While browsing our Microsoft Exchange server, I happened upon a user with a most unfortunate username:
I wonder if he thinks that this was done on purpose, or if he silently curses his misfortune for having a name that conveniently represents a part of the anatomy?
Steve Jobs has died.
It happened with a suddenness that shocked me so badly that my brain refused to accept the news when I first heard it announced on the radio during my drive home from work yesterday.
Go ahead. Call me a “fanboy”. Get it out of your system. But before you cast too harsh a judgement on me, please let me explain that I lumped Steve Jobs up there with Jerry Garcia, Kurt Cobain, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Palahniuk, Ralph Steadman, Nine Inch Nails, and Walt Disney. These are people who were/are masters of their craft and who played a significant part in my life.
Steve Jobs was a man who made an undeniable impact in this world. He indoctrinated many into the world of computers, mastering the melding of design and function, and helmed the course of technology by branding it with his unique style and the simple mantra of “It just works”.
The phrase I heard today, “Steve Jobs is dead,” is still bouncing around in my head like an unwelcome house guest. It’s difficult to comprehend how Apple is going to move forward at this this point without the man who helped to create it, then returned to rescue it from certain destruction, eventually re-building it into a company that is now worth more then $380 billion dollars.
Think about that. $380 billion dollars. That’s worth more than ten times the combined value of every NFL franchise. That’s worth more than all of the gold at the New York Federal Reserve. Heck, that’s worth more than the total income tax paid by all U.S. corporations in 2011.
And he did this by making computers hip. He did this by designing computers with “ease of use” in mind. And he did this by simply making a quality product that “just worked”, and doing his best to do it right the first time with each new product. Nothing more.
He was a once-in-a-generation type of guy.
Steve Jobs…you will be missed.
What started as a protest against the police killing of a 29-year-old man in London’s Tottenham area has exploded into mass rioting, looting and destroying of businesses all across London and UK. As of Tuesday evening, 16,000 police and Special units will roam the streets over a 24 hour period in an effort to quell the violence.
One business in particular has seen the writing on the wall and has taken preemptive steps to protect themselves against theft:
This Apple store in Liverpool has been cleared out ahead of any possible looting. From what I hear though, each of those custom tables is worth $9,000, and the kids chairs that you see in the background apparently go for $700 apiece. Just an FYI for any savvy future looters out there 
And in case you were curious, according to the Reuters, sales of baseball bats and batons on Amazon have shot up more than 5,000 percent in the last 24 hours. I guess in a country that enforces gun control, this is the best that Londoners can do to protect themselves.
I’ve deactivated my Facebook account.
Now, this really isn’t a very big deal for me. I hardly ever logged in to my account, preferring instead to make my life visible on my blog. But for those people who spend an unhealthy amount of time on Facebook, I could see it being a nearly Herculean accomplishment to click that “deactivate” button. I guess it would be akin to asking a hard core World Of Warcraft player to cancel their toon or a hipster to give up his traditional morning triple latte macchiato.
When deactivating my account, this captcha appeared. No, Facebook, I'm quite sure I want to deactivate. Thankyouverymuch.
What had me concerned about Facebook was their lack of security and their willingness to sell my personal information to third parties. Any site that requires me to take ten steps to secure my personal information isn’t for me. Shouldn’t all of these steps be enabled as a default setting? And with new buttons popping up, it seems as if Facebook is doing all it can to take your information and disseminate it to anyone asking for it.
And so, to my legions of followers on Facebook (all five of you), I’m sorry for dropping out. My profile pic will never darken your wall again. Feel free to keep up with me on my blog. Sure, I can’t poke you from here, but I think I can live with that.
Thanks to some forward-thinking geniuses at work I was glued to my monitor for nearly two hours today parsing through hex files to try and unlock a few “urgent” legacy databases. This goes to show that you don’t fire somebody before obtaining the passwords they use to secure company files.
I’m beat. I think I’ll relax tonight and watch Avatar on blu-ray. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this picture of Steve Martin ironing a kitten:
Happy Friday, everyone!
