R James Taylor

Walter Isaacson's "Steve Jobs" cover

I just finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. I believe it’s the best biography — and one of the best books overall — I’ve ever read. Partly because of the subject, Steve Jobs, partly because of the writing (excellent). But more importantly this book covers my life since the Apple II made its debut and my subsequent fascination with and inter-relationship with technology since then.

My uncle bought an early Apple II. I was in 7th grade. My brother and I would visit him and play AppleTrek, Lemonade Stand, and anything else he had available. Then, Christmas of my 8th grade year my mom and dad bought my brother and I an Apple ][+. I was sorely disappointed — I wanted a bike. I soon took to the computer in a serious way and, using the excellent manuals that came with the Apple ][+, learned how to program. I even designed an electronic Christmas card for my family using HGR graphics (tedious!). Eventually, as I graduated high school I had asked for a Macintosh, which had recently been released to the market. Instead, I got a bike.

I took my graduation present — an Apple //c — to college but soon switched to a PC clone. But what I really enjoyed using was the UNIX systems I had the good fortune of using since 10th grade (my high school was a beta test site for a multi-user UNIX-like system called SWTPc's UniFlex). This was my first foray into the power of networked computing and I loved it.

My second year in college I began selling Macs at a local Mom & Pop computer store (it was, in fact, owned by a mom & pop) and even won sales awards. I loved the Mac and could talk you into one quite easily. But I used a PC to access my UNIX systems remotely. The power of the network was my draw.

In 1989 I had the good fortune to work for Businessland, which was the only computer retailer authorized to sell the NeXT. I was chosen as our store's NeXT representative and gave demonstrations to engineers and others in Austin, TX, at the store and at local conventions. I met a lot of IBM AIX engineers this way.

Eventually, I became a software developer and focused on business software running on UNIX systems. I also did some (significant) Windows development, but that was out of necessity, not passion.

In 1998, after a four year hiatus from the tech industry (I volunteered for a non-profit book publisher and forayed into radio), I returned to my passion for networking UNIX system and software development as a web application developer. It was wonderful!

I also began a love/hate relationship with Linux. I loved it on my networked servers on the Internet but hated it on my desktop. I hated Windows more, so I pressed ahead learning how to cope with trying to get my laptops and desktops to work with what Linux had to offer. I learned a lot, but it was frustrating as Hell.

Then came OS X. Holy crap. I came back to Apple. I loved that it was based on UNIX but that it was fully integrated and just worked. Since 2003 I haven’t used a Windows or Linux desktop/laptop. I don’t have time to fight viruses or figure out why XWindow won’t load. Apple became my portal to the computers I wanted to work with: networked UNIX/Linux systems; i.e., the Cloud.

Reading this biography I saw my journey in life — I’m a Cloud technologist (not a pundit but one that helps other implement solutions on the Cloud) — as having been shaped in large part by the incredible efforts and passion of this one man, Steve Jobs.

Then came the iPod. Disclosure: I don’t own much music (nor do I steal music). I own perhaps 10 CDs and I have no idea where they are. I do enjoy music — but more in the radio or Pandora style than the collecting a library style. The original iPod meant nothing to me. I received one with a MacBook I purchased — and lost it! But the iPod Touch was completely different for me.
I saw the iPod Touch as a computing and Internet content accessing device the first time I held one in the Apple Store. I had to have it. At the time I had a work-issued BlackBerry that was pretty good at phone calls and receiving email from the Exchange server we used. But that’s it. Trying to do anything on the web — like opening a web page — resulted in “HTTP 413 DATA TOO LARGE” error. But the iPod could connect to the WPA2 Enterprise 2-factor authentication WiFi at work and it could fully load and display tickets in our company’s internal customer ticket system, which is no mean feat: a ticket without comments weighs in at almost 2MB of HTML, CSS and (mostly unused) JS libraries. I could walk around the support floor assisting other Sys Admins with their tickets with just my iPod Touch! Freedom!

In fact, I was in a meeting with two VPs at that company who saw I was holding my iPod Touch and they asked, making polite conversation, what music I had on the device. I had none! They were incredulous. But I’m a geek. I showed them that I used it to access the customer ticketing system and had iSSH (there’s better options now) to actually log into customer servers, if needed, to perform system administration tasks. They were floored.

At this time I started representing my company in Social Media venues for support issues. I needed immediate access to the Internet — not just Twitter — so I could see blog posts, articles and such people were Tweeting to get our attention. My BlackBerry couldn’t meet my needs; the iPod Touch did, easily. The only problem was that it required WiFi.

Enter the iPhone. Until the iPhone (I started with the 3GS) I hated mobile phones. My Windows Mobile phones would BSOD when ringing then after rebooting there was no record of who had called. Unacceptable. Here I was a geek and I carried the most basic, featureless phone possible because I needed it to work. EXCEPT FOR AT&T ISSUES my iPhone 3GS worked. It was my portable desk. When I had my iPhone (and AT&T happened to work) I was “in the office.” This allowed me to carry out my duties whenever needed (important for Social Media, where a delay of 15 minutes in responding to an angry customer can be devastating even at 4AM) and wherever I was (and I was traveling a lot at this time). The iPhone 3GS was the first phone that I could depend on and the first one I felt an affinity towards. The iPhone 4 just continued this (even considering AntennaGate, which I made fun of quite famously with a tweet: “Apples new marketing campaign: Hold Different”). In fact, I have replaced 2 water-submerged iPhones and one left-in-a-cab iPhone just this year. I did switch to Verizon as soon as I could (fsck AT&T).

“Hey!” you say, “You’re a UNIX/Linux geek — why not an Android? Such freedom! It’s open!” I don’t care. I want my personal devices that I use to access my Linux servers and web content (and phone calls, etc.) to work seamlessly, effortlessly and consistently.  “Well,” you ask, “do you at least jailbreak your iPhone?” No. No. NO. The integration of hardware, OS and allowed apps is what makes the iPhone work for me. If I wanted to futz with my phone, I’d get an Android. I just don’t have time to do that.

And then the iPad. Yes, I stood in line with friends overnight to get one the first day it was available. And I never regretted this. Wow. The iPad became my replacement for carrying my lovely MacBook Pro when I traveled for business, which was often. The TSA doesn’t even require that the iPad be taken out of my carry on luggage — even the smallest netbook must be taken out.

When I obtained my first iPhone 3GS I gave my iPod to my wife and kids. They love it. When I needed to replace my wife’s simple phone I talked her into an iPhone 4 (Verizon). She didn’t want it. Three days later she told me she can’t imagine not having it. When the iPad 2 came out I graciously gave my iPad to her and, of course, bought an iPad 2 for myself (yes, I’m THAT GUY). My family is just as attached to our OS X and iOS devices as I am (well, maybe a little less, but don’t try to give them something else!).

A product line that satisfies the needs of a hard core geek and enraptures a non-technical Registered Nurse and our children (12, 10, 7)…all due to the vision and philosophy of Steve Jobs and the execution by the A players that populate Apple. Amazing. Really amazing.

Anyway…I’m not really able to convey my feelings or the depth of this realization, but if you, like me, grew up with computers in the late 70′s or early 80′s, you should read this book and, perhaps, you’ll realize the deep appreciation I have for the insane drive Steve Jobs had to create insanely great products.