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) |
Hap – Thanks.
Sacto — you’re the chopped liver, but served tastefully on a cracker
What new video today?
Brasky,
Thanks. Hope it’s a cracker made without using trans fat!
Crackers?
Obama and Steve Jobs.
># Jonas Blane Says:
January 15th, 2009 at 7:11 am edit
What new video today?
Good hearing from you, Hap.
># Hap Hazard Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:13 pm edit
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.
Many countries already this new policy.
># Wilbur Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 6:26 pm edit
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.
It’s the right thing, and I don’t think it will be all that controversial. There’ve always been gays in the military.
># Brasky Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 5:32 pm edit
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?
There are quite a few things I’ve missed …
># Chris M Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 4:04 pm edit
That had a certain Gumpian ring to it
.
> BB: having been present at the Macintosh launch
True.
> waldron Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 3:43 pm edit
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.
Indeed. It is quite a speech.
>Brasky Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 3:20 pm edit
Jonas Blane — make that, “insanely great.”
Lots of Apple innovations …
># Brasky Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 3:11 pm edit
“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.”
That’s almost like something out of Austin Powers. “With my …”
I remember getting an Apple LaserWriter for about a thousand dollars. It’s amazing how much that stuff cost back then.
>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.
That should read … “With my LASER” …
I got a Newton. I tried to teach it to recognize my handwriting for two weeks before giving up.
Of course, my handwriting was terrible even then. And now I can barely read my printing.
># Brasky Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 3:03 pm edit
“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.
I’ll wait for the Mac anniversary, which is the 24th.
You’re welcome. It’s a good book, contemporary real world scifi if you will. I agree about the ending. It’s not as good as Pattern Recognition, which preceded it. And of course it’s not Neuromancer.
># four waters Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 2:28 pm edit
BB…
Sac Salon offered me Spook Country. thx for the recommend. i enjoyed it, altho i found the end a bit flat.
It’s like analyzing the minuet.
># Brasky Says:
January 14th, 2009 at 2:00 pm edit
Dana: glad I could help.
It’s better than a kick to the head or more “news” on the California budget…
Thanks. I like the show and always have, but it’s got a couple of problems. In the end, it’s a show.