Steve Jobs died yesterday. I am not going to fill this page up with heartfelt memories. I only have a few to share. I am sorry to see that he died so young and there is no doubt that he had a creative mind.
I have owned a few of his computers but this was a long time ago. I used to have an Apple Quadra and it cost me a whopping 4 grand. When I look back on it this thing did very little. I had a monstrous TV monitor to go with it that weight about 1000 pounds. It was heavy and hard to lift and not very portable. I had a $1000 dollar scanner that went along with this ensemble. When you put all of the pieces together they worked very reluctantly. I remember speaking nicely to my equipment several times just to get through a project. Many times I had to reload the thing because of it continually crashing.
Software was incredibly expensive to own back then but I spent all my dough on it. It was a pretty machine that made pretty pictures and sometimes there was sound and music. I got a few jobs out of it after college and it was enough to get things moving. All in all, I never went back to Apple when the bigger machines came out. By this point I was interested in the Internet and the web. I liked PC’s because they were fast.
It was expensive, it was heavy and I remember it being broken down a lot.
THE WEB
Jobs did not create the Internet. Some of the tools he designed were gearing people up for the Interactive living experience but he did not create the web. Google and web video and especially social media came from other sources. So I am not sure why NPR is giving Jobs all the credit for Social Media on the radio this morning.
It ‘s like when I was in the riots of Ann Arbor in the late 80’s. I was there, most definitely I was there. I threw apples at the cops but I certainly didn’t start the riot. I didn’t start the bonfires. I didn’t throw the chairs thru the plate glass windows. I didn’t do any of these things but I was there. Later in life as the riot became legend whenever it was mentioned I would politely nod. I was there. But I didn’t start it.
THE REST OF US
The web is in the hands of the public now and it is up to us to use it. Some of us will become very savvy with it and create wealth. Some will not. The whole spectrum is out of control and a lot of people can call the shots on the web these days and create their own circle of influence. Still, I do not give all of that credit to Steve Jobs. That would be inaccurate.
To me, I still think his stuff is overpriced for what it does. I like it but I am not crazy about it anymore than I am crazy about PC’s.
Ted Cantu used to own a Mac Quadra. Yep. Back in the 90's - OCt. 6, 2011
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