{"id":191,"date":"2011-10-12T10:31:53","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T08:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=191"},"modified":"2015-04-01T16:57:14","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T14:57:14","slug":"steve-jobs-and-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/steve-jobs-and-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Jobs and I"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifty-six is too young an age for anyone to die at, let alone<\/span> a pioneer and visionary.<\/p>\n

I call him that with some reluctance<\/span>, because in certain ways, Steve Jobs has made my life more difficult. But his contributions to the advancement of human society cannot be overlooked.<\/p>\n

As computers go<\/span>, I live in both worlds. At home, I use a Windows PC, and at work, I use a Mac. Both systems have their advantages, but my preference is for Windows.<\/p>\n

Many of the things I own, I can take apart<\/span> and fix<\/span>: like a bicycle and my old washing machine. I built not only my furniture<\/span> from parts, but also the computer I use at home.<\/p>\n

What I like about Windows is that if something doesn’t work, you can usually find and follow a short set of instructions<\/span> that will rectify<\/span> things. With Macs, you’re not able to do this easily; in fact, you’re not really supposed to understand how they work in the first place<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jobs understood that, just as most people don’t want to repair their own cars or refrigerators<\/span>, they don’t want to repair their own computers. He also understood that a lot of people would be willing to shell out<\/span> twice as much money as for a PC.<\/p>\n

Jobs, I firmly<\/span> believe, hated computers. No Apple ad ever told you how much work you could get done with one of his. (You weren’t supposed to be working; you were supposed to be creative!) The ads were all about the visuals: the rounded edges, the white exterior, and later the glass screens. It’s as though Macs were built to be looked at, not to be used.<\/p>\n

Computers are one of the tools of my trade<\/span>, so I have to focus on the ergonomics. I don’t feel creative when my hands hurt from using the Mac keyboard<\/span> all day. I can’t get as much done, because I can type only half as fast as on my PC. I can’t even enjoy the looks of the Mac, because I can’t open up the clear-plastic keyboard and clean out the filth<\/span> that’s settled in there over the years.<\/p>\n

For a while, Macs came with perfectly round mice that, although cute, gave at least two people in our office carpal-tunnel syndrome. The highly reflective screens on the later models are distracting<\/span>. Macs have always had a terrible<\/span> time with networks, and unlike what the ads say, they do crash<\/span> sometimes.<\/p>\n

For years, I had hoped that someone would haul<\/span> Jobs into my office, even for a few minutes, so that I could give him a talking-to<\/span>. But eventually<\/span>, he seems to have gotten the message anyway. The message was that he shouldn’t have been making computers at all; he should have been making gadgets<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The gadgets are what everyone \u2014 Mac and PC users alike<\/span> \u2014 wanted all along<\/span>: wireless<\/span> devices we could take anywhere, that would do things that were genuinely<\/span> useful in our everyday lives. Jobs gave us a store (iTunes) where we could find music and podcasts<\/a> to listen to (on iPods and similar devices). The iPhone inspired a range<\/span> of devices with a screen large enough to display not only photos, but also maps and some websites. The iPad is a very expensive way to read the newspaper, but if the price comes down, it may prove to be much more practical<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jobs made some mistakes along the way, but he went out in a blaze of glory<\/span>. He left us last week, having accomplished<\/span> his life’s work, and we’re grateful<\/span> to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty-six is too young an age for anyone to die at, let alone a pioneer and visionary. I call him that with some reluctance, because in certain ways, Steve Jobs has made my life more difficult. But his contributions to the advancement of human society cannot be overlooked. As computers go, I live in both worlds. At home, I use … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,81],"tags":[92,82],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}