Image credit: CBS news
1. At a young age, I watched TV news report on the creation of a tiny computer built by a company called "Apple." The claim was one day we'd each have one in our homes. I thought, who needs it?
2. At 17, my boyfriend had a strange job. He drove all over town delivering punch cards to gigantic computers which filled large spaces. How odd and unproductive, I thought.
3. When I changed careers and fled the news business, my first "real world" employer asked if I knew how to use a computer. Bravely I said YES! Then I enrolled in nighttime computer classes. After hours, I would sneak my electronic typewriter into the office to do my work.
4. I remember learning DOS. It was hideous.
5. I remember learning how to use Windows. It was frustrating. Even more frustrating...the cost of regular upgrades. Still, I was stuck in PC world, the preference of most American businesses.
6. I remember setting up this blog in 2006. I was scared, and thought I might need an attorney. After all...did free speech rights apply to electronic words?
7. When the iPod was introduced, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I bought it immediately. When it arrived, the packaging was so cool, I literally screamed :) A new culture was born. Nightly, I sleep with my iPod bud in my ear.
8.. When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, I didn't care what it cost. My first experience at an Apple store made me think I'd been remade as a different kind of human.
9. And yes, I have an iPad. When I cradle it warmly in my arms, I feel like a child rediscovering the planet.
10. In a cynical, exhausted, chaotic world, Steve Jobs believed in magic. We knew when he walked off that stage for the last time, he was saying goodbye. He lost his health, but never the electric sparkle in those dark entrepreneurial eyes.
