The passing of Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, has focused me on my relationship with the Apple Mac computer. It must be, I don’t know – ten years ago? – when my friend David Banks, best known to most of you as the 80s Cyberleader, generously donated to us his Apple Cube computer as he was upgrading. I still use it today. It sits in my studio and I use it primarily for my writing. Then came the iMac some years ago, again from David, followed by it’s purchased updated successor under a year ago. It sits oozing style in the power room of the house, the large glass covered blue screen a blank canvas for creativity, communication and organisation, a Microsoft free zone. A single unit, the wireless silver and white keyboard and white mouse it’s willing companions. It handles gigabytes as if they were dandelion seeds. It is on this machine that I create the compositions for my artwork and digital images. The iPhone and iPad are a mystery to me and the iMac may only be in a minority of homes but it is the chosen tool of creatives and professionals all over the world. Thank you, Steve Jobs, for bringing me my iMac. It’s the Apple of my eye.
I reproduce with respect these quotes from the man himself. No infringement of copyright is intended :
“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. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]Steve Jobs
Hello Andrew
I was only saying to Craig this evening that I am somewhat in awe of the outpouring of grief and statements and comments from around the globe, to someone who was essentially a CEO.. a business leader. I honestly, can’t think of any time or any person who leads or has led a company that has brought about such an astounding reaction to the sad demise of their life. I have had the fortune to work in environments that have used both Mac and Windows since ooh 1980 something or other. I worked for an Apple Centre when Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple and I recall with great clarity when we were given a promo presentation of the NeXT computer that he went on to create. He was a true visionary, an incredible business man, knowing his errors and his triumphs. Someone who inspired and created and changed the lives of many. For some inexplicable reason I would not have put you as one of his followers. May I say that your words have prompted me to make comment on the “tinternet” for the first time in relation to his passing. Kind words, real words and I for one understand completely what you mean. RIP SJ – may your God be as delighted with your arrival as we were with your visit.
Thank you Jacqui for this articulate and interesting insight. I am coming to this as a follower of what he created – the Apple computer – and his achievements rather than the man himself of whom I knew little.