The big news in the US today is the death of Apple co-founder and Technology God Steve Jobs at the young age of 56.
My first experience with an apple computer was in 1983, I was about 11 when my dad won a $5,000 gift certificate to a local retail giant. Everyone was able to pick out what they wanted. I wanted a computer. I wanted an Apple IIe. This was when my geek-dom began. I remember playing games, using a few applications that were loaded on large hand size floppy disks. I was one of the only kids in my entire school with my own computer.
Several years later in 1988 I purchased one of the first Macintosh Computers. It was considered portable back in the day. That meant that it came with a soft-sided carrying case similar to the ones you see "pizza guys" carrying today. I used to pack it up and bring it over to friend's houses to show-off. When I first started college I upgraded to a Mac 660av. This machine had Bose speakers in the color 17" monitor. WOW.
In 1992 when I was in college I purchased my first laptop, a mono-chrome PowerBook. I think it was around $2500. They were only available in gray-scale, no color yet. This laptop had a modem inside of it which allowed me to connect to American online and some local chat rooms. As a student I worked at the University troubleshooting Apple products that professors had in their offices.
After college my first job was at the University in the computer services office where I had the opportunity to learn and use the Macintosh as a graphic design tool. I learned Quark Xpress, Illustrator, and Photoshop just to name a few. I was becoming a true Mac-head.
My next job was at a large Apple reseller to K-12 in the upper Midwest. It was at this company that I really learned everything I know today about Macs. I was also lucky enough to play with all of the new toys as they came out. Toys like scanners, Apple Quick-take camera, Newton, and the color laser writer. In the mid 90's these were cutting edge toys.
I was such a Geek that I even purchased several NeXT computers, which were made by Steve Jobs during his time when he was fired from Apple. There was a time in our community when I was known as one of the best Mac guys around.
The first company that I started used all Macintosh computers and Apple servers to host the websites that we developed for customers. We remained a Mac shop until we "converted to the dark side" as we grew and needed to interface with other systems.
There was a period between 1998 and 2002 when I did not own a single Apple product. All of that changed when the IPod was released. Since then I have jumped back on the bandwagon with a IPod, Power book and IPad all under the Apple brand.
Here are a few of the things that I learned from Apple:
- Innovate, not follow.
- Its ok to be ahead of your time (Newton, Quicktake camera)
- Build beautiful things
- Build things that are easy to use
- Have passion
- Stock-pile cash
Here are ways that Apple has influenced me:
- Apple made me interested in technology.
- Apple drew me to use and understand software.
- Apple allowed me to realize that I could do anything with a computer.
- Apple gave me something to be great at.
- Apple introduced me to one of my longest and best team members (Amy was buying a computer at the University where I worked)
There are many things that would not be today if it were not for Apple computer and Steve Jobs. Call Scheduler may be one of them. I thank him for everything that he has done for the technology world and think that we live in a better place because of him. RIP Steve Jobs.