I never met Steve Jobs. Never saw him speak in person, never attended an event that he presided over. I’m not even a Apple fan boy, but am enthusiastic about their products. Up until the announcement of Steve’s passing, I was very excited about ordering my first iPhone.
This morning I’m driving into work in a car that is favored by Apple enthusiasts, listening to podcasts created by Apple enthusiasts on Apple computers thru my iPod. But, instead of being excited about ordering my first iPhone tonight, something is wrong. There is an absense in the force.
That feeling you get when something is not right, something is missing. It is strong with me today. I’ve worked in and around technology all my life, technology that was influenced or created by Steve. My first computer was an Apple IIe. I learned to program Apple basic and SuperCalc on Apple II’s in high school. 2 skills that helped me immensely through my 20′s.
Eventhough I was a Windows guy for a while, I still coveted Apple products. My first computer on my own was almost a Apple Performa. I’ve used iTunes since it was released, got my first iPod shortly after they were supported under Windows. And I’ve always used a mouse.
Steve Jobs is the reason you are reading this now. If it wasn’t for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, personal computers wouldn’t be what they are today. If you are reading this on an iPhone or Android device, you can thank Steve Jobs for that, too.
Something is missing today.
Around the internet many people have many nice things to say or share about Steve. Check out Wired.com for some nice tributes. John Gruber, the boys from Panic Software and Andy Inhatko all have nice memories and stories to read too.
Things will be different from today going forward. While I don’t doubt that Apple will continue to create fantastic devices that we will talk about, dream about and covet, they won’t be quite the same.
For those of you that aren’t playing the home game, I’ve been in the process of catching up with Dr. Who. It’s taken me a few months to get through season 5, but I finally did last week. Not only that, but we’ve been recording season 6 from BBC America so that when I did finally get through season 5 we’d be ready!
Also, Stella has been working through here 40×40 list, and thought Dr. Who night would be a great time to clear another 2 items from her list; cooking all of the 10 most difficult recipes according to Epicurious. On for last night were numbers 6 and 8, paella and baked alaska. (Read on…)
Maybe it’s just me, but lately I’m noticing a lot of laziness around me. Laziness and, if I’m honest, half-assed work. Details going unnoticed, pieces missing and work not complete.
This might not be making any sense to you, so here are some pretty pictures that might help. Taken from the roof of a very swank hotel in a very swank city in Arizona. Look at the first pic closely and I’ll continue to tell you what I’m on about.
Nice right? Colors match, the fire gives that feeling of warmth and comfort and the flowers help to soften the hard edges. At first glance it looks amazing. Until you notice the details.
The yellow circles show off some very not-blending-in chrome table legs that look like they came from a desk chair about the same time this particular hotel was built. Top left is a cable that is coming from the fire pit, presumably to light it, running someplace. We’ll ignore that one for now since it’s not as glaring as shiny chrome.
I’ve been told not to sweat the details in the past, but I always ignored it. I’m going to tell you why.
The details make a difference.
You see in our example above, if the table cloths were bright red, or if the fireplace wasn’t lit, then seeing the table legs would probably be perfectly a-ok. It would appear, however, that a great deal of work went into the planning and decoration of this particular space for this event. Allowing the table legs, at least to me, while a minor detail, is one that takes this otherwise great looking scene down a notch or 5.
It’s just half-assed.
If you are going to do something half-assed, don’t be half-assed about it. Be consistent. Rip a table cloth, break some glass, forget to sweep. Consistency is key.
If you are going to spend the time, effort and money on making something truly kick ass, then make sure it is, in fact, truly kick ass. Mind the details. Cover those crappy looking table legs. Give the glass a final polish to make sure there aren’t any spots. Sweep the floor.
When the details are missed is usually when it is the most noticeable. Go for perfection or go for half-assed, just don’t do them both at the same time. It makes you look bad.
Sure I may not be full-time employed, but I do have an office. Actually, I have about 15 of them. I really could use something else.
Sure hangin’ out at Starbucks is cool, and with my FIOS access to WiFi, it doesn’t cost me anything to connect to the tubes so I can get a few things done. But, hangin’ out at a Starbucks can be distracting.
There is music that I don’t like. Loud talking Mom’s enjoying the freedom they are again getting during the day. Even the occassional screaming child or hyper 3 year old. If the distractions are minimal, I can usually tune them out. But it’s hard when there is a small child bouncing off the chairs and repeating themselves while the parental unit tries to carry on a conversation about the latest gossip.
I keep hoping, watching, waiting for someone, anyone, in the Temecula to start a co-working facility. It’s like an office rental, but not really. More like a Starbucks, but without the distractions and a copy machine. I keep looking, but the best I can find is office sub-letting, and that’s exactly what i don’t want and can’t afford.
If someone where to open a place, offer WiFi and a coffee pot, and charge me $20 per day to use a chair, I would gladly pay.
Or maybe I’ll start one myself. Now, where would I find funding?
It’s the time of the year to start thinking about all of the things you wanted to do this year, but didn’t.
Perhaps one of those things is to have some kind of backup for your computer. Or maybe to enhance your existing backup regimen. Or, even, replace that aging external drive you are using.
Now is a good time.
I know it’s the holiday season. You have a million people to buy stuff for and all that. But how crappy would it be if you were to lose all of those photos, music and movie you’ve been collecting over the years. If you remember the fun and excitement I had when it almost happened to me, you know it’s really not fun and exciting.
I say now is a good time because while cruising through CostCo today, they had the Western Digital triple interface (eSATA, USB and Firewire) external 1 TB drive for $179.99 with an in store $40 rebate. That means $139.99 for 1TB of storage. Down at the store we call that a smokin’ deal, so I bought one. Sure I’m unemployed. Sure it’s almost Christmas and money is super tight. But $140 is a pretty good insurance to save my music, movies and photos.
Now, not only am I able to backup my entire hard drive, but I can also back-up my media drive and still have over 600GB of available space for whatever. SWEET!
Now it’s your turn. Time to get a back-up system going. Or maybe you know someone that doesn’t have one. It’s time. Follow the link for a good deal on a USB 1TB drive from Amazon, or get you to CostCo.
You can thank me later.
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