Steve Jobs Obituary

Smoke Signal Tribute To Steve Jobs

1955-2011

        Steve Jobs, the man, the myth, the legend, passed away on October 5th, 2011, a stormy Wednesday night. Jobs, and his company Apple, brought to us revolutionizing products, like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. These products refashioned their respective industries, as well as the lives of the students here at MSJ. You can’t walk into any class without seeing a dozen iPhones on students’ desks, and maybe a half dozen more in their hands.

     Jobs was born on February 24th, 1955 to a single mother who had never gone to college. She put young Jobs up for adoption so that he could have a better life. Eighteen years later Jobs went to Reed College, but dropped out after a semester. It was at Reed that Jobs took a class in calligraphy and the fonts he learned in that class would later become the first fonts on the standard Macintosh computer.

     In 1985, however, Jobs was fired from the company he founded. Discouraged, but not defeated, Jobs proceeded to found Pixar and NeXT. Anyone who has seen Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, or Monsters Inc., is familiar with the stellar work of Pixar. In 1996, when Apple bought NeXT, Jobs ventured back to Apple, and soon everything he touched turned to gold.

     Jobs will be missed for his talent, for his work, for his image, and definitely for his keynote presentations.

Steve Jobs’ Milestone Inventions

Apple II (1977)
Considered one of the first successful mass-produced personal computers, the Apple II line was introduced in June 1977 and continued until November 1993. The Apple II was competitively priced and found its way into many households, businesses, and schools. Apple enthusiasts continue to use Apple II applications today via emulators or carefully maintained original systems.

Lisa (1983)
The Lisa was introduced before the Mac, in early 1983. However, it was more advanced than the Mac OS X as it included protected memory, cooperative multitasking, a hard disk based operating system, and a built in screensaver. The computer’s title is supposedly either an acronym for “Local Integrated Software Architecture” or a reference to Jobs’ first daughter, Lisa.

Mac OS X (1985)

The Macintosh operating system began in Jobs’ company NeXT after he left Apple in 1985. The success of NeXT gained Apple’s attention and the company bought NeXT outright. The Mac OS X was made publicly available in March 2001 and the system continues  as the Mac OS X Lion which powers most macs today.

NeXT Computer(1988)
The goal of NeXT was to create a better computer workstation for educational purposes. NeXT was created by Jobs after he resigned from the company. After Jobs returned to Apple, NeXT became licensed  back to Apple under the Mac brand. The first generation NeXT Computer had a 25 MHz CPU, a maximum 64 MB of RAM, and a 660 MB hard drive. This setup was marketed at higher educational establishments (university labs) for a base price of $6500.

Macintosh 128K (1988)
The first ever Macintosh personal computer, the classic beige computer debuted in a 1984 Super Bowl commercial at a low price of 2500 dollars. The computer came bundled with two applications – MacWrite and MacPaint. While it was discontinued in 1985, the Macintosh brand lived on into the Macintosh 512K, Power Macintosh, and many more models between and after.

Timeline of Steve Jobs’ Products 

Apple I- 1976 

Apple II-1977

Apple III- 1978

Apple Lisa- 1978

Apple Macintosh- 1984

Apple IIGS- 1986

Macintosh Portable- 1989

Newton Platform- 1998

iMac- (General Macintosh Desktop Computers)- 2001 

iMac G3- 1999

iBook- 1999-2006

iPod- 2001

iPhone/iTouch- 2007

Macbook Air-2008

iPad-2010

Quotes from MSJHS Faculty Members and Students

Karleen Densmore- Sophomore Secretary, “I don’t think we would be where we are today if he hadn’t been born to do what he did for us.”

Senior Michael Kagan- ” He standardized entrepreneurship by completely setting the bar so high. Now everyone looks to Apple as the model for a successful business.”

Junior Hari Ramachandran- “He was my idol, my inspiration, to the point where  I wanted to work with him. I always thought I would have the chance, but now I won’t. I’ve brushed by him many times on the Apple Campus; I once met him in an elevator and got his autograph. He was a source of inspiration and will leave an empty spot in my heart, and life. Here’s to the crazy one, the round peg in the square hole, Steve Jobs.”

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Thank you Steve Jobs for your inspirational work. You will truly be missed.

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

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