THE LIGHTS HAVE GONE OUT: REMEMBERING STEVE JOBS

The world became a little different yesterday when Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple died at age 56 of pancreatic cancer.

And, the lights went out, literally! For the first time in the history of Apple Retail stores, the big Apple logo that identifies each and every store and that is illuminated 24/7 has gone dark. It's hard to see in daylight but will be an eerie reminder into the evening...Apple Retail's version of a flag flying at half mast.

Steve Jobs showed us how to "Think Different." And in the last 30 or so years, we have done just that, no matter what the level of our technical expertise. He made tech stuff understandable to just about everyone. Apple products are loved throughout the world from seniors who use their iPads to email and keep in touch with their families to film producers who create blockbuster movies on their Apple desktop computers.

In fact, the way I learned of Jobs' death was through a text alert from a local radio/TV station that I received on my iPhone at 4:40 p.m PST yesterday...Just the way Steve wanted it to be.

In my household, we've had a least one of every Apple product that has been introduced since my very first Apple IIsi in the 1980s.

Apple products are beautiful, intuitive, functional, easy to use, fun to use.

I am such an Apple fan that I belong to Apple clubs, go to Apple conferences, wear Apple-logo clothing that I buy at the company store on headquarters campus in Cupertino, and even worked at an Apple retail store in my home town for several years.




Around the world, the Apple curious and faithful are paying tribute to Steve Jobs at Apple stores.

I visited mine this morning and the memorials to him were starting to be placed outside the store...flowers, post-it messages on the windows...Inside, I hugged and talked to several of my former colleagues...we are family and it felt good to grieve together.

Thank you, Steve for enriching my life.

THE AGONY & THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS: SEE IT!!!

"The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" is a one-person, two-hour monologue performance created and performed by Mike Daisey.



Through the end of February it is being performed at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. If you haven't seen it yet, you have two more weeks before it closes.

As a longtime MacManiac, longtime Apple computer and all things Apple fan, as well as a former Apple employee, there was no way I was going to miss a play with Steve Jobs' name in its title.

Jim was a bit tentative about a two-hour monologue but agreed to go with me today. Throughout Daisey's engaging performance, neither of us even considered taking our eyes and ears away from the performance. It is totally captivating and also sobering.

Daisey tells parallel tales of the rise of Apple as a technology company under the leadership of Steve Jobs. He winds this part of his story around his own love of all things Apple.

The other side of his story is about Foxconn, the Chinese company where many Apple products, including the iPhone, and just about all the electronics manufactured by other companies are manufactured. Much of the assembly work is done by Chinese employees, some of them as young at 11 or 12 years old. The work conditions are the equivalent to that of indentured slavery or serfdom. Daisey tells his story of his visit to Foxconn and the people he met.

By the end of the play, I felt somewhat ambivalent about all things Apple as well as my light bulbs, TVs, and every other item that I consider essential to my daily life.

Even if you are an HP, Dell, Nokia, Sony or any other brand user, this is a not-to-miss play.

Daisey is entertaining, engaging, and he has a message to share.

See "The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs."

I'm in love...AGAIN!

Well, this morning dawned a bit overcast and cool. But that did not stop me from my mission: It was off to my local Apple Store for its 9 a.m. special opening for the first day of the iPad.

While I had not pre-ordered an iPad, nor was I planning to purchase one today, those crazies of us with Apple in our blood, attend these events, whether we are buying or not. So there I was, camera in hand, greeting some of my former colleagues from the store.

The line was not as long as I expected...actually, there were two lines, one for people who had pre-ordered and one for people who wanted to buy today.





At about 8:55, the store staff walked the line, high-fiving those in line, some of whom had been there all night. Even with a reserved iPad, there is that weird desire to be the first to get one.




Unfortunately, even though all I wanted to do was look at and touch the iPad, I was not allowed in the store until its usual 10 a.m. opening time and even then, I had to beg to get in...the plan was to keep the store traffic under control and to have staff dedicate itself to selling and setting up iPads.

With about an hour to spare, I went down the block to Barnes & Noble to have a cup of tea in their café. While sipping my tea and checking my email on my iPhone, I noticed a young man working on his Apple MacBook computer. After a bit, another customer came over to him and, as their enthusiastic conversation got louder and louder, I realized that they were talking about this guy's new iPad that he had just picked up!!!

So, I gathered up my stuff and went over to talk to them. This photo shows the iPad next to an iPhone.



This is the first iPad I've ever touched.

After the three of us chatted, as only Apple nuts do, for about half an hour, I headed over to the Apple store.

One of my reasons for not wanting to buy an iPad right now is/was that I am looking for something lighter than my laptop in weight, but with most of its capabilities. I didn't think the iPad was "there" yet. A big deal for me when I am traveling is to be about to download photographs from my camera to the laptop. I knew that the iPad does not have a USB port, but what I did not know is that there is an accessory, the iPad Camera Connection Kit (available late April) which provides two ways to import photos and video from a digital camera: each of the two connectors in the Kit plugs into the dock connector on the iPad; one can connect to your camera's USB cable and the other holds the SD card from your camera. Wow! And, only $29 for the Kit.

My first impressions: The iPad feels far lighter to me than the first Kindle I ever held. Images on the screen are crisp and vivid. Scrolling though the one book that comes loaded free on all iPads, is amazing; it is just like paging through a book in hand. Typing on the keyboard is very close to real typing on a real keyboard. Oh, and the screen size is not that much smaller than the screen on a 13" MacBook.

Will I buy one? Very possibly...I still have a few more questions to get answered, but one thing I know for sure, Spring is here and I'm in love AGAIN.

HISTORY FOR IBM; SOMETHING NEW FOR MICROSOFT

What many people do not know about me is that I had a computer life long before I became an Apple Computer person. While my passion for all things Apple has been going on for at least 25 years, mainly because I think Apple is the most creative and innovative computer and computer-related things company that currently exists.

But this does not mean that my heart cannot go pitter-pat for other computers and technology...and so it did this week when I attended an event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View to honor the 50th anniversary of the IBM 1401. The 1401 was announced in 1959, a few years before I went to work for IBM as a Systems Engineer. The 1401 was my first computer and it has always held a special place in my heart.

The 1401 was one of IBM's earliest transistorized computers and by the mid 1960s, when I was supporting its users and programming it in machine language and Assembly language, half of all the computers in use by businesses and institutions around the world were 1401s or members of its family.

The Computer History Museum now has two operational 1401 systems that have been restored to working order by a team of loyal volunteers who also are passionate about the 1401.



This week's event featured a panel of IBMers who developed the 1401 between 1957 and 1960. The auditorium at the museum was packed to overflowing with an impressive mix of we "old timers" and a lot of younger Silicon Valley techies for whom the 1401 is only a legend. I have been on Cloud Nine over this evening ever since.


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Fast forwarding to computing today, a few weeks ago, when I was in Scottsdale, Arizona, I visited the first-ever Microsoft retail store in the Fashion Square shopping center. A week later, Microsoft opened its second store in Mission Viejo, California in The Shops at Mission Viejo shopping center.




The Microsoft store looks very very much like an Apple retail store, right down to it's version of Apple's Genius Bar, the Answer Bar, its tee-shirt clad staff, and the company logo over the entrance.

What I find interesting about the Microsoft store is that, while Microsoft does not manufacture computers, the store displays an extensive variety of computers that use the Windows operating system. These computers are for sale at the store and, presumably, it is the Answer Bar where Windows users will go to get their Windows technical questions/problems solved.

This is a picture of the Answer Bar:



My friend Lois, who uses Windows computers, liked that the store gave her a chance to see many Windows computers all in one place. The netbooks were all together, as were the laptops and desktops. The store offers a venue in which to try and compare a wide selection of computers, something that can't be done conveniently, if at all, by running around to Best Buy and other big box stores that sell Windows computers.



I enjoyed playing with the Microsoft Touch Screen-Table. We even sat down and played a game of checkers on it. (I won, only because Lois got tired of playing!)