Wednesday night we got word of Steve Jobs' passing while cruising through Twitter from an app on our iPad.
Reading the news of the death of the founder of the world's most innovative, forward thinking computer company on a device of his making... Doesn't get any more poetic than that.
The website posted the following tribute to their 56 year old fallen leader with sleek black on white text in quintessential Apple style.
As I read Apple's official statement aloud to Geo, I started to cry. The depth of my sadness for the passing of this amazing man I have never met was completely unexpected. The sorrow befitting a cherished family member rather than a complete stranger. And yet, there it was and still is.
His path was so bold, his vision so enlightened, his impact on our collective lives so enormous, that his death feels like the end of a Renaissance period.
The simplicity behind his user-friendly operating system of clicks instead of codes revolutionized the computer industry, allowing even boobs like me to hop on board.
In 1989 we borrowed $10,000 from my 401K to buy Geo's first computer, a Macintosh 2CX 25mhz, 8 megabytes of RAM, 80 megabyte hard drive with a 13" monitor. The second fastest machine of the time.
He was working at a small graphic design studio and was the first one to embrace this new technology. Geo knew this machine was a major game changer. What took days to create final art for printing, now took hours. No more waiting for type to be set across town. No more sending photos out to retouchers. No more scrambling for band aids for sliced fingers from razor-sharp Xacto blades while cutting and pasting copy. It was all right there in front of him, on his desk with a few simple clicks of a mouse. Amazing!
Geo never looked back.
We're now on our seventh Mac and are the proud owners of four iPods, one iPad 2, one iPhone and Apple TV.
Steve Jobs was a once-in-a-lifetime genius who had an uncanny ability to imagine what we, the consumer, wanted long before we did. He changed the world. He gave us the future.
But perhaps the biggest gift he gave us wasn't wrapped in a clean, white box embossed with a silver Apple logo. No, it was his inspiration to find what you love, act without fear, follow your heart, listen to your gut and always believe that anything is possible when you think different(ly).
His flame burned white hot, but like all brilliant lights, it burned out too quickly. We'll never know what the next big thing from his big brain would have been, but what we do know is this crazy blue planet is a much better place having had him in it.
So here's to you, Steve Jobs. We all owe you a debt of gratitude. Because of you we've been able to effortlessly create t-shirts, cards, calendars, books and blogs. Because of you I can search the web to settle a bet, have a face-to-face conversation with my beloved niece in Japan for free, discover the name of that incredibly catchy song playing in the Gap, stay connected to my friends through Twitter or FaceBook, find a place to eat no matter what city I'm in, and never EVER be physically lost again all thanks to your marvelous little machine called an iPhone.
Thank you for putting the world in the palm of my hand.
Related articles:
Steve Jobs on letting go
"My 20 minute phone call with Steve Jobs"
excerpts from his commencement speech
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