A celebration of Steve´s life – Apple Event Video online now!

Many will have seen it already: Apple broadcasts the Event from the Apple Campus online now:

 

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/10oiuhfvojb23/event/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My journey with Steve …

… started back in 1983.

I was a 5th grader, and my school (MPG, Trier) was lucky that a student won an Apple II Europlus in a science contest.That little machine made the director of our school so enthusiastic about computers that he managed to get the money for 2 extra machines and a printer and furtheron our school offered an “Informatik AG” (Computer Club) and, of course, i was a member!

Those were the days of 5.25″ Floppy Disc at 5 US$ each. Lucky ones knew how to cut out the “write protection” hole on the opposite side of the disc, so that it could be used on both sides, and you safed money (or earned money in the process of doing this for others ;-). It was the time of “Locksmith Tools” and “Castle Wolfenstein“, but also of Basic and Logo.

It was the time that put a dent in my life, as from there on it was clear: my future is “in computer” – what this will mean was not clear to me, but i was sure it will work out! And of course i already knew about Steve Jobs back then, because the director told us the story of the Apple II, and Steve already then had the status of a role model.

Years later, in may of 1986 i bought a magazin about “Computer and the Future of Information”. In it 6 double pages about an interesting concept called “Hypertext”, a term coined by Ted Nelson, and Samples for Applications that used this concept. I was on the hook for that funny idea of hypertext immedeately, and again, the most impressive example at that time for an application that got close to that idea was: HyperCard running on the fresh & new “Apple Macintosh“. So it was clear “sometime i need to have a mac!”. At a pricetag of 4000 US$ (8000 DM/4000 Euro) back those days it simply was far out of reach for a 14 year old student with normal parents … so i had to wait. But finally, after 3 years on a “PC” i was able to buy a “Zombie” mac for 800 DM (400 Euro) – a Macintosho 512k that felt down, broke the Monitor in that process, and someone transplanted the innards into a steel case and linked it up to a much bigger 14″ Hercules Monitor. Unbelieveable, but i was a proud as …

The mac still was an exotic product in germany for the next coming 10-12 years, and mainly used in DTP surroundings, and i stayed with exotic machines like the apple, Acorn Archimedes, and in 1990 discovered the NeXT machines build by: Steve Jobs. Again an important Inspiration: Object Oriented Programming, the high resolution display, the even more consistent user interface … It was so clear to me that this is the kind of systems i wanted to use and provide to other people … The name of my first company was “Do it – Computersysteme” – as it was clear to me that Computers should adapt to the user, not vice-versa, and the user should be enabled to just sit down and “do it” – whatever their task should be.

As you see, i founded very early, and i owe a lot of the guts to do that to Steve, as his story, products, approaches – at least what we heared and read about it – were so inspiring and motivating.

Steve left a dent in my life. I would never have had the life i had, the companies i founded, the journeys i made!

iThankyou, Steve!

PS: I would be very happy if you support this site by sharing your story! Just put it in the comments, and i will setup an article from that, or let me know if you have a WP account and i nable you as an author! Thanks!