Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs delivers the 2005 Stanford commencement address, in which he discusses success, failure, and success again in life and at Apple, and matters of life and death.
** STEVE JOBS TAKES MEDICAL LEAVE FROM APPLE. Well, the other shoe has dropped. After months of speculation about his increasingly gaunt appearance, and his absence from the customary keynote address at last week’s annual MacWorld at Moscone Center in San Francisco, Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs announced today that he is taking medical leave from his post at the company that he and Steve Wozniak founded in a California garage over 30 years ago.
Here’s his letter to the Apple staff: Team,
I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.
In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.
I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.
I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.
Steve
Apple, of course, is one of the key technology companies on the planet, having been the first company to create a successful personal computer, having been the first company to bring the graphical user interface to commercial computing, having created desktop publishing, having introduced the iPod, having transformed the music business and online video, having the smallest complete notebook computer, and having been a design icon for decades. Amongst other things.
Ironically, this move by Jobs, one of the key figures in the history of global technology, who recovered from pancreatic cancer a few years ago, comes less than two weeks before the 25th anniversary of Apple’s launch of the Macintosh computer, one of the most revolutionary products of all time. (One of the original Macs sits on the hearth of my fireplace, beneath a Lichtenstein.) Having done some work with Apple during its first heyday in the 1980s, as assistant to the chairman of Regis McKenna Inc., Apple’s PR and marketing firm (Regis created the Apple logo), and having been present at the Macintosh launch, I’ve been planning a column for the anniversary. Jobs also created Pixar, which revolutionized computer animation and the movie business. This only heightens the significance. And increases the poignancy.
** MOST SEE BUSH AS ONE OF WORST PRESIDENTS EVER. A new Rasmussen poll shows that President George W. Bush leaves office with a big majority of US voters seeing him as one of the five worst presidents in American history. The Republican-owned poll has a whopping 57% ratings him one of the worst presidents ever.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say Bush is one of the five worst presidents in U.S. history, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just six percent (6%) say he was one of the five best, and 34% place him somewhere in between.
Republicans aren’t much help to the retiring 62-year-old GOP president. While predictably 81% of Democrats rate Bush as one of the five worst presidents, so do 20% of Republicans. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans (65%) put Bush in the somewhere-in-between category, while only 11% say he was one of the five best chief executives.
Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 62% rate Bush as one of the five worst presidents, 31% somewhere in between and two percent (2%) one of the five best.
In August, a month before Wall Street’s financial problems began hitting the front pages, 41% of Americans said Bush will go down in history as the worst U.S. president ever, but 50% disagreed.
A plurality (41%) say Bush will be best remembered for the war in Iraq, followed by 16% who say his response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and 14% for the economy. Six percent (6%) list the response to Hurricane Katrina and two percent (2%) his role in trying to achieve peace in the Middle East.
Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton laid out the concept of “smart power” yesterday at her Senate confirmation hearing.
** OBAMA BALANCES CONSERVATIVE WRITERS WITH LIBERAL WRITERS. President-elect Barack Obama held a private meeting this morning at his Washington transition headquarters with a number of prominent Washington-based writers and commentators on the left side of the spectrum.
Today’s group included the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne and Eugene Robinson, the Wall Street Journal’s Gerry Seib, National Journal’s Ron Brownstein, the New York Times Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd, and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, among others.
Some of those folks aren’t all that liberal. This comes on the heels of last night’s private Obama dinner with conservatives at the home of George Will. Some of the right-wingers came away wowed by the new president.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama continues work on his transition in Washington. He will confer with Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who had extended his trip to South Asia and the Middle East an extra day. The Gaza crisis continues in full flower, and the Mumbai crisis continues to percolate.
Obama and Biden will visit the Supreme Court this afternoon.
Obama had a surprise dinner meeting last night at the home of conservative columnist George Will with Will and conservative writers David Brooks, Peggy Noonan, William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Larry Kudlow, Michael Barone, and Paul Gigot. It apparently went well.
Osama bin Laden has released a new tape taunting the US and the incoming Obama Administration, calling for jihad against Israel.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions in and around the Capitol today around his state of the state address on January 15th and California’s chronic budget crisis. He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger spent most of yesterday conferring with legislative leaders, but there’s no resolution yet.
His state of the state address will focus only on California’s chronic budget crisis, rather than address a broader agenda for the state. And earlier plans to take the state of the state on the road, beginning in Sacramento, then delivering it anew in Fresno and Los Angeles, have been scrapped.
** ANOTHER DAY: 24 AND THE AGE OF OBAMA. One of the signature TV series of the Bush/Cheney years is back. What relevance, if any, does it have in the new age of Obama? … From my new column.
** CIA: THE PANETTA PICK AND THE FEINSTEIN FACTOR. President-elect Barack Obama named his top intelligence leadership team on Friday. And, as I expected, new Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein rather quickly backed down from her opposition to Leon Panetta and championing of a CIA insider for the post, of only a few days ago. The whole exercise was very instructive in old and new political dynamics. … From my Monday column.
** CIA: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK. … From my January 6th column.
** OBAMA: VACATION’S END. … From my January 2nd Huffington Post column.
Israel’s anti-Hamas offensive in the Gaza Strip may be uniting Palestinian groups.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading in the $37 to $38 per barrel range.
The drop of $110 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of previous geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
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| Comments (69) |
Hillary sounds good.
Bin Laden sounds like he’s full of it.
Are we surprised the other Palestinian groups are uniting with Hamas?
(EU) EUROPEAN UNION DEMOGRAPHIC REALITY (“Just Go Home”)
Let’s return to the November (2005), Taxpayer League, Debate in the (USI/MIC) United States of Israel, Military Industrial Complex, held in the Republican (6th) District of Minnesota, for a bit. Now, what we learned is even (4) four year’s ago European Nations were complaining about the ballooning Muslim population, and the fact that they were not assimilating into national cultures of the nations they were being forced by the (USI/MIC/51st) State of Israel the Tip of the Spear into the Heart of Islam, and Manager State over the (The “Evil Islamic Crescent”) of Middle Eastern and Central Asian, to leave their homes and told we don’t care were you go just leave and you can’t return period.
And Europe for its part has come to the conclusion that the whole philosophical idea of multi-cultural diversity, which on the face sounds wonderful, and out of many one, is just a lot of wishful thinking and appreciating the values of other people is one thing but having those values actually diminish, and replace your culture and value system is another, and the idea of separate but equal, you in your country, with your values, culture, language and religion, and we in ours, is a more workable solution.
So, the (EU) European Union Demographic Reality is they are between the rock and the hot place, the Jew’s want the Islamic Peoples out of Palestine, Europe is over run with the People of Islam who will not assimilate, and can’t go home, because the Jew’s won’t let them, and the (USI/MIC), mainland doesn’t want them, and the Jew’s don’t want them entering the (USI/MIC) which is Israel’s last and most powerful support system on the face of the globe, and interfering with or replacing their position and power base.
Therefore, something has got to give, and that something is going to be the patience of the (EU), it’s a simple demographic reality, either way Israel will lose. The geo-demographics will shift to the point that the (USI/MIC) will be the only country of support remaining, with the rest of the globe aligning with the Russian Federation, The Peoples Republic of China, and the(The “Evil Islamic Crescent”) of Middle Eastern and Central Asian, or having a two state solution jammed down its throat.
To that end Israel needs a Thermo-Nuclear confrontation with the Shi-ite Persian State of Iran before it can develop a means to respond in kind, making a statement to the (EU) that, you see, you can’t tell Israel what it is or is not going to do, because we will Nuke you, and there will be no two state solution, Palestine does not exit, it’s the State of Israel.
And, this is not even taking into consideration the India/Pakistan stand-off, and the Cold War Duex between the (USI/MIC) and the Russian Federation backed by the Peoples Republic of China, and then there is Latin South America’s growing Communist rebellion against the North American “Yankee’s”.
The “Golden Rule” of House Guest is after (3) three day’s you become like (3) three day old fish laying in the sun, you begin to stink, and it’s time to throw out the fish, and it’s time for you too go home, and Europe has joined the list of nations that are tired of their guests, they are not going to be “Yankee Clones”, nor “Assimilated Muslim’s”. So, the bottom line is all the guests should, JUST GO HOME!
The Israelis are hitting so many civilians it’s no surprise at all.
He didn’t mention Barack by name.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Bin Laden sounds like he’s full of it.
I was replying to Jonas Blane asking if it’s any surprise the Palestinian groups are uniting.
Capitol Boy Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:40 am
The Israelis are hitting so many civilians it’s no surprise at all.
She does.
Now that she’s saying exactly what Barack wants her to say.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hillary sounds good.
Incidentally, NWN passed 77,000 comments sometime in the past week.
That’s too bad. California has a lot it needs to get done.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions in and around the Capitol today around his state of the state address on January 15th and California’s chronic budget crisis. He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger spent most of yesterday conferring with legislative leaders, but there’s no resolution yet.
His state of the state address will focus only on California’s chronic budget crisis, rather than address a broader agenda for the state. And earlier plans to take the state of the state on the road, beginning in Sacramento, then delivering it anew in Fresno and Los Angeles, have been scrapped.
Hillary does sound good. It’s not exactly a “doctrine” though, this “smart power.” I don’t know what it means in action.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hillary sounds good.
He must love that after all the trouble the Clintons gave him in the primaries.
Capitol Boy Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:41 am
She does.
Now that she’s saying exactly what Barack wants her to say.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hillary sounds good.
Somewhere between neoconservatism and soft power lies smart power.
Obama already met all those liberal and centrist writers. I bet seeing him in person and talking with him was a real eye opener for most of those right wingers.
I like your column on “24.”
Thanks.
Yes, Larry Kudlow was going on about how brilliant Obama is and what an honor it was to meet him and he barely ate because he was sitting across from him …
># Len Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 10:49 am edit
Obama already met all those liberal and centrist writers. I bet seeing him in person and talking with him was a real eye opener for most of those right wingers.
Between the devil and the deep blue sea?
># Chris M Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 10:42 am edit
Somewhere between neoconservatism and soft power lies smart power.
You’re implying he’s human?
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 10:10 am edit
He must love that after all the trouble the Clintons gave him in the primaries.
Capitol Boy Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:41 am
She does.
Now that she’s saying exactly what Barack wants her to say.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hillary sounds good.
We’ll see.
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 10:09 am edit
Hillary does sound good. It’s not exactly a “doctrine” though, this “smart power.” I don’t know what it means in action.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hillary sounds good.
It surely does.
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 10:08 am edit
That’s too bad. California has a lot it needs to get done.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions in and around the Capitol today around his state of the state address on January 15th and California’s chronic budget crisis. He has no scheduled public events.
Schwarzenegger spent most of yesterday conferring with legislative leaders, but there’s no resolution yet.
His state of the state address will focus only on California’s chronic budget crisis, rather than address a broader agenda for the state. And earlier plans to take the state of the state on the road, beginning in Sacramento, then delivering it anew in Fresno and Los Angeles, have been scrapped.
I guess Obama isn’t so wrong after all …
># Capitol Boy Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:41 am edit
She does.
Now that she’s saying exactly what Barack wants her to say.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hillary sounds good.
That was intriguing. Almost as though he doesn’t want to challenge him directly.
># Capitol Boy Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:40 am edit
He didn’t mention Barack by name.
Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Bin Laden sounds like he’s full of it.
No.
># Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:04 am edit
Are we surprised the other Palestinian groups are uniting with Hamas?
She does. She gave a very impressive tour d’horizon, which I don’t have video of.
># Jonas Blane Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:58 am edit
Hillary sounds good.
ONCE AGAIN COMMON GROUND
“Israel’s critics and enemies will see the United States as the side to be blamed for the ongoing violence in the Gaza Strip, believes Congressman Ron Paul. He says the US should review its unconditional support of the Jewish state.” (Source: Ron Paul)
Nearly (1K) One-Thousand Islamic Palestinian Gaza Territory Citizens have been subject to a act of “Genocide” over the last (19) nineteen days at the hands of the (USI/MIC/51st State) United States of Israel, Military Industrial Complex onslaught, “The Tip of the Spear into Islam’s Heart” and Manager State over the (The “Evil Islamic Crescent”) of Middle Eastern and Central Asian, with (4K) Four-Thousand wounded, with only (13) thirteen (IDF) Israeli Defense Force (KIA) Killed In Action. That’s a ratio of (53::0.7) per day, or about (106) One-hundred-six Muslims die to every one Jew.
And, somehow both Dr. Ron Paul, (R-TX) U.S. Representative of the Texas (14th) Congressional District, and Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda are wrong that not only is the financial crisis (Capitalism), and the unconditional support of the Jewish state, is not causing a growing decline upon the influence of the (USI/MIC) around the world?
And, once again COMMON GROUND has been reached been enemies, that the (USI/MIC) is to be blamed for the problems of today, and a rapid decline is occurring!
“MOST SEE BUSH AS ONE OF WORST PRESIDENTS EVER.”
If Bush had been elected fraternity president, he would have been best remembered for getting mired-down in a 6-year-long panty raid and having the Mardi Gras kegs delivered on Easter Sunday.
#27 is a riot! Thanks Brasky for another good laugh.
Dana: glad I could help.
It’s better than a kick to the head or more “news” on the California budget…
Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO? Wow.
BB…
Sac leant me Spook Country. thx for the recommend. i enjoyed it, altho i found the end a bit flat.
I’m so behind in my reading list, I just read Bill’s piece on 24!
A great piece, and I say that as someone who doesn’t follow the tv show.
BB…
Sac Salon offered me Spook Country. thx for the recommend. i enjoyed it, altho i found the end a bit flat.
Four Waters,
The book is yours to keep…it should rest in a home where it is valued.
This is sad news. Will you write a column about Steve Jobs now or wait for the Mac anniversary?
** STEVE JOBS TAKES MEDICAL LEAVE FROM APPLE. Well, the other shoe has dropped. After months of speculation about his increasingly gaunt appearance, and his absence from the customary keynote address at last week’s annual MacWorld at Moscone Center in San Francisco, Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs announced today that he is taking medical leave from his post at the company that he and Steve Wozniak founded in a California garage over 30 years ago.
Here’s his letter to the Apple staff: Team,
“STEVE JOBS TAKES MEDICAL LEAVE FROM APPLE.”
Apple also introduced the first PDA, the Newton.
They also pioneered “plug and play” computer hardware and popularized “hypertext” and HTML programing with their pre-World Wide Web application, HyperCard.
“One of the original Macs sits on the hearth of my fireplace, beneath a Lichtenstein”
I can remember having a demonstration of this little revolutionary computer at my Apple club, which held their meetings in the engineering wing of my local college.
We were told that soon after the launch of the Macintosh, you could buy something called a “laser printer” that could print documents EXACTLY as you saw them on the screen. Many of us were convinced that the “laser printer” was some sort of elaborate April Fool’s joke.
Oh, and you can add the “undo” function as an Apple innovation.
For someone who started on Apple Writer 1.1, I’m still grateful for “undo.”
The Steve Jobs speech is AWESOME.
Jonas Blane — make that, “insanely great.”
Bummer, man, Jobs is one of the great California icons and one of the few people without which the world is different.
It’s hard to over-estimate the importance of Steve Jobs. He is far more important than all but a few of the politicians we bandy about as if they were world historical figures.
That had a certain Gumpian ring to it
.
> BB: having been present at the Macintosh launch
lol
But you know it’s true.
Bill — I just read (I told you I was behind) that Obama has reaffirmed that he’s going to repeal Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell.
Any thoughts, both as a political analyst and veteran?
Oh, and I wouldn’t mind hearing from the other vets on this blog…
Of the many disturbing things I had to cope with in the service lo these many years ago, the few identifiable gay guys who were around were not even a blip on the disturbo-meter. We had guys from the Deep South who also had to adjust to having black guys around, and vice versa. If ordered to STFU and adjust, you STFU and adjust. If the brass tolerate discrimination it will flourish, if they don’t and instead require you to get over it and get back to the job at hand, if you’re smart you do.
Brasky,
Concur with Wilbur…
Thanks guys. Never served, so the perspective is appreciated.
RE: Southern Whites, African Americans and STFU. It sounds very much like the depiction from the PBS series, Carrier, which I highly recommend.
Brasky – Agre with Wilbur. I couldn’t have cared any less about whether we had a gay guy in our basic training, AIT classes, or in the barracks at any permanent duty stations.
I could see how it might be a bit of a discipline and morale issue under some circumstances, like some basic training situations where everybody lives in close quarters and hits the showers together, etc. I could see some hazing or intimidation like behavior going on. My guess is that if the policy was eradicated, then most gays upon first entering the service would probably keep pretty quiet, but only until they got their sea legs so to speak. But it would be very helpful to have the policy repealed. I thinks it was pretty lame to adopt it in the first place.
Hap,
What am I, chopped liver???