Steve Jobs (RIP)
Posted Thu Oct 6, 2011 in
Ruminations
There will be hundreds (thousands?) of eulogies for Steve Jobs over the next few days. Some people will probably feel physical/emotional grief over his passing. I can understand that — it’s difficult to watch one’s heroes pass. But pass on they do. All of them. Everything dies.
I thought I might dwell for a few minutes on how Jobs and Apple impacted my life. The cynic in me would declare that Apple and Jobs are responsible for separating me from a significant amount of my hard-earned money. That cynical part of me would be correct.
However, the more reasonable part of me would observe that I received something in return. I could not say how many hours of music I listened to with my iPod. Having (and using) my iPod meant that my discs could stay at home and in storage, safe from the risks of physical damage associated with travel. My family enjoyed many hours of music shared with my iPod in the car, played through the vehicle’s sound system. Music is such a big part of my life that the money spent on hardware (iPods) is small compared to the amount spent on software (discs containing digital music). I would say this is a fair exchange.
I live with Macintosh computers. Since I switched from Winder$ in 2003, I only briefly looked back… and then not seriously. My MacBook Pro computers do most of what I want done. I rely on Winder$ boxen to run a few numerical models that are only supported on that system. That’s desktop land. Everything else (the bulk of my time) is done on my MBP, including the statistical analysis and writing. When needed, I can open a terminal (command shell) and run *nix commands from the command line. I still do and compile and execute small FORTRAN programs to do very specific tasks that are not easily done in commercial software.
My iPhone is nearly my constant companion. I switched from a dumb-phone in 2003 to a Blackberry. I loved my Blackberry and it did certain things very well (mostly messaging and email). Integrating it with my MBP was a PITA, however. When Apple released the first iPhone, I knew it would integrate seamlessly with my MBP and so my Blackberry went away and I became an iPhone fanboi.
My iPhone does just about everything I want done remotely. The camera is not quite as good as my carry-camera (certainly not as good as my Nikon D100, now gone), but it’s always with me and does more than adequate for grab-shots. The new iPhone 4S supposedly has a better camera. We’ll see about that.
Finally, there is my iPad. I still have a first generation iPad and will probably hold out for the iPad 3 before I change. My iPad is great for traveling and I’d rather carry it than my MBP. Even with an external keyboard, it’s lighter and more compact than the MBP and it’s support. I can move and edit images from both my iPhone and Canon G11 (carry-camera) with my iPad. Email and internet consumption works very well on the iPad. Reading PDFs on the iPad is also very good, although I prefer my Kindle for books because the Kindle is reflective and the iPad is transmissive.
These things wouldn’t exist without Steve Jobs and Apple. Although my life would go on, these things make my life a little better. My life is not better because I own things, but because the things do “stuff” for me that I enjoy or makes my work a little easier and enjoyable. Those results are good and I’m thankful for them.
Rest in peace, Steve Jobs, and thank you for your life’s work in computing technology. You will be missed.
I was really surprised to see the huge outpouring after his demise (everything said, he was a corporate leader). But I also believe he was more of an innovator than a businessman, driven more by creativity than cash. One of the obits said he was “poet of the computing world”. Doesn’t sound that inapt.
— Ajay 7 October 2011, 11:50 #There is that component of the <em>Cult of Mac</em> as well. Although I’ve dealt more than my ration of <em>crap</em> to Winder$ users (and fanbois), I never really believed that it was anymore than a personal decision.
That said, Apple products do what I want done. There was a reason I switched away from Winder$ years ago and that is documented on this weblog in any number of places. I admired Jobs for his business acumen and his drive for excellence.
Nothing is perfect, of course, and neither Apple nor Jobs are/were. Still, he did a lot of good work and was certainly an innovator. I can respect all of that.
— ruminator 7 October 2011, 12:28 #