Aug 25 2011

Steve Jobs and Mark Twain

Steve Jobs may well be thinking of Mark Twain today.

It must have pleased Mark Twain very much in 1897 that he was able to tell a reporter from the New York Times that ‘the report of my death is an exaggeration’. In fact, as the 1907 photo above shows, he lived for a great many more years. (till 1910, to be precise)

Steve Jobs stood down as CEO of Apple for health reasons today. It is unlikely that he will miss the annual salary he was paid as CEO – $1.

Apple shares dropped by 5% immediately after the announcement.

Despite the obituaries published everywhere, he is not only still alive but remains the Chairman of the Board.

In 2004, Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreatic tumour  (an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor), and subsequently underwent major surgery (a Whipple’s Procedure). In 2009, he required a liver transplant. He has been on medical leave of absence since January, but did present at the iPad 2 launch and iCloud launch this year.

If it feels like Steve has been around for a long time, it is because he has. The rarely seen video below shows a young Steve launching the Macintosh computer in 1984, to a standing ovation. The formula hasn’t changed much after all these years, although the black turtleneck (mock St. Croix) was introduced in 1998.

Tony Dietz had the first Mac in college. He was studying aeronautical engineering for the Navy, so probably needed it. Jonesy and I quickly discovered that MacPaint was perfectly designed to make golf score cards which included a map of our improvised Royal St John’s course. The RPAH car park has not been a safe place to park since then.