAMN!!! How'd they do that". If only I had known what the future held, I would have talked my parents into buying me some Apple stock for my birthday. I'd be rich now. I just wasn't the visionary that Steve Jobs was. He will be missed.

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Let's not forget what he did using a parallel approach to the company Pixar. They originally built animation and graphics computers for the medical and governmental industries and their anamation successes came out of the desire to show what their products were capable of. Again, the attention to asthetic detail and style returned huge long term dividends.

 

2 home runs in one lifetime is exceptional.

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heheh Obama had a really poignant thing to say to the tune of what a great testimony that thei man passed away, and many people heard about it on a device he invented...

 

So true. I remember seeing Mac products being used for music composition while at Berklee in 1991. IT was so frigging cool. Vision, Performer, Soundtools, then very early ProTools. Much that we do in Audio today is a direct result of Apple; the open workflow did not exist because everything was proprietary.

 

a LOT of executives & designers in other companies are probably breathing a lot easier today, even as they mourn his loss.

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quite successful BUT renowned as being among the worst bosses in corporate america, a real monster.

 

+ side: your company's doing great!

- side: you long for death...

 

Steve truly cared more about customers than employees, but that's one more group than the typical exec. cares about...

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quite successful BUT renowned as being among the worst bosses in corporate america, a real monster.


+ side: your company's doing great!

- side: you long for death...


Steve truly cared more about customers than employees, but that's one more group than the typical exec. cares about...

 

 

He simply demanded your 100% best effort.

 

Depends on what kind of employee you are. I would excel under Jobs. Others would wilt. If he was so bad to work for, why did people stay? There was obviously something very compelling.

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If he was so bad to work for, why did people stay? There was obviously something very compelling.

 

 

I have no opinion of Jobs either way, but just as a general point, there could be plenty of reasons why people stay in spite of a miserable boss: money, benefits, lack of other options, fear of changing, comfort in familiarity, affinity for the product, affinity for the work, etc. There are tens of thousands of lousy bosses in this country, yet people stay.

 

-Dan.

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