Steve Jobs – The Tech God Who Will Be Missed

I wouldn't call myself an Apple fan but I've been using a Mac since I was 14. That's over half my entire lifetime! My first laptop was the then-cool, now-ugly-as-hell grey PowerBook 170 with a big-ass trackball that I inherited from my dad after he'd moved on to "greater things", i.e. other Macs.

Subsequent inherited Mac laptops from Dee include the PowerBook 540 (first laptop with trackpad and built-in Ethernet capabilities), the PowerBook 1400c (first computer with built-in optical drive), and the still-cool-ish-looking, sexy, black PowerBook G3 (first laptop to use PowerPC G3 microprocessors) – look!

 Me with my old PowerBook G3.

 Me with my old PowerBook G3.

That black stallion of a G3 went through college with me and helped me graduate with my Diploma. It died soon after, though. @_@ Harddisk totally kaput and it just wouldn't start up again. And with its death, I lost a bunch of data, too. Boo hoo. T_T But then came my white princess – the iBook G3 – to rescue me from the deepest, darkest depths of comp-less-ness.

Me with my iBook G3.

Also inherited from Dee when he moved on to better stuff, this white iBook G3 lasted throughout my degree and even lived to see me through my post-grad certificates. And then it died, too. *mourns the loss* After that, Dee got me my very own comp. Brand new! First-hand! For the first time in my life! I was over the moon with joy. I finally had a laptop to call my own – my own white MacBook.

But that got stolen 2+++ years

(almost 3 years) down the road. -_-'''

And that's how I finally ended up with my current MacBook Pro. (Phew! Ok ok, laptop grandmother story over.) I had iPods but was never too attached to them. And sure, I was really late on the iPhone bandwagon, too. But maybe that was because I had not the means to buy myself one at the time. Even so, I've always been a believer in Apple's revolutionary ingenuity in technology. So it really sucks to know that the mastermind behind it all has passed on.

As seen on Apple.com

I watched a YouTube video of his now-famous Standford Commencement Speech in 2005, a year or two before his death. More than a couple of years late, but I loved it all the same. After watching that, I was fascinated with the man; and more so with his deep and unconventional thought pattern. 

Steve Jobs may have said some offensive things about some big people in his industry. But he also said lots of other things that made sense but were such simple concepts you would never have thought would matter so much in the grand scheme of things. And that was his genius – simplicity in doing things that matter. He understood that simple things mattered big. And he made them matter in his work. Watch and be inspired; like I was.

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Steve Jobs on DEATH:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. ... Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. ...have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

– Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005

Steve Jobs on WORK:

"...the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

– Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005

Steve Jobs on PEOPLE:

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

–  Apple Inc. "Crazy Ones" TV Commercial 1997,

featuring the advertising slogan "Think Different"