How did Steve Jobs affect your life? Please tell us...

[Hekate]

It's because of the Mac that I finally learned to use a computer. Everything Steve Jobs did was built around that same intuitive framework, and that's the key to his overwhelming success.

I'm not a sophisticated user, by any means. When I set out to be a secretary there was an IBM Selectric on my desk, and a primo machine it was. Wonderful ergonomic keyboard. Most importantly for a second-rate touch typist, it was the new self-correcting model. I always knew when I made a typo -- just a split second after my fingers hit the key -- and it speeded up my work considerably to be able to backspace erase on the spot. This was around 1980.

My boss decided I should learn to word process. So in addition to working at a location far down the hall from my actual desk (on a black-screen/green letters PC machine with all the weird commands) I was somehow supposed to deal with the many phone calls and walk-ins relating to my "confidential" position. Our department had one trained word processor: she keyed into a mammoth floor-standing machine; I think she saw one or two lines on a screen a few inches high; the letter would print out on regular paper, and the info was stored on a featureless black floppy about the size and shape of an old IBM punch card.

For the next several years I remained on the trailing edge of technology. Whatever boss I had would send me to a class on how to use a PC, taught by an impatient expert whose "real" job was departmental IT, who expected us to remember rapid fire instructions and never gave us manuals or even cheat-sheets to take away and study. In time when I moved on, my replacement would get a PC on her desk, and I would continue to believe that it was hard and unpleasant and not for me. My boyfriend was a computer programmer, my sister was a computer engineer, and this History and English major was too dumb to keep up. Obsolescence in your early 30s is a bad feeling, especially when you're supporting two kids.

Until .... until a friend asked me to help out a department whose admin asst had flamed out and left a fearful mess behind. On her desk was a little Mac, and in the Mac was a self-guided tutorial. When I turned it on, the screen was a gentle shade of gray and the letters were a familiar black. On the screen were pictures (icons) that looked like things I used all the time: a file folder, a trash can, and so on. The screen was even called a desktop! When I named a file, I called it something ordinary like Personnel. The tutorial was a breeze, a joy -- I was in love!

At my next job there was a Mac on my desk when I got there, and I was off and running. I decided I needed one of these for my very own, and I dug deep into my savings and bought a Mac LT. My boyfriend/husband-to-be was not as helpful as he might have been because his contracts always came with the best of the best; he hesitated because he knew that as soon as I drove this off the lot (so to speak) they would come out with something better. I think the LT was kind of transitional, but it came at the point where I put my foot down and insisted I was going through with the purchase.

Installed in a kitchen corner, I put it to use for my volunteer efforts in the community as well as my personal correspondence. One fine year -- 1994 -- I went back to graduate school and that sweet machine took me all the way to my Masters Degree. I wrote dozens of papers on it. It was a wonderful, wonderful tool. I had slogged through my undergraduate years in the late 1960s with a sticky manual typewriter, when "cut and paste" literally meant scissors and scotch tape, and editing the draft meant illegible interlinear notes in pencil. With my Mac I could edit and rewrite to my perfectionist heart's content.

When I decided to continue to my PhD, my husband bought me a Mac G3, mostly because my obsolete (yet beloved) LT didn't have Internet capability. Darling hubby transferred all my files for me. Again, it was a wonderful tool for a writer. Some of my classmates hired professionals to do the final copy of their dissertations, but for me there was no need.

Email supplanted the US Post almost entirely. Once the dissertation was delivered, I entered anti-Bush activism with a vengeance, research and writing supported by my G3.

It wore out, and my husband bought me another Mac. It will always be a Macintosh. Again he transferred my files, no easy task, and even my email files, which was quite difficult.

It will always be a Macintosh. Maybe that's why the Apple logo has a bite out of it. One bite, and you're hooked.

Thank you, Steve Jobs. You got it completely right.

[SeattleGirl]

"I had slogged through my undergraduate years in the late 1960s with a sticky manual typewriter, when "cut and paste" literally meant scissors and scotch tape, and editing the draft meant illegible interlinear notes in pencil. With my Mac I could edit and rewrite to my perfectionist heart's content."

Lordy, but that reminds me of how I used to type/edit when I wrote specs for several architectural firms! I was quite good at the cut and paste method, actually!

As to how Steve Jobs affected my life, well, I use a PC, not a Mac. I have a Droid, not an iPhone. But I do have an iPod, and I love it! Last year, when I flew to Detroit, I listened to the music loaded on it all the way there.

And though I said I use a Droid phone, I know that that phone, as well as the apps I have on it, were inspired by Steve Jobs. The man was an amazing human being, and I think that whether one is an Apple head or not, one has to realize, and be thankful for, the immense talent Mr. Jobs had. And the immense gift he gave to the world with his creations.

I found myself feeling very sad last night when I heard the news of his passing. Someone like that doesn't come along every day, and I think the world owes him a debt of gratitude for what he left us.

[jaxx]

Hekate, what a story! I have never used a Mac, but very much appreciate the genius of Steve Jobs who brought the future to us. I just read this in my local paper and you may enjoy this story too. It's a story of his early days:

http://www.galesburg.com/features/x66389...-our-world

[Cha]

(10-07-2011 06:53 AM)jaxx Wrote:  Hekate, what a story! I have never used a Mac, but very much appreciate the genius of Steve Jobs who brought the future to us. I just read this in my local paper and you may enjoy this story too. It's a story of his early days:

http://www.galesburg.com/features/x66389...-our-world

That was an awesome story, jaxx..thank you!

I just realized how Steve Jobs' affecting our technological way of doing things has most certainly helped with Democracy, too.

The corporatemedia has had a lock on brainwashing people for too long and with ipads and iphones and similiar technology being so convenient..it's surely a way to bypass corporate facist whoredom.

[Hekate]

(10-07-2011 05:15 PM)Cha Wrote:  I just realized how Steve Jobs' affecting our technological way of doing things has most certainly helped with Democracy, too.
The corporatemedia has had a lock on brainwashing people for too long and with ipads and iphones and similiar technology being so convenient..it's surely a way to bypass corporate facist whoredom.

God! I remember some extended conversations in our former hang-out about how and how not to manage mass protests and -- very importantly -- how to record the events and how to communicate with one's cohorts.

Some wanted to take photos because already there had been incidents because Dubya's handlers really wanted people to stay where they were told to stay ("Free Speech Zones" ). Cameras had been confiscated. I recommended carrying pre-stamped, addressed envelopes and multiple rolls of film. Shoot a roll, drop it in a public mailbox, keep walking, repeat. The so-called news media was ignoring us almost entirely, and the Internet was our best means of communication.

It was less than a decade ago and already it sounds like another era! Think of it! We now have cell phones with built in cameras all over the world, and we can witness revolutions and savage repressions in real time from around the globe.

[Cha]

(10-08-2011 12:39 AM)Hekate Wrote:  

(10-07-2011 05:15 PM)Cha Wrote:  I just realized how Steve Jobs' affecting our technological way of doing things has most certainly helped with Democracy, too.
The corporatemedia has had a lock on brainwashing people for too long and with ipads and iphones and similiar technology being so convenient..it's surely a way to bypass corporate facist whoredom.

God! I remember some extended conversations in our former hang-out about how and how not to manage mass protests and -- very importantly -- how to record the events and how to communicate with one's cohorts.

Some wanted to take photos because already there had been incidents because Dubya's handlers really wanted people to stay where they were told to stay ("Free Speech Zones" ). Cameras had been confiscated. I recommended carrying pre-stamped, addressed envelopes and multiple rolls of film. Shoot a roll, drop it in a public mailbox, keep walking, repeat. The so-called news media was ignoring us almost entirely, and the Internet was our best means of communication.

It was less than a decade ago and already it sounds like another era! Think of it! We now have cell phones with built in cameras all over the world, and we can witness revolutions and savage repressions in real time from around the globe.

Good on you guys, Hekate! I had no idea that was going on back in the bush daze! There's all that you mentioned and now there's sites like The Obama Diary where they all pay attention to what the mediawhore$$ are spewing and they tweet them back with their reactions and are just real Action based..letting them know that there are people out here who are on to their dangerous game. And, they can do it from their iphones and ipads!

Thank you for this thread, Hekate~ I didn't know much about Steve Jobs when it started but I've learned a lot since then. For instance, Steve Jobs was adopted and his biological father is a Syrian Muslim and his biological mother is German Catholic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

And, then there's the story of Steve and his biological sister, Mona Simpson, who has been called a genius in her own right only she was raised in a different household and Steve found her as an adult and they became best friends.
And, that link that jaxx provided about his early years getting started as genius..fascinating!
http://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/hardinmd/2010/...t-to-tell/

In my surfing I found this article on his getting ousted from Apple in 1985 at 30 years old with the $150 Million severance package. He was off to run Pixar and Next..
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/12/magazi...-jobs.html

[There Is No Spoon]

Great story - thanks for sharing. My dad got a Mac way back and it was cool. I always used a PC due to being an engineer (actually a Unix PC early on), but he never would have adapted to the computer age were it not for the Mac. He had to switch from doing chemical photography his entire career to digital photography near his careers end - if not for the Mac he would probably not have adapted to using personal computers.

[Born_A_Truman]

PC person here. I gave my iMac the company bought me to my youngest daughter who is a photographer. It wouldn't network with my Dell laptop and HP desktop and I work from my laptop now instead of sitting in another room all day. But it was beautiful and is perfect for Heather's needs.

I do have an iPhone 4, gave Heather my 3GS and Paul has my 3G. Last Christmas was an iPad Christmas. I got both of my daughters the iPad with the engraving for each: Who loves you Baby? Then Paul got ME an iPad for Christmas.

Oh, and Paul has a Macbook and loves it.

[azmouse]

I have to confess he had no affect on me. I've never bought or owned any Apple product.
That doesn't mean that I don't recognize how the products changed the lives of many people.

[KonaKane]

I first fell in love with digital media production because of the Apple Macintosh platform. There was something about it that was clean, inviting and promoted creativity. Steve's intelligence and ingenuity created a tool with which I made a handsome living for over 20 years. We are now a mixed household (PC/Mac) but everything that requires a creative edge to it, from graphic art to music to DVD production, comes from my Mac.

The "Mac feel" has left a permanent mark on my creative life.

[Peadar O Suileabhain]

He didn't.

Now, can we give jalf as much attention to the passing of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, whose guts and tenacity changed this country and made it possible for the son of a Kenyan goat herder to become a damn good President?

[Hekate]

(10-07-2011 03:43 PM)Peadar O Suileabhain Wrote:  He didn't.

Now, can we give jalf as much attention to the passing of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, whose guts and tenacity changed this country and made it possible for the son of a Kenyan goat herder to become a damn good President?

Sorry if I missed your thread on Fred, Paddy! I'll go look for it.

[KonaKane]

(10-07-2011 03:43 PM)Peadar O Suileabhain Wrote:  He didn't.

Now, can we give jalf as much attention to the passing of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, whose guts and tenacity changed this country and made it possible for the son of a Kenyan goat herder to become a damn good President?

Perhaps you should start a Rev. Shuttlesworth appreciation/memoriam thread? I'd be happy to contribute to that one.

[Cha]

I loved reading your story, Hekate, on how Steve Jobs affected your life. It seems like a really neat path to have been and be on.

I personally haven't used any of the technology from Steve Jobs' ingenuity but I know my son loves his iphone!

And, President Obama is an inspiring example of Thinking Differently..

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify them. But the one thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do." –Apple

"...Apple Coolness...

U.S. President Barack Obama
Rockin' a 3G iPad II in San Francisco"

"If you look closely, you notice President Obama is holding his 3G iPad II in his hand, which is really cool. It is great to finally have a President who "gets" technology ;-) In the future, I plan to write a detailed review of the technology that surrounds the President. Since I was born and raised, and still live in San Francisco, it is really cool to see this great photo, which has a tremendous amount of positive symbolism in it.

In my mind, this image of President Obama standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge with an iPad will always be ultra iconic and profoundly symbolic of the fact that we are now definatley living in the digital age–finally!!!

So why am I so excited "that we are now definitely living in the digital age?" Because humanity has been trying to harness the power of computers for way too long. We have struggled with computers and technology that were full of unnecessary friction. The iPad, in my mind, symbolizes the future of learning. Remember when you were a kid and you had to carry a backpack that weighed almost as much as you because it was full of old heavy books? The iPad should finally do away with all that, and herald in a new age of friction-free learning.

These are truly amazing days we are living in!!!"

Cool bulletblogbyjakee

Thanks for the heads, theobamadiary

[janedrake]

Thank you, Hekate! I knew it was inevitable, but I still stopped short and gasped when I read the breaking news that Steve Jobs had passed away. Below is the note I sent to rememberingsteve@apple.com:

I send this from an iMac as a person who never thought I'd "go Apple." But the technology that Steve Jobs innovated is technology I can't imagine I'll ever want to live without. The iPod brought me an appreciation for my music collection again. I remember the first time I uploaded a CD to iTunes, transferred it to my iPod, and hit "shuffle." There was beautiful music there that I didn't even realize I owned, because I'd only previously played certain tracks on my CDs. Apple Tv has opened up a whole new world of entertainment for me; going to an Apple store is a refreshing, exciting experience, with all the hustle and bustle, and genuinely engaged customers trying out all the available products.

This world already feels a bit starker without Mr. Jobs here. He was a true genius, and I know I'm lucky to have been on this earth at the same time as him.

[RoyGBiv]

Jobs and Wozniak have affected everyone who has ever used a computer-like-device, for better or worse. Jobs was the idea man. Woz was the tech guy. They did change the world.

And I'll just leave it at that.

FWIW, it may be a real measure of Wozniak's contributions to note that his last name is in most standard English spell-checkers. Obama hasn't even hit that point yet.