What Steve Jobs Meant to Me...

Though I never met the man, Steve Jobs to me represented opportunity.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

When in 1991, after floundering in the field I had chosen to pursue,
and a failed marriage, I decided to take a step back and try and
figure out what it was I wanted to do with my life.

I knew that I wanted to make money, sure...I wanted to make
a decent living that used all of my talents and not just
a physical labor job. I wanted to be excited about what I did
everyday, and to not dread going into work and hating myself,
or my employer, as I was currently doing.

I decided at the end of 1991 to go back into Commercial Art,
as I had been good at it in High School, and had loved the
creative end of it. I enrolled in my local Technical College,
and as I soon found out, things were moving in the art field
toward being created on the Computer. And that computer was
the Macintosh.

I graduated Technical College with my degree, and went to work
for a company that had just started moving their art production
over to Computer Production, and again that computer was the Macintosh.

I found myself becoming a much needed cog in the wheel there, as I was
one of the first new hires that not only knew the platform, but
could help the company grow as they moved more and more into
Computer Generated Art Production.

Four years later, I had left art totally behind, and moved into a
position at the same company as a Systems Administrator in the
IT department. My specialty: the Macintosh.

Seven Years later, four OS revisions, and countless releases of
Macintosh machines later, I left the company in good hands,
and used my skills I had acquired to move into a higher paying
position elsewhere.

I also took my knowledge gained on using Apple's Software offerings,
such as Final Cut Pro, iWeb and iMovie to create freelance work for myself,
to grow as a creative, and even further enrich my earning potential.

And all of this would not have happened without Steve Jobs.

Steve's vision of how people would use computers, how they
would change the way we got things done, how we could come
to view it as more than a tool and as a valid part of our lives,
created opportunities for people like myself, to be able to
escape from the cycles of dead end jobs, from dead end existences
of just collecting a paycheck and not contributing to society.

I may have never met the man personally, but I'm proud to have been
enriched and blessed by the fruits of his vision, by the labor of love he
created that made not only computers an integral part of of our lives,
but how he was able to bring so many who had been without a clear
vision for themselves and their futures, like myself, a moment of clarity.

Rest in Peace Steve.

Ok, I'll admidt it.....

Today, I can say it. Almost one year to the date I purchased my 
new ( to me) Late 2009 iMac 27inch i7 Quad Core,
to replace my long aging ( and problematic) G4 Dual 1ghz
Mirror Door Power Mac, and I can say I'm really, really
glad I did it.

I've always been a Mac Tower kind of guy, liking to
replace and update my own components as necessary,
getting under the hood and tweaking,  or learning,
how my machine works. I shied away from all-in-ones,
simply becasue I've never been a fan of all-in-one
anything, from TV/VCR/ DVD combos, to all in one
Stereos, to you name it. I like all my electronics to be seperate,
so as if a component needs replacing, I can just replace
that component, and nothing more.

But, my little ( ok, not so little :) ) iMac has grown
on me. It constantly amazes me with its speed, how
fast it renders and saves video in FCP, and how it has
enabled me to get more done, in less time.

Looks like I may have turned a corner on my
stance on all-in-one machines.

OS X 10.7 Lion: Wait to Upgrade

So today marks officially that Apple's newest version
of OS X, 10.7 Lion, has been on the market for
five days ( not counting Sunday).

And I'm still not going to buy it just yet.

Apple's newest version of the OS looks like a real stunner,
and I'll admit I'm intrigued by several things in the new
OS ( among them Full Screen Apps, Mission Control, and
Resume. Launchpad just makes it look too much like
an iPad, I'm fine with Snow Leopard's Dock thank you).

But not intrigued enough to hose my self and make it so
I'm unable to work, thank you.

My tips for a new OS Release :
1. Never update your working machine on a .0 release.
Bugs aren't worked out, and the apps you use the most
usually aren't ready for  the new OS when it is in .0 release.
( Apple has had  a long history of this, from Panther and Tiger
to Leopard, and yes even Snow Leopard)
I usually wait until the OS has reached either the .2 or .3 point
 update release before jumping in.
That's usually six months to a year from the .0,
and my favorite most often used apps will either be ready
by then, or will have been discontinued.
 Either way, I know then what to expect, and can
adjust more accordingly by then.

2. You only as good as your most current Backup.
Enough said. I'd also add "and a way to get the machine
back up and running in less than 12 hours."

3. Take a Cue from Apple that it just isn't as simple as
upgrading to make things "new".
As the recent Final Cut Pro X update has shown us,
new things from Apple aren't always good things.
And new things form Apple will often hose your video
production workflow, causing all kinds of hair pulling,
nail biting, and expletive spouting.
You really don't benefit from being on the cutting edge,
not if it affects incoming revenue.
That should always be your first priority.
Whether a major application Application Change,
or a major OS update, Apple, god bless them,
isn't infallible. Steve Jobs does get it wrong sometimes.
Just ask David Wegley.

4. Last, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
No seven words in the English language
ever made more sense together than these.