Tweet Of The Day II

Margie Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church has received a lot of publicity in the last 24 hours.  She posted a tweet from her iPhone yesterday, announcing that the church would be picketing the funeral of Steve Jobs, because he "taught sin".

She sent a follow up tweet to explain herself this morning.

According to Phelps, god created the iPhone, ergo, Steve Jobs is god.  Nerds have been preaching this for the better part of 30 years.

Tweet Of The Day

Margie Phelps of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, sent the following tweet after the announcement of the passing of Steve Jobs, yesterday:

Notice anything strange about the tweet?  Perhaps where it was sent from?  Her fucking iPhone!?!?

Are you kidding me!?!  Steve Jobs "taught sin", and it looks like the Phelps family were quick learners.  Hypocrites.

Quote Of The Day

"The world has lost a visionary.  And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

 - President Barack Obama, on the passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs. 

Watch Steve Jobs Inspirational 2005 Stanford University Commencement Speech

With the passing of Steve Jobs this afternoon, I thought it would be appropriate to post the following.  On June 12, 2005, he gave the commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford University.  Months before, he publicly battled a rare form of pancreatic cancer.  That day, however, this billionaire who had never himself benefited from a college degree, revealed three personal stories from his life.  These stories make you think about yourself and your place in the world, and inspire you to do great things.

If you haven't seen this video, I encourage you to take the next 15 minutes to view it.  It will be the best 15 minutes you have spent today.  I must warn you though, there is a segment of the speech where Jobs talks about facing death.  In light of today's events, it made watching the video somewhat hard to watch.



One final note:  Steve Jobs was notoriously famous for keeping his private life private.  It is unknown as to the true nature of the latest illness that caused him to resign as Apple's CEO in August.  Many speculate that he had a recurrence of the pancreatic cancer, but it was never disclosed.  His cause of death may ultimately never be known.

His family did release the following statement this evening,

"Steve died peacefully today surrounded by his family. 

"In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family. We are thankful to the many people who have shared their wishes and prayers during the last year of Steve's illness; a website will be provided for those who wish to offer tributes and memories. 

"We are grateful for the support and kindness of those who share our feelings for Steve.   We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief."

Apple.com on October 5, 2011.

Breaking: World Mourns Passing Of Visionary Steve Jobs

ABC News is reporting that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, and the man that revitalized the brand in the nineties, has passed away.  In a large part, he has the way that we live our day to day lives.  With the IPod, and later with the IPhone and IPad, the world is a different place today because of his innovations.

When you go to Apple's home page, you are greeted by a full page photo of their founder, along with the words, "Steve Jobs 1955-2011".  Clicking on his image takes you to a statement by the company, it says:

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being.  Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor.  Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

 In 2004, Jobs beat a rare form of pancreatic cancer.  In 2009, health conditions worsened, requiring him to get a liver transplant.  Six weeks ago, on August 24, he announced that he was stepping down as CEO of Apple.  Days later, photos surfaced of an emaciated and gravely ill Jobs being aided across the street in California.

Jobs was a "technological philanthropist".  He believed that investing in the improvement of technology would improve the human condition, thereby making the world a better place.  He was a controlling investor in Pixar Animation Studios, and later sat on the board of directors for Disney.

Steve Jobs was a college dropout, who, together with Steve Wozniak, started building computers in his parents' garage, back in 1976.  30 years later, many would consider him the Thomas Edison of our day.  He had an uncanny knack of thinking outside the box.  He has changed our vocabulary, and the way we communicate.  He has changed the way we listen to music and watch movies.  Are we a better world because of Steve Jobs?  I will leave that up for debate.  But, I will say, that we are a changed world because of him.

On a personal note, my three year old daughter was playing on our IPad this morning.  At three, she already knows how to negotiate the device.  She knows which folders her favorite applications are in.

We purchased the IPad months ago to help educate her.  In the six months or so that we have had it, she has made a remarkable improvement.  With the help of a number of apps, she has learned how to write and recognize numbers and letters.  She knows what opposites are.  She can even complete 16 piece puzzles.  With the aid of the IPad, she is going to enter kindergarten head and shoulders above all of her classmates.  For that reason alone, I owe Steve Jobs my gratitude.

Jobs is survived by his wife, Laurene, and his four children, Lisa, Reed, Erin and Eve.  Our thought are with the family, as well as the Apple family during their loss.

Photos: Steve Jobs Resigns As Apple CEO, Appears In Grave Health

On Wednesday, Steve Jobs, Apple's founder and CEO sent a letter addressed to "To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community", he resigned.  The letter said:

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve"

 Jobs is one of the most innovative and one of the most business savvy individuals of the modern era.  With rumors of both an IPad 3 and numerous IPhone models debuting for multiple carriers within the next few months, many industry insiders were speculating what it was that is causing Jobs to walk away from his baby. Had his pancreatic cancer come back?  Was it something else?  Well,  TMZ got a picture of Mr Jobs this afternoon today, and it isn't pretty.  In fact, it's quite shocking.

As you can see, he's so weak and frail he is having to be assisted with standing at the street corner.  His ankles are wider than the middle of his legs.  He appears to be terminally ill.

When he resigned on Wednesday, I read a lot of articles that essentially talked shit about him.  They talked about how stubborn he was, or about how he was a "my way or the highway" type of guy.  One article reiterated the number of products Apple was responsible for killing (the Walkman, floppy disks, CDs, CD roms).  There was one article though that stood out.  It was actually a post on Google+ by Google Vice President for Social Business Vic Gundotra:

"One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore.

After services, as I was walking to my car with my family, I checked my cell phone messages. The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said. 

Before I even reached my car, I called Steve Jobs back. I was responsible for all mobile applications at Google, and in that role, had regular dealings with Steve. It was one of the perks of the job. 

"Hey Steve - this is Vic", I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up". 

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services". 

I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve. 

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon. 

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products. They have been a part of my life for decades. Even when I worked for 15 years for Bill Gates at Microsoft, I had a huge admiration for Steve and what Apple had produced. 

But in the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I'll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

To one of the greatest leaders I've ever met, my prayers and hopes are with you Steve.

-Vic"

Being a visionary isn't about cutting corners to make an extra 3% profit on a particular product.  People take notice.  That's why they're willing to pay a little bit extra for the merchandise.  Our hopes and thoughts are with you as well, Steve.