Steve Jobs, the Passing of an iCon

Today Steve Jobs died. There is sadness in that knowledge. There are thoughts of things that won’t ever be, goals left unaccomplished, experiences that won’t be had. Think not of those things. Instead think of the contributions he’s made. He created a company that changed the way we use computers, taking them beyond just machines that are practical and useful. More than any other individual, Steve Jobs taught us that technology can be beautiful and easy to use. He insisted on it. It shows in every Apple product. He challenged the status quo and gave it a thorough ass kicking. Through his leadership of Apple he’s affected entire industries, not to mention the lives of millions of people – from the lives of Apple’s employees, to the designers inspired by Apple, to the customers that use Apple’s products. His influence will continue to be felt for a long time to come. The iPod and iTunes changed the way we purchase and listen to music. The iPhone changed the mobile industry and the way people use their phones. The iPad is beginning to affect the publishing industry. Steve Jobs raised the bar in no small way for years to come. For all those things, we can be thankful.

Dating for the Ages

An interesting tweet came across my Twitter stream regarding dating. For the nerds out there, i thought I’d include a little Javascript to show how to create a lookup table. I started by setting up the main loop to start when your age is 18 and goes up thru the age of retirement. Hopefully, by the time you retire, you won’t have to worry about dating anymore. Just to make sure were keeping things legal I added an check to ensure they’re the age of consent. That’s 18 in most US states.

<script type="text/javascript">
out = "Your Age => Their Minimum Age\n";
out += "----------------------------\n";
for (ya = 18; ya <= 65; ya++){
    ta = (ya / 2) + 7;
    if (ta >= 18){
        // keep it legal
        out += "        " + ya + " => " + ta + "    \n";
    }
}
alert(out);
</script>

As a bonus I’ve put this script into a link so you use this from your toolbar. Just drag the link to your browser toolbar to show Dating Age table.

Challenge Yourself

When was the last time you challenged yourself? even if its  a small one. I know it’s been a while for me. Until now. I was talking with my older brother the other night, and during the conversation he mentioned that it had been a while – months in fact – since he had some sweets . He has quite a sweet tooth, as do I , so this isn’t easy. So when he put forth a challenge that i couldn’t go a month without them, i decided take him up on it. For the month of November, we won’t consume any sweets. It’s a gentlemen’s bet. I believe I can do this. In fact, If you see me out on the town and catch me breaking the challenge, I’ll give you $20. What does this include, you wonder? Soda, candy,  sugary coffee drinks (like my mocha), cookies, cake, pie, ice cream – basically anything that is bad for you and consumed during the holidays. Juices and lemonade are fine. In anticipation of November 1st, I was tempted to binge a little. I came up with the idea of a cupcake crawl, and even tweeted about it, to see if there was any interest from others. A few people liked the idea, but nobody agreed to participate. This was for the best. Binging just isn’t healthy. I still had the craving though. Fortunately, I was able to extinguish that desire by watching an episode of the Biggest Loser. Seeing the amount of sacrifice and motivation they need to overcome their current condition is humbling. I could stop there. However, I could also use this opportunity to do another, complementary challenge. Not eating sweets for a month is preventing me from doing something bad. I decided to take on a challenge that would make me do something good. This one was inspired by my friend Anthony Stevens. He recently challenged himself to exercise for 100 consecutive days. He did it!  An admirable challenge to be sure. However,  I’m going to start with 30 consecutive days of  exercise. I can re-up at the end of the November right? Besides, i like that the 2 challenges will line up with one another. To be clear, both challenges begin on November 1 and end November 30. Do you want to participate in either one (or both) of the challenges? If so, write which challenge you want to do in the comments. Let’s work together on this.

Favorite Quotes

Smarter men than I had challenges and experiences in their lives. From those, they learned a lesson. They managed to take that lesson and distill into a compact piece of wisdom. Below are 10 of my favorites.

• “Chance favors the prepared mind” –Louis Pasteur
• “All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward” –Ellen Glasgow
• “Think you can, think you can’t; either way, you’ll be right” –Henry Ford
• “The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his” –General George S. Patton
• “Fortune and Love favor the brave” –Ovid
• “The superior man is modest in his speech, but excels in his actions” –Confucius
• “The greatest discovery of my generation is that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind” –William James
• “Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is mystery, Today is a gift – that’s why it’s called the Present” –Unknown
• “The way to develop self confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you” –William Jennings Bryan
• “To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are” –Anon