Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple passed away yesterday, Oct 5, 2011.

I have read numerous biographies about him and had concluded that while I was a huge fan of Jobs (much more than Apple, as a company) I wouldn’t necessarily want to work for him – he was extremely meticulous, argumentative and once he set his mind on something, could be really difficult to sway. Having said that, he was mostly right on most things – he had vision and he almost single-handedly made those visions reality.

He will truly be missed and Apple as we know it, will never be the same without him.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. – Apple Inc.

ENDGAME

I have just recently finished reading this book about Bobby Fischer – 1972 World Chess Champion. He is indeed a remarkable character, read his Wikipedia entry and you will get a glimpse. That is exactly what he wanted the world to get, only a glimpse since he is an intensely private person. Right after he won the World Championship in 1972, he fell off the radar and completely removed himself from chess as well as from the public eye.

He calls himself a genius and was deeply involved in the Worldwide Church of God until 1972, he was also Jewish but he denounced both the church and all Jews. Frequently making harsh remarks against all Jews (anti-Semitic) and religion as a whole. He hates journalists of all kinds and refuses to be photographed even with close friends.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book – it is fascinating how a person can be so sensible and sharp when in front of a chessboard and yet be so anti-social and seem so neurotic apart from it. Bobby Fischer, while he was probably the best chess player who ever lived was not nearly half as good as a human being.

This really makes me feel old . . . I still remember my first PC XT computer with 128Kb of RAM, no hard drive, 5.25 floppy drive and a 10″/11″ composite (green) monitor. I remember wanting a hard drive (a few MBs) but couldn’t afford it because I was 12 yrs. old. I spent way too much time on that machine and still remember it running way into my university days. I wonder if it is still stashed somewhere . . . I’m sure it’ll still run when I power it up now – that thing is indestructible! I have taken it apart and put it back together so many times and having that computer to play with while I was young served me well as it has paved the way for me to be the techie that I am now.

While I haven’t been able to really keep pace with the newest tech nowadays, I’m still able to tinker/assemble/fix my PCs at home or at work whenever they would unexpectedly malfunction. I still remember DOS (commands) and rejoiced when Windows 3.1 came out. Although, it wasn’t very much later when I was able to get my hands on a 386 computer (running Windows). I’ve gone through all iterations of Windows including 95, 98, Me, XP, Vista and now 7. I’ve stayed true to the PC and while Macs are very much the popular computer nowadays – I have not owned a single Mac. I have considered one quite a few times in the past but haven’t really pulled the trigger as I have problems with the fact that I probably wouldn’t be able to tinker with it as they are closed systems.

While I do admire how the Macs perform, I’m cheering for the PC to live another 30 years . . .

A graphic presentation of why/how the US is in such deep debt . . .

Have you ever wondered what happens on the internet every 60 seconds? Here is an interesting infographic released by Go Global which will give you a pretty good idea . . .

click to download infographic

I have been very involved in creating HTML email campaigns as of late and very interested in optimizing for the most popular email clients . . . one thing I noticed is that mobile email is on the rise as more and more people use their mobile devices (smartphones) to check email.

Campaign Monitor has a very good blog that keeps me up to date with statistics on how/where people read their email.

Read about the prolific rise of mobile email – http://bit.ly/rdmxEM

Get the updated stats on Email client popularity for 2011 – http://bit.ly/pk9LWX

The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha
A collection of short (sometimes one-liners) blurbs about life’s wonderful moments. This book reminded me of how NOT to take myself too seriously and to enjoy and appreciate each event however, small or insignificant it may seem in the grand scheme of things. After all, life is a collection of small, seemingly inconsequential series of events. A very nice and light read . . .

The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich
This is the book that the movie “Social Network” is based on. While the movie closely resembles the book, there are quite a few valuable insights from the book that is not in the movie and a few scenes in the movie that is noticeably absent in the book . . . overall, it captures the personalities of both Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin in a whole different light — as this book is based on only one side (Eduardo’s) of the story, it does a good job of narrating the sequence of events leading up to what Facebook is now. Having read the book, I now completely understand why Mark did what he did and while I may not totally agree with his methods, I might have done the same if I were in his shoes, so I can’t really blame him . . . Eduardo, seemingly the “good guy/victim” in the movie also has his faults and the book does a good job of exposing that (the movie didn’t really do a good job of showing his flaws). And while I still sympathize with Eduardo, I don’t completely agree with his actions that may have lead to the eventual end of their (his and Mark’s) friendship. They sort of cancel each other out, in my opinion after having seen the movie and read the book . . . as the saying goes, it does take two to tango.

Pete Sampras : A Champion’s mind by Pete Sampras, Peter Bodo
A short biography of Pete’s rise to become one of the best tennis players to ever play the game . . . this book narrates what goes on in Pete’s mind while he was still a junior tennis player and what made him become the most dominant player in his era. I plan to read Andre’s biography as well and while I cheered for Andre whenever they played against each other – I have newfound respect for Pete Sampras, he is truly a class act and there may never be another one like him.