Get better soon Steve

In every industry there are iconic people and I truly consider Steve Jobs to be one of these people. I believe that Steve and Apple are so closely related in our consciousness so as to make it hard to separate these globally pervasive brands.

It was with sadness and concern that I read the email that Steve sent to his employees and colleagues in which he described his health issues as “…more complex than I originally thought” forcing him to change the priorities in his life and at least for the short term by taking a leave of absence from Apple to recover.

I wish Steve a speedy recovery!

Whilst Apple is a Microsoft competitor, I can, in part,  thank Apple and the Apple IIe that lived at the back of our school science lab for having lead me to where I am today in my career at Microsoft.

Yes, some of the first computers that I played with, learned to program and interface with where indeed not PCs at all but actually (in order of their appearance in my life) a Sinclair ZX81 , Sinclair ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Commodore 64 and that Apple IIe that lived in back of the science lab.

The first PC I ever used was a genuine IBM PC XT:

• 8088 4.77Mhz Processor
• 128Kb RAM
• 2x 360Kb Floppy Drives
• Monochrome (80x25 text only, Hercules graphics came later)
• IBM DOS and BASICA
• Price: ~R25000.00
• Value: Priceless

Today I’m a PC!

<Gary>