The rest (or most) of us just do jobs
My iMac and its iTunes radio are an integral part of my spare time at home. The Sunday before last, 02-Oct-11 was such a pleasant day and in my tweet I mentioned all the components: iMac, iTunes radio streaming smooth jazz, low-sugar instant bru coffee, relaxing Sunday at home. Proper mood for blogging.
On Tuesday, I thought why am I not using iMac for programming. James Gosling had blogged that he uses the Netbeans IDE and his usual coding platform is OS X. That night, before I went to bed, I resolved to put my spare time project in Netbeans on iMac.
Wednesday (05-Oct-11) was a holiday due to Dasara and over my breakfast, as I lazily glanced at the TV screen, I saw a scrolling ticker that Steve Jobs died. I spent a lot of time that day reading his numerous obituaries. On my iMac of course. And everywhere they extolled his accomplishments. One thing I can definitely say - he pursued his passions. Which makes the rest (or most) of us look like we just do a job. Pursuing a passion versus doing a job - the phrases eminently contrast Steve Jobs' life with those of others.
Come Saturday, 09-Oct-11, I downloaded Netbeans on iMac and put my code into it. And it was wonderful. Make changes to a file, any file - xhtml, java, xml - save it and refresh your browser - you would see the changes. Just could not leave Netbeans the whole day. The wide screen of the iMac and its keyboard add a wonderful attraction to programming. Just as they do for my writing, which at the moment is not much except for my blogs here on live journal. iMac is a lovely product.
The beautiful products that Steve Jobs built and released have extra uses, perhaps not intended originally. I saw on CNN, that the iPad was being used by an autistic child. I also realized that what a wonderful thing it was for people with back pain. Who cannot or prefer not to sit in chairs for long hours but rather need to spend a lot of time lying down. I don't think Steve Jobs invented it for the sake of back pain patients, but they would thank him just for that.
We don’t have an iPhone in my house. Yet. I think we will be buying at least one soon. A modest tribute to the great man. The new iPhone (4S) is already getting rave reviews.
Talking of paying tribute, the folks at Apple could do a few things. One is reduce the pricey edge of their products. So as to put them in the hands of more and more millions of people. Vast multitudes of humanity still don’t have an Apple in their households. They could make the $40+ billion dollar annual revenue appear like a breakfast cookie.
Secondly, do something insanely great. Like make an artificial pancreas and artificial liver. So that another person doesn’t die of pancreatic cancer.
iAdmire Steve Jobs. He made technology look like poetry.