Hello Steve!

It is customary for coders to announce ‘Hello World!’ in their new ‘foobar’ project, like the first call sign. I am writing my first post in my first blog. Very late in the game, but getting my head straight took lot longer than I envisaged.

In my two decade of being able to make sense of the events that have occurred around me, Steve Job’s demise has been the most awestruck gloom. Personally I am disconcerted by the suddenness of its announcement. Unshocking as we had seen his health deteriorating over the years in-spite of the come back after his first surgery. His sudden resignation was the next sign. But I was still expecting to see more of him.

Like many, I have an Apple story. In the technology adoption curve, I can easily place myself as an early adopter. But when it came to Apple products, for some reason, I was in the late majority. From little experience I had using Apple products, I was convinced at first Apple is not made for the hacker in me. I need openness. I want to crank up the casing and be able to overclock the machine. iMac did not let me do that. iPods were elegant, but frankly being a tech enthusiast, I found many alternatives more open and featured packed, which kept my exploratory glands flowing with urges to dissect more. I never got the Apple’s ‘Less is More’ philosophy. Or maybe I perceived it as something that would appeal a commoner (tech adoption wise).

What did attract me to Apple was the story and Steve Jobs. I may not have been a fan of Apple products, but the mass following desterilized my mind from trying a new lens altogether. I am not averse to new and quite the contrary embrace it fully. But there is an ‘Option Overload’ and being choosy helps.

My first tryst with Apple was not with its products, but with its Marketing strategy. I was curious what differentiated Apple from others and more importantly, how did they reflect that in their messages. Their Ads, ‘Think Different’, product look and the come back story kept me hooked. In a world where ’Ask the customer’ or ‘Focus group’ is a convention, very few contrarians can display stupendous result. Recently Michael Arrington has done a fine job of summarizing against-the-herd behavior of Supermen like Steve Jobs. My first true experience of Apple’s awesomeness was owning the iPhone 3GS (yes, very very late in the game again). I will not garble the experiences which is akin to millions, but lets just say it was like finally completing the circle.

Cutting is short, for showing how to ‘design’ code, ‘Hello Steve!’