Nosce te ipsum

Mac Opinion recently ran an interesting piece on Apple's Historical Importance in the realm of technology and I read this article like I was reading entries from my own journal having lived through all of this myself. Ironically, in reading this and then referring over to the recent article from Mobile PC entitled: The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time, it's easy to see not only Apple's own places on that list but also the influence they obviously had on other items shown on that list.

Love 'em or hate 'em, there's no denying the massive amount of impact that Apple's innovation and design has had on an entire industry and culture over the last two and a half decades.

Along these lines, it's Woz recently noted that: "It's real easy to see that every computer in the world's a Macintosh," said Steve Wozniak, Apple's co-founder, in an interview with the Baltimore Sun.

Wired's Leander Kahney wrote an entire piece last year entitled We're All Mac Users Now which, if nothing else, has some of the best Mac sound bytes I've head in years, including:

Bill Joy, cofounder of Sun and co-creator of Berkeley Unix, which underlies Mac OS X: "What I had always wanted was to combine the reliability and beauty of Unix with the user interface genius that was Xerox. Apple got the interface part right with the Mac, but it wasn't until Unix was underneath it, with Mac OS X that it became all that I wanted. It took 20 years, but it was worth the wait.

"I would have taken it sooner, of course, but with the alternative being using Windows -- the OS equivalent of junk food -- I am sure glad that I have the choice of Mac. I recommend it for all human beings, and other creatures as well."

Author Howard Rheingold: "I remember vividly firing up MacPaint, discovering FatBits, and spending the next several hours lost in the world of pixels. It was the first PC that was actually an extension of my mind. As a writer, I had forced myself to learn geeky command lines for CP/M and DOS. Now I could point and click. It was like turning on a whole new lobe of my brain. Would there have been a Windows without the Mac?

"If we consider the cultural dimension, rather than the economic arena, the Mac's impact was enormous. Designers, educators, writers, artists -- people who generally had not used computers -- were fired up by the Mac. The PC moved out of the world of technically focused enthusiasts into the world of creative thinkers in general.

....and my all time personal favorite Mac related quote from Tom Clancy: "Never ask a man what computer he uses. If it's a Mac, he'll tell you. If it's not, why embarrass him?"

Happy birthday, Steve! Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs turns 50 today. Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

What an amazing life and legacy so far - we certainly all appreciate everything you've done and look forward to what's in store next.