Steve Jobs Passes Away

When ESPN posts the obituary of somebody with no connection to pro sports on their home page, you know it must be somebody unique.  Such is clearly the case with Steve Jobs who passed away earlier today. Almost everybody has reacted with some degree of sadness upon hearing this news and I am no different. Are we collectively mourning the loss of an exceptional talent or is it that the products of his work touched each of us so personally? It is no secret that I have tried hard to pick faults with the legion of i* products that were the second coming of Apple, but it was with a full measure of recognition of the genius behind them.  There will be those who will dismiss his impact as being on mostly superficial considerations - after all, what he did was drive the creation of beautiful objects that were ultimately satisfying a craving and not a need.  However, at least for today I will submit that the real joy that the millions of users of Apple products got from their devices counts for a lot.  So many go through this temporary existence without leaving any measurable impact and then along comes a Steve Jobs - he left the world just the little bit better than he found it.