Steve Jobs: a man who changed the world

Today, the modern world was shocked with the passing of one of its greatest movers. Early this morning on this side of the globe, word spread about the passing of Apple's Chairman, the late, great Steve Jobs. The internet was burning from reposts, reactions, retweets and reports of this visionary's death.

As one BBC researcher puts it,

"There are 3 apples that changed the world, the one that Eve ate, the one that fell on Newton's head and the ones that Steve Jobs built." 

Having been a Mac user for a few months now, true enough one cannot help but feel a tinge of sadness and loss. We all know the story very well. Steve was one of the ruling elite of the computing world - a contemporary to Microsoft's Bill Gates, an inspiration to Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, a mentor to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

Business and world leaders, media organizations, even ordinary people expressed their grief and condolences to Jobs' family. It's not everyday someone so determined and dedicated leaves a mark and changes life as we know it.

Jobs was a college dropout who invented the first Apple in his parent's garage. He made the company and was eventually booted out when it became successful. After that he went on to start companies like NeXT and Pixar. He went on to creating the successful movie franchise Toy Story, together with blockbuster top-grossers Cars, Monsters Inc., Wall-e and Finding Nemo to name a few.

He eventually returned to Apple after the first company he founded bought NeXT in 1996. This was when Apple began to take a leadership position in the market. Dubbed as the "second coming" of Steve Jobs, he made sure the next generation of Apple products will be innovative and cutting edge and overall aimed at giving a great user experience.

Some people have commented that Jobs, as a boss may be a little too hard to please and a whole lot temperamental. However, he is an inspirational and charismatic speaker who can spark creativity that'll motivate transforming dreams into a reality.

Here are some famous Jobs quotes I lifted from PC World:

Think Different

"Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes…the ones who see things differently--they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things--they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."

"A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets."

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it."

Lead from the Front

"You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new."

"It's not about pop culture, and it's not about fooling people, and it's not about convincing people that they want something they don't. We figure out what we want. And I think we're pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That's what we get paid to do."

Strive for Perfection

"When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."

Love What You Do

"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."

What did he do that has affected you and me? How exactly did he influence the world or changed our lives that send people into a frenzy when they woke up and found Steve Jobs gone...well my friend, that's simple: you'll never look at the fruit the same way again.

Hopefully, will get to write more on Steve over the weekend.

Facebook Timeline...Not much...what's the fuzz?

Followed the steps in Mashable on How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline and was able to make it work. (If you're interested to try, sign in to Facebook here.)

Not sure what the fuzz is all about because all the information in the Timeline were provided by the users. For the most part, as Facebook grew, we should have been more mindful of the things we shared online. 

I toured the new feature and was a bit well, surprised. It was kinda creepy that it remembered when I signed up, when my cousin was born and it was able to track how many friends I made each month. The most surprising part for me is learning how many of my "friends" were in Facebook in a year's time. I mean I joined in April 2009 and had a handful of 16 Facebook well wishers for my birthday that year compared to a whopping 110 last year. The idea of the number of people I was connected to came more of a shock to me than what the Timeline presented.

That perhaps is the most alarming reality of our time. The danger is not these social networks or some technical expert coming up with ultrasmart algorithms or software, it is the danger of us providing them with the idea or information unknowingly. Some criticized Zuckerberg's Law of Social Sharing - which roughly stated that, 

"...the amount of content that can be shared online doubles roughly every 12 months."

Its not surprising that privacy advocates are daunted by this overhaul in Facebook's Profile. The Washington Post reported that: 

"Timeline has three main components — a user’s stories, apps and a new way to express a person’s identity. Pictures and videos are featured prominently, making profiles more visually focused, and users can sort through information by date, type of media and location."

According to Nielsen, Americans spent 8 hours on Facebook last month, far cry from last year's 5 hours and 46 minutes. This shows just how much the social network has affected our lives. Spending time to check updates on their and their friends' statuses have now become part of the daily routines. 

Add that to the omnipresent Google and the microblogging platforms Twitter, with its ever-growing number of followers and  the meteoric rise of Tumblr, and voila! More and more time spent on line.

This is 2011, the digital age - everything and everyone is online. As privacy is slowly becoming a thing of the past, be mindful of information security. Before you click to share whatever personal information you have and grant access to anyone anywhere the globe, keep in mind that what you are sharing might be detrimental if not a direct threat to you and your loved ones.

FYI: Timeline rolls out this week, October 9 if I read correctly.