You hear people talk about television actors as the people we don’t know who we let into our homes, since they show up in our dens each night. Every Apple event, Steve showed up in my home too, wherever my Mac was. I would read the liveblog first, then watch the video as soon as Apple made it available. I’ve watched countless interviews with the man, too. So part of the reason I think his death hits me hard is because I really do feel like I knew him—even if he didn’t know me.
Why Steve Jobs’s death feels so sad by Lex Friedman of Macworld.
Friedman captures the essence of how I feel by eloquently articulating why so many people felt a connection with Steve Jobs, a man they never once met. I took a stab at translating my emotions into words but completely missed this outstanding theory.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. 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.
Stanford Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
How many people can truly say they love what they do for a living?
While I enjoy what I am currently doing, even though it has its daily challenges, I cannot honestly say I love my job. I strive to work towards doing what I love. In due time methinks.
US Department of Homeland Security developing system to predict criminal intent
From Donald Melanson of Engadget:
According to a new report from CNET based on documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the US Department of Homeland security is now working on a system dubbed FAST (or Future Attribute Screening Technology) that’s designed to identify individuals who are most likely to commit a crime. That’s not done with something as simple as facial recognition and background checks, however, but rather algorithms and an array of sensors and cameras that can detect both physiological and behavioral cues that are said to be “indicative of mal-intent.” What’s more, while the DHS says that it has no plans to actually deploy the system in public just yet, it has apparently already conducted a limited trial using DHS employees — though no word on the results of how well it actually works, of course.
Minority Report is currently in the alpha stages of development. Beware of the thought police otherwise you may find yourself behind bars or worse.
The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.
Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet by Noah Shachtman for Wired.
More than likely this outbreak is as a result of the military’s entitlement culture, whereby senior leadership and certain organizations believe they are above following the rules set forth by USCYBERCOM. When those who are most at risk of being targeted for attack are not adhering to sound security practices these things will happen.
The only bright shining spot is reading that host-based security system (HBSS) detected the malware. Although, if configured and implemented properly, HBSS should have not only detected but prevented the malware from being installed. Using a layered defense approach at the workstation layer should have also prevented the outbreak from happening.
But again, this points back to the entitlement culture. Many DoD system administrators falsely believe their systems should be waived from adhering to published security directives ostensible because the security controls prevent these mission critical applications from performing their required functions. Rather than work with the network security staff to work through functionality issues, these system administrators cut corners, putting not only their own network but the entire DoD GIG at risk.
When is DoD going to learn to say no? USCYBERCOM was supposedly commissioned to do just that. Unfortunately it appears as if this is just more of the same.
How Steve’s Death Has Affected Me
Since I learned of Steve’s death I have been struggling to write how I feel about it. I know deep down in my heart how I feel, but translating those emotions to words has been challenging.
I was at work when I learned of Steve’s passing. It was around 8:45am when I heard. We were in the middle of an “assist visit” from a group of auditors rifling through our networks and network documentation. I was sitting at my desk when a colleague walked through our office door and screamed my way, “did you hear the news?”
“What news?” I had been engrossed with work, and although we had two televisions tuned to the MLB playoffs, I had not been paying attention.
“He’s dead. Steve Jobs just died dude.”
“Shut the fuck up dude,” I screamed back, while a small chill slowly crawled down my spine. I did not really believe my colleague. We are always joking about various things so it was not out of the realm of possibility for someone to say something this fucked up. My co-workers like to tease me about Apple, so I thought this was just another one of those pranks.
“No, I’m serious. It’s on the news. He just died!”
About all I could muster up was a, “whoa, that fucking crazy.” I quickly switched to the internets and jumped over to CNN. Sure enough, they had one of their “breaking news” alerts at the top of the site. It was short: Apple Co-Founder, Steve Jobs has passed away. Twitter was overflowing with tweets about Steve’s passing
As a human being hearing the news of another’s death, a wave of sadness immediately washed over me. I had no personal interaction with Steve but I was still upset to hear he passed. Although his health was in a precarious position, his death felt sudden.
For reasons I am still unable to fully comprehend today, as the reality of the situation set in, this huge wave of sadness hit me as if I were being smacked in the face. I believe I did a pretty good job hiding my emotions at work – something I think I am good at overall – but I am still pretty upset and even more confused. In fact, I do not normally consider myself an emotional person. I have only ever felt this way when a family member has passed away.
But why so much emotion for a man I have never met? Anecdotally, I do not appear to be the only one who feels this way. Many people are just as surprised and saddened by this loss. I have read a good deal of tweets and facebook quips from people who feel similarly.
Even as I write this I can feel the emotions. For some peculiar reason I am hugely sad to see Steve pass. This is a man I had never met once in my life but who is seemingly having a huge impact on my emotions.
I have never felt this way when someone I did not personally know has passed away. This is the type of impact Steve had on the world, on people, even without personal interaction. He touched people’s lives in ways that others have never come close to. Surely this is why Apple is so successful at creating products with such emotional appeal. Steve’s best product was himself.
Steve Jobs will be missed. Rest in peace m’friend.
Steve knew that his people were his company. And while he made us work hard, never settle, never accept mediocrity, he also made us feel like people. Like we were as much a part of Apple’s success as he was.
The Rundown by Matt Drance.
Although this quote does not entirely reflect the tone of the story it is worth pointing out. This is quality rarely seen in our leaders. Most fail to recognize the importance of their people, falsely assuming leadership is only responsible for the success of a company. If only more of our leaders were like Steve.
Beautifully simple tribute to Steve Jobs which has been passed around the internets since the world learned of Steve’s passing.
Steve Jobs, the visionary co-founder of Apple Computers and the only American in the country who had any clue what the fuck he was doing, died Wednesday at the age of 56.
Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies.
Only on The Onion.
Steve Jobs, the visionary in the black turtleneck who co-founded Apple in a Silicon Valley garage, built it into the world’s leading tech company and led a mobile-computing revolution with wildly popular devices such as the iPhone, died Wednesday. He was 56.
Steve Jobs, Apple founder, dies.
RIP.
Steve Job had a huge impact on so many lives. He will be missed.
They appear to be devices that mimic mobile phone towers. The feds use them hoping to have the phones of people they’re tracking connect to the device (instead of a real mobile phone tower), and then using signal strength to figure out how far away they are. Do that a few times and you can triangulate someone’s location, even if they’re not making a call, and without having to ask the telcos for any location info (which, so far, they’ve been more than happy to turn over anyway).
Details Emerging On Stingray Technology, Allowing Feds To Locate People By Pretending To Be Cell Towers from Techdirt.
Although you own a cell phone, apparently the feds believe you have no expectation that your cell phone will only connect to the cell towers used by your mobile service provider. Forget surreptitiously planting a GPS tracker on your car, the government can track you via your cell phone, without a warrant, without probable cause and without having to ask a mobile service provider for any data. This is all performed in real-time.
This stingray technology sounds somewhat similar to a man-in-the-middle attack but instead of malicious attackers accessing your mobile device its the government. As our liberties and privacy continue to erode thanks to the police state our government seems to be migrating towards, is it any surprise the feds are using these types of tactics?
Welcome to Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Of course you should. The iPhone 5 is an improvement on what is already the best mobile phone ever created. So why wouldn’t you jump at the chance?
Why Wait? The World’s First iPhone 5* Review by Sam Biddle.
Only at Gizmodo.
Google’s reaction to Kindle Fire speaks volumes about its goals for Android. Kindle Fire is based on Android, and will run Android applications. Android has been struggling in the tablet space, so you’d expect that Google would be delighted to have Amazon on the Android bandwagon. But you’d be wrong. Let’s look at the press release Google issued today to welcome Amazon to the Android family. Wait a minute, there is no press release. Okay, so let’s look on the Google blog. Nothing at all. Maybe a tweet from Andy Rubin? Dead silence.
Amazon vs. Apple? No, it’s Amazon and Apple vs. Everyone Else.
Is anyone really surprised? After all, the Amazon Kindle Fire ties to zero - yes zero - Google services. Nada. Zilch. Nein. Even arguably the most popular Android app, the standard Gmail app, is missing from the default Kindle Fire installation.
What exactly does Google have to celebrate with the launch of the Kindle Fire? That it uses Android and is tied to zero forms of revenue generation for Google?
Good for Amazon. The tablet space sure is interesting and will only get more so from here on out.
Timeline WP
Timeline WP is a WordPress theme designed to mimic the functionality of the upcoming Facebook profile “timeline” page. Overall it is an interesting concept but I am not sold.
The design is more like a novelty than an actual theme to be used day to day. Although it could come in handy in some kind of WordPress-as-a-tumble-log like setup.
Now Mr. Haynesworth, 46, is asking for full exoneration on all of the rape convictions, although DNA from the other two cases is not available. But the circumstantial evidence supporting Mr. Haynesworth’s claims of innocence is so powerful that along with his own lawyers, the prosecutors from both jurisdictions where the rapes occurred support his efforts, as well as the attorney general for the commonwealth, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli.
With no one arguing against exoneration, most judges would be expected to congratulate Mr. Haynesworth on his new life, perhaps with an apology as well, and send him into daylight and freedom. But in July, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia said, in essence, “Not so fast.” The court called for additional briefs in the case, which will be heard again on Tuesday by all of the judges of the court.
Cleared of Rape but Lacking Full Exoneration by John Schwartz from the NY Times.
In what world does it make sense where the DNA and circumstantial evidence, defense attorney’s and prosecutors all agree this man should be fully exonerated yet the Court of Appeals opts not to allow this man to be immediately cleared until after there are additional briefs? Is this what we call “justice” in America now?
The Clock icon — “The hands of the clock are pointing at both the number 10 and the number 12. Actually, the second hand is also pointing at the number 12. Add those numbers up — 12 + 12 + 10 — and you get the number 34. This is very telling … Steve Jobs’ birth mother Joanne Simpson was remarried to George Simpson when she was 34 years old, which proves that the government is covering up everything that happened at Area 51 in 1966. But I digress. There’s a progression there. 3 … 4 … 5! Yes! The iPhone 5 will be announced!
The secret numerology behind the iPhone event invitation by Steven Sande at TUAW.
The entire article is filled with similar gimmicky, yet potentially valid, predictions. I get the feeling the article is supposed to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek - at least I hope so - but I am not so sure I agree with the assertions.
Based on how I translate what is seen in this invitation, I get the impression we may only be seeing a moderately upgraded iPhone 4 released. Hopefully I am wrong.
