'Dear Apple'
34 minutes ago
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
rant: rest in peace steve jobs 1955-2011
rest in peace mr. jobs. thank you for changing our lives with your innovation, vision, and relentless pursuit of perfection.
if you've never seen/heard/read steve job's 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class of standford, please do. I've posted the video and prepared text of the speech.
This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
rave: obama me!
with the inauguration only days away, i thought this was a pretty cool website where you can create your own obama poster. have fun! obamicon.me
rant: overhaul
everything needs to be revamped at some point in time. so it was time to update the look of the blogs. still working out all the logisitcs so please bear with me. i did not pay attention in my computer science class...i took it as an elective! so i hope you enjoy the new look.
rave: wwdc 2008 + iPhone 3G = envy
ooooohhhhh....prrreeeetttyyy
my phone envy has grown uncontrollable. i am now determined to have one...even though at&t is increasing data plans by $10 and locking you into a 2 year contract so you can't upgrade your iPhone if steve jobs decides to create a better one next year. but i don't care!!! i want it and i want it now! :) well, i have to wait till august for my t-mobile contract to end then it will be mine! (i've even convinced b that he needs one too. i tricked him by saying that we'll save money with the family plan. mwahhhhaaa!)
is it horrible that in the bad economic times we are in where gas is $4.00 a gallon in texas, i want to shell out $200-$300 for a phone? am i such a bad person? can i call it an investment so i can feel better about myself? after watching the 2008 wwdc keynote speech, i was totally hooked...i was even convinced that i needed to pay $99/year for mobile me. yes, i too needed my personal email, contacts, photos and calendar events pushed to me via the cloud. that steve jobs is good. he could probably sell rat infested houses and people would flock. seriously, they say that the blackberry is like crack, but i think apple is the new crack...better, stronger, and more addictive. since my g4 powerbook, i am addicted to all things mac. about 2 months ago, i even considered purchasing a mac pro bundle for $3k+. the mac pro 2.8 Ghz 8 core with 10gb of ram, 500gb harddrive, superdrive, 8800gt plus a 23 inch cinema display.
do i need it? no. do i edit movies or produce music? no. do i even do hard core graphic design work that my powerbook can't handle? nope. just want it. it's pretty and it's got 2 quad core processors and the display is hd quality! do i need a $3k+ machine to check my email, surf facebook and upload photos? not one bit. but eventually i will purchase another mac. its just a matter of time. damn steve jobs for making his products so pretty and appealing especially to women. he knows we are suckers for purchasing things just based on prettiness and cuteness. and everything about apple is pretty and cute...even the logo.
sigh...back to work on my ugly dell desktop circa 1995 with its big o'l crt monitor.
rave: apple press event today - UPDATED
Check out macworld.com for the live update of the event going on right now :)
whole new line of ipods...including one that is just like the iphone...
http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/09/04/livecoverage/index.php
okay...so steve jobs is done with his press conference and the link above will let you read the transcript and see some photos of the new line up of ipods...including the iPod Touch...the iphone looking ipod. only difference is no phone option and thinner and more memory. more importantly, he announced that they are dropping the 8gig iphone price down from $599 to $399...starting today.
other things announced:
- iphone ring tone maker - using of course itunes
- shuffles updated with new colors including project (red)
- nano is redesigned - full metal construction, better 2" screen, video capable, cover flow, new UI, and games
- ipod classic - full metal case, new UI, 80gig and 160gig models now,
- ipod touch - just like the iphone minus the phone part...yes wifi is part of it and so is safari among many great features, 8gig or 16gig models.
- apple & starbucks partnership
All in all some really cool new things for ipod/iphone/itunes...continue in the world dominance apple!
rave: it's here!!!
and i am so freakin' excited. not that i'm going to get one. i am saying right now that i will wait till the 2nd generation comes out. you know what i mean...i want to wait till all the bugs and issues get worked out. (at least that is what i am saying to myself to keep myself from buying one.) but i know that one day, i will have my iphone. it is going to be madness today at 6 pm. actually, apparently it already is. people have already started to line up. (article here via AP.) Here is also a review by someone from usa today who's bee test driving one. i have to admit, the service cost isn't nearly as bad as i had thought it would be.
it's just so pretty...*sigh*
rave: wii!!!!
new toy for me and b...thank you to my big sis!can't wait to play...heehee...
anyone got gamecube games they are trying to get rid of?!?!
rave: apple is taking over the world!
Steve Jobs announces new products during his 2-hr keynote speech...here are just the two biggies. more to post later...brain is tired. visit apple for more info.
oooooooooooo.....
(you can pre-order this already at Apple online...$299.)
ahhhhhhhhhhhhh....
(this you'll have to wait till Feb. there will be a 4 gig mode - $499 l and an 8 gig model - $599. you'll also have to get cingular service in the states. Europe release in late 2007 and Asia in 2008.
(this you'll have to wait till Feb. there will be a 4 gig mode - $499 l and an 8 gig model - $599. you'll also have to get cingular service in the states. Europe release in late 2007 and Asia in 2008.
rave: tech, gadget, gizmo, & of course apple geek week...
with CES and MacWorld Expo both happening in the same week...CES in las vegas and MWE in san francisico...it is going to be a very exciting week for the tech savvy & gadget enthusiast crowd. i don't really fall into either category, but it does peak my interest some. besides i'm a huge apple fan. so it'll be interesting what comes of both.
the rumors of apple coming out with a cell phone has cause a couple (sony & verizon) to launch new products in the past 24 hrs. no doubt both of these will be a CES and no doubt there will be more. there are ALOT of rumors flying around...so great, so eh...but i'm waiting to hear the actual new. it'll be fun. also, there is an apple rumor (haha...that is gwyneth's and demi's daughters!) that they are coming out with an iTV. it allows you to transfer tv shows and movies to you computer wirelessly :)
if you don't have time to research and read all the news, here are a couple blogs of some enthusiast who are attending the two events.
rave: the masai tribe & apple computers
"Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes of Africa, no tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than the mighty Masai. It is perhaps surprising, then, to learn the traditional greeting that passed between Masai warriors:"Kasserian Ingera," one would always say to another. It means, "And how are the children?"
It is still the traditional greeting among the Masai, acknowledging the high value that the Masai always place on their children's well-being. Even warriors with no children of their own would always give the traditional answer, "All the children are well." Meaning, of course, that peace and safety prevail, that the priorities of protecting the young, the powerless, are in place. That Masai society has not forgotten its reason for being, its proper functions and responsibilities. "All the children are well" means that life is good. It means that the daily struggles for existence do not preclude proper caring for their young.
I wonder how it might affect our consciousness of our own children's welfare if in our culture we took to greeting each other with this daily question: "And how are the children?" I wonder if we heard that question and passed it along to each other a dozen times a day, if it would begin to make a difference in the reality of how children are thought of or cared about in our own country.
I wonder if every adult among us, parent and non-parent alike, felt an equal weight for the daily care and protection of all the children in our community, in our town, in our state, in our country. . . . I wonder if we could truly say without any hesitation, "The children are well, yes, all the children are well." And if we asked: "How are the children? Are they all well?" Wouldn't it be interesting to hear the answers? What would it be like? I wonder . . . "
- Adapted by Pat Hoertdoerfer from an excerpt of a speech by Rev. Dr. Patrick T. O'Neill
this speach is something that i found while working at The Center for Child Protection a couple years ago. and it has stuck with me. while reading up on what's been going on with apple computers, i ran across an article about what a retired tech exce and a team of ex-apple employees are doing for the Masai children and building schools in africa...it's good to see that people do care how the children are.
rant: another busy weekend in h-town
i need a weekend to recover from my weekend! it was another busy weekend for me and b. we celebrated bchan's birthday friday night after driving in (happy birthday!!!). saturday morning was dimsum with mom and grandma. then if was off to take care of tuxedos for the wedding at anna's bridal. then it was off to go meet my sister at her sister-in-law's house. said hi to all the family and the off to the jewelry show. we went to order our wedding bands...3.5 hours later we were FINALLY done. then it was time for dinner...my fav...korean BBQ at Sam Bo Jung. After we stuffed ourselves, we went and got shaved ice...nicholas' favorite thing. then it was off to see bchan's new digs. sunday there was church, classes, then back to mom's place to pack, have dinner and leave. and of course, whenever there was freetime i spent bonding with nicholas...he almost can say my name. he's almost learned b's name too. although most of the time he just calls brian "b", just like most people. all in all for being in h-town for less than 48 hrs, we did a heck of a lot of stuff.
I also finally replaced my phone. i had purchased the hot pink RAZR from T-Mobile and i really wanted to love it. but it kept acting up...turning off in the middle of conversations, screen going black for no reason at all, insert SIM card messages when SIM card was already in, not charging. for having it for just 1 month, it had too many issues for me to keep it. T-Mobile was really great. No hassels on processing the exchange and i got my new phone in 2 days! So far i like it. let's just hope this one won't have any problems.
I also finally sent out my save-the-date for my wedding. woohoo! now i'm tackling my invites...which i have hit a snag. so i'm in troubleshooting mode. i obviously have unique taste. the paper i want to use can only be purchased by the carton....that equals enough paper for me to print invites, reply cards, programs, table cards and place cards for about 1000 people. that is WAY too much paper. so back to square one for me :) Wedding favors are in too...they are currently on a plane with my daddy on the way back from hong kong. i cannot wait! we also blocked off rooms for guest for the wedding at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown houston. b and i will also be staying there that night. (to get the discounted rate please let them know it is for the wong/liau wedding) we want our friends to come hang out with us at the hotel bar after the reception if they are up to it. besides, they serve milk and cookies every night...yum! thanks judy & wai for letting us copy you guys. so the big shindig is coming along...i can't wait!
so i think that's all that happened. if i can think of anything else i'll add :) whoo...what a long blog...i need a nap now...
here's a couple photos of nicholas too...
rave: pictures can say a 1000 words
photos, images, vector art, flash design...i wish i was so talented to be able to create my own. but since my skills are not there yet, i've turned to stock photo or stock art. The only problem was that images were so expensive to purchase or have commissioned. Until I stubbled upon www.istockphoto.com. It is a royalty free stock photography community. Not only can you find images you need for as cheap as $1, you can upload and participate too. If you have the skills or just some great photos that people would like, you should check this out.
rant: the skinny camera???
Out with the old...in with the new? you know the old saying that a camera adds 10 lbs...well no more! HP has a new feature that slims the subject in the center of the image. it is offered on their new R927 8 mega pixel camera. there are 3 different settings depending how fat you are feeling :) now, if they can only apply the technology to mirrors in store dressing rooms...
Amazon.com Camera & Photo: Film & digital cameras from Canon, Sony & other leading brands, binoculars, camcorders, photo printers & more
rave:Canon PIXMA MP150 Photo All In One Printer $59.59
here's a great deal on a photo printer on amazon.com...if you are looking for one for 60 bucks...this is it. and you get free shipping!
Amazon.com: Canon PIXMA MP150 Photo All In One Printer: Electronics
rant & rave: animated
you too can be south park character! visit http://www.sp-studio.de/ and create a mini you. A pal of mine created these for me. scary how much it really looks like brian :) hmmm maybe we should use this as our official wedding photo...
rant: modern note passing in class
and to think that i use to think my friends and i were so smart to fold notes into all sorts of shapes and in miniture sizes to stick inside lockers or drop quietly on the floor. we even had notebooks so it just looked like we were helping each other study. little did we know we just needed lemons and q-tips.
How to Make an Invisible Ink Message - WikiHow
Sheep
so i have decided to join the world of blogs. I fought this for a very long time and recently have joined MySpace and realized I like blogging...but I can't access MySpace easily so I decided to find a new alternative. So this is my little space where i can rant, rave, review, and reveal. i hope you enjoy!
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