A farewell: Steve Jobs

[dianeduane]

I started suspecting some weeks back that we might be close to losing Steve Jobs. I never suspected we were this close, though. This morning's news comes as a shock, and is a source of great sadness.

From the time I first got my hands on an Apple product some three decades ago -- I was lent a IIc by a friend -- I realized that these machines were something unusual and special,  especially in terms of being forward-looking and easy to use. And later on, when other friends would come to me for advice on the subject, I would often recommend that they think about getting an Apple. (Bob Greenberger, for example, can vouch for how, in company with a group of  DC Comics folk, I happily cooperated in dragging Len Wein into an Apple dealership on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, the goal being to make him buy a Mac.)

I can't now remember when the idea came to me that the Powers that Be in the Young Wizards universe might have a favorite brand of computer. But then the issue came up during the outlining of High Wizardry... and knowing a little of the thinking that supposedly lay behind the Apple logo, there was no other possible candidate for the branding on the computer that would house the version of the Wizard's Manual offered to Dairine.

Over subsequent books -- and as new devices like the WizPod occasionally added themselves to the series -- a few fans here and there have speculated that I must be a very serious Apple geek, or (humorously)  that I was being paid by the company for the product placement. Lest anybody should be having doubts about this, people should know that the only money that's ever changed hands between me and Apple would have been when I bought my first iPod some years back. All the computers in our household are PCs of one strain or another, and most of our phones are Android-based. But that doesn't mean that I haven't had my eye on the new iPod Touch for a while... since if it's good enough for my characters, it's certainly good enough for me.

I very much doubt Steve Jobs ever knew about this affectionate running gag. If he had known, I don't think he'd have minded, as I suspect he'd have understood what I was saluting: a certain visionary quality about both the objects he helped create and the thinking behind them. In any case, the trend will be continuing. In the next YW book, the first WizPads will be appearing casually in the background (along with some perhaps predictable interplatform sniping from wizards more firmly in the Android camp). And with today's events in mind, it wouldn't surprise me if somewhere along the line there's a mention that the Powers that Be have recently "reclaimed an out-assigned member of their design team" for important work elsewhere.

...As the wizards would say: Go well, cousin Steve. And thanks for reminding us that it really is possible to change the world for the better if you just keep deciding every day that you're not going to take "no" for an answer.

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I started suspecting some weeks back that we might be close to losing Steve Jobs. I never suspected we were this close, though.

I did.

Firstly, he was a driven man -- not merely a workaholic, but a visionary with a touch of megalomania. They don't leave office unless they're dragged away on a stretcher.

Secondly, the combination of pancreatic cancer -- which he initially tried to treat by diet (bad idea!) and a liver transplant is ... not good. The immunosuppressants he'd have to take to keep from rejecting the liver would impair his immune system response to a recurrence of the cancer, making a relapse much more likely.

If anything, I'm surprised he was still alive a week after stepping down as Apple CEO.

(Tribute ... well, I'm typing this on a keyboard plugged into an Apple 23" Cinema Display fronting a late 2010 Macbook Air. On the desk next to it is an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4. Further comment is redundant: he changed the way hundreds of millions of people work with computers, for the better.)

[tptigger.livejournal.com]

it wouldn't surprise me if somewhere along the line there's a mention that the Powers that Be have recently "reclaimed an out-assigned member of their design team" for important work elsewhere.
This is both very sad and completely awesome.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've posted elsewhere that I think one of the more important things we owe to him is that computers are actually fairly reliable now, and generally get things done without temper tantrums etc. Apple's insistance on reliability was a big part of that, the other manufacturers and operating systems had to catch up to at least some extent or go under.

In the next YW book, the first WizPads will be appearing casually in the background (along with some perhaps predictable interplatform sniping from wizards more firmly in the Android camp).

I somehow have a mental image of hordes of iPads and Android tablets locked in battle (think Star Wars stormtroopers versus rebel soldiers), with a few laptops like Spot striding through the battle like At-Ats...

[nelka35.livejournal.com]

yes.
go well, Steve.

[honorh.livejournal.com]

My first computer was a Mac. Big brick of a thing that ran ClarisWorks and had a really killer Solitaire program. My first laptop was also a Mac, and I truly regret losing it in the Tohoku tsunami. It's now floating somewhere in the North Pacific Gyre, poor thing.

I also remember when the iPad first came out and people were making fun of the whole idea. Why did we need it? Weren't iPods and smartphones enough? And did he have to call it a "pad", like a lady's once-a-month friend? He knew what he was doing, though, and now tablets are everywhere. Go well, Steve. You made a difference.

P.S. Were I a wizard, I'd want my Manual on my Kindle.

[caiteydid.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, I remember ClarisWorks! We used to use it in school I think, on the big old Apples with the rainbow logo that still used the uh... the tiny "floppies" that may actually have been zip discs?- and they also ran Oregon Trail and... and O'Dell Down Under, I think. Those were the days! And before those days, I have fond memories of a precious 15 minutes spent playing games on older Apples with REAL floppies, the big kind that really WERE floppy.

[zenfrodo.livejournal.com]

And Steve Jobs influenced far more than just Mac:

Windows came about because of the Mac OS (Mac OS hit in the mid-80s, when PCs were still DOS; Windows was MS's catch-up). Yup, Windows Folks, Jobs was behind you, too.

Enjoy Pixar movies? Steve Jobs was the driving investment force behind them. The total evolution in animation towards CGI, because of Pixar...yup. Blame Jobs. ;) (and part of me would love to see Pixar take on YW).

Use the Web? Steve Jobs pioneered the NeXT operating systems after he left Apple in the 80s -- guess what OS was used to design the WWW?

Bought any downloadable music? Jobs pioneered iTunes in the wake of the Napster fall-out and totally re-engineered the music industry because of it.

and on, and on, and on....