Photo - The first Mac I actually owned outright - 2008. 

Location: The old TNL offices on South Beach

I figure if everyone else is talking about the passing of Steve Jobs, I may as well do so, here in my little platform and it’s audience of six or so. 

The BlackBook (or PodBook as I called it) wasn’t actually my first Apple product. I had been the owner of an iPod classic for a few years prior, since about the middle of 2005. And prior to those years, my computing experience was exclusively with Windows and UN*X-based machines of one flavor or another. Partially for cost (I’m fully aware of the Apple Tax) and partially out of an obscure sense of ‘geek pride’. Doing things the hard way was supposedly the mark of the true geek. 

OS X kind of changed that opinion in me. Here was a BSD-derived operating system with an intuitive GUI and it ran on a relatively popular (as compared to other UN*X systems) hardware platform. My initial gripe with Macs was always that the OS hid too many functions necessary for the power user and sysadmin type. Steve’s vision upon his return to Apple in the late 1990s spearheaded the change, which resulted in OS X, an OS with BSD underpinnings (and a command line!) and also with such ease of use that the true ‘power functions’ could effectively be disregarded if needed. 

Prior to the acquisition of my Mac, I had done all my photo work on Windows machines. Partially because I was a tinkerer and also partially due to some of the flaws in the Windows operating system, doing edits sometimes was a frustrating affair. I’d have to wonder about the stability of the system before undertaking a major project. And of course cost. Windows systems were cheaper. 

At a certain point, I increasingly became frustrated with dealing with the constant maintenance required of the Windows system, and started using a G5 tower to do my edits on. The machine itself was owned by a former employer of mine, who had unceremoniously disposed of a key graphic designer, leaving a powerful OS X machine free for my use. I carted it over to my desk and used it as my daily photo editing machine. In addition to the raw power available, the stability of the system was a huge advantage. No strange crashes, intrusive “updates” from the mothership, and just a more ergonomic look-and-feel. I hadn’t discovered the magic of Lightroom yet, but I was editing one-by-one in Photoshop at at least twice the rate I was on my Windows machine. I could do quality work in less time. Editing wasn’t such a bore to me anymore.

With a change of employment (that’s putting it mildly!) I lost access to the G5. I even lost access to the fairly powerful (by hardware specs) Windows machine I had use of. So I was down to an IBM Thinkpad T40 running XP. I couldn’t even consider editing in RAW. Finally after my fortunes turned around, I decided enough was enough and bought the Blackbook. Sure, there was an Apple Tax, but I bought refurb and it wasn’t too painful. Ramen for a week or two was well worth it. 

With only software upgrades, my Blackbook continues to serve me as well as it did in 2008. In the interim, I’ve done four tours with Tiësto where I edited RAW files from my 30D, and later 50D, after each show, and the machine also served another purpose as running the local web server necessary to power an early version of the Venue Driver “local node” system to verify the admission of Tiësto’s fan club customers. Oddly enough I also purchased my Blackbook to be on the same page as Ryan, my trustworthy web-and-software-developer, since it was too much of a hassle for him to translate procedures from his development tools to the ones on my T40. I learned a lot more about web application development by being on the same page as him. And yes, he was a Mac user way before I was, so there was some “indoctrination” going on. 

And whether I was doing photo editing, web development work, or just day-to-day computing, my Blackbook just let me “get to it” and didn’t stop me with constant reminders of security holes, driver issues, and so on down the line.

In most companies the size and scope of Apple, their leaders would actually be hard-pressed to name every product the firm produces. I’m sure one could go to HTC and quiz their CEO on the product lineup and he or she will stumble a few times. With Apple, Steve personally oversaw every new product that was produced, and his drive to make sure ‘it just worked’ is ingrained from the $50 iPod shuffle to a $3000 Macbook Pro. And frankly, not having to worry as much about system upkeep and being able to get down to what I need to do is worth that Apple Tax.

Steve’s drive produced a line of products that ‘just worked’ and worked well. One could call it the advantage of a benevolent dictatorship. With his personal hand in all product lines, the consistency and integrated design ethos prevailed throughout the entire range. And even owners of older Macs, such as myself, benefit from operating system upgrades. My Mac, in general, runs better than it did when I acquired it in 2008. I am even editing and optimizing the takes from my MK II on the same hardware I edited JPEGs from a 30D on. I can produce my work and not worry about the computer underneath. 

Thanks for it all Steve, I’m able to create much more effectively because of your tools. I only hope your ethos passed down to the rest of Apple, as I look forward to what the next generation will bring.