Infinite Style

To begin with I have to say that I can’t think of any other celebrity that has passed away and has left me dealing with so many feelings. I guess I now know how people felt when John F. Kennedy or John Lennon were assassinated. 

I have always loved computers and technology. There is something about a computer that draws me to it, and I can’t seem to stay away. I remember when I was in middle school, my family had put me into a private Catholic school which I absolutely hated. I had few friends there and even the teachers seemed to dislike me. In one of the classes we had a Machintosh computer, it was the first computer I got to know. I spend what feels like most of that school year behind that computer ignoring the teachers and submerged in my own world. 

As I got older and computers became a household item I started to use PCs and there was I period were would have never thought of buying an Apple computer. I remember when we bought our first family computer, it was a Compaq. I think in the store I might have looked at an Apple, but the sales people quickly discouraged it. Then in my early twenties, nearly 10 years ago, I shared an apartment with a web designer and he owned a PowerMac G4. I foolishly laughed at it and mocked it asking him why he didn’t have a PC so he could do real work. He knew better and said “I’ll make you an account on it.”

I was hooked … IMMEDIATELY

It was everything I felt a computer should be. The operating system actually worked, you didn’t spend half your time waiting for things to happen. You could work, you could have lot’s of applications running at the same time. Coming from Windows the difference was night and day. In one world you spent your time figuring out how to fix and optimize and in the other you spent it doing the tasks you needed to. Then there were all the small touches of Apple elegance. The fact that the system was multi-lingual, you could make an account in one language and another account in another. The fact that it had a system wide spell check, which corrected type where ever you were typing. These were things that in the Windows world were a dream at the time. Even things like the Calendar and Address Book impressed me deeply because it showed a view that the computer was at the center of your life and a tool that indispensable. 

It literally took 5 minutes, and I knew that I would never buy another Windows PC again. My mind was set and nothing would divert it. My first Apple computer quickly followed, it was a PowerBook G4. From there on I was a part of the cult. It didn’t take long until I started watching Apple keynotes and became familiar with Steve Jobs. 

To be honest I can’t remember the first keynote where I heard Steve Jobs speak for the first time. I can tell you I’ve seen a lot of them, from the introduction of the iPod Nano, the switch to Intel processors, the iPhone, and the iPad. While I might not remember the first keynote I saw Jobs deliver I do remember distinctly my impression of the man. When Steve Jobs talked you believed. He had that amazing ability to convey things in a way that would convert and win over the fiercest of skeptics. 

The first time I saw Steve Jobs give a keynote presentation, Apple was still just a little company. Mocked and laughed at by people who thought this iPod thing was just a fad and that the next great device or service would make everyone forget about Apple. But I believed, I believed in Steve Jobs and I believed in the philosophy he instilled in Apple. I believed that the Apple way of making computers, controlling both the hardware and software, was the correct way. I believed that because of this they would win over their competitors in the long run.

I believed in this so fiercely that I tried desperately to get my family to invest in Apple stock which was valued at 40 dollars a shame. At the time I was a 20-something student that lived month to month and had nothing to invest. No one in my family listened to me back them, and in the years that followed Apple’s stock has climbed higher that even I could have ever imaged. And while I didn’t get to invest in the market and make it big, I’m still happy, happy that I got to along for the ride. Happy that I saw these people working, and that I understood that their vision for what computers and technology could be was the correct one. 

So thank you Steve, thanks for letting me watch your awe inspiring brilliance. I always believed in your vision for what technology could be. No one will ever be able to replace you, you are to computers what Henry Ford was to cars and for that we will always remember you.