Steve Jobs: 1955-2011

By

Steve_Jobs_Motorcycle

Motorcycles move great men. And don’t dismiss his contribution to motorcycling. Reading HFL on a personal computer? Steve Jobs. Checking directions on your phone? Steve Jobs. Fly to Italy and shoot four features on your completely amazing, stuff-of-sci-fi, in-pocket computer? Steve Jobs.

Brian Lam has written an excellent obituary.

  • Terry

    I’m only a recent follower/fan/user of Apple iStuff (three years with an iPod, one year using an iPhone, and we bought an iPad 2 about a month ago). The Sci-Fi quality of the various iThings are what really blow my mind; shit I saw on Star Trek: TNG when I ten, is now sitting on my coffee table.

    I said to the lady of the house when we first saw the headline (on her iPad!): “Who’s going to make cool Sci-Fi i-stuff now?” Surely Jobs wasn’t solely responsible for every last design feature of Apple gear, but he seemed to be the vision behind the efforts, and therefore we’ve lost something special today.

    His company’s products made tech cool and approachable, and Apple definitely changed the cultural landscape of the last ten years… Where do we go from here?

    Also: nice bike. Do we know anything more about his riding, and what he rode? Just out of curiosity…

    (Edit: holy fuck, how could I forget about Pixar too?)

    • http://hellforleathermagazine.com Wes Siler

      That’s an R60/2. Don’t think he was a big rider, but he did ride at some point.

      • Carleton

        Do you know where I can find a high resolution jpg of this photo? This would make a badass poster.

        • http://hellforleathermagazine.com Wes Siler

          I don’t think it’s floating around in high-res. The above is 800px if you save it, that’s the largest I’ve found. Sorry, don’t know original source, it’s one of those that’s just been floating around the internet for years.

  • Kevin

    Ride on, Steve. You changed the world.

    • jwinter

      Normally that would be really hyperbolic, but not in this case.

  • Denzel

    Sad gone so young… but another example of how we all do inevitably go… and reinforces, to me at least, the worth of things we do now that increases our experience of life … like riding….

    • Noah

      +1

  • Sam

    Didn’t he keep a late-model BMW on display in the front of his apple building in the 80s?

    Edit: I saw that in the Rise of Silicon Valley video. who knows if it’s true.

  • ike6116

    In before “squid”

    I believe in the 80s Apple had a motorcycle parked in their foyer displayed as art.

    I’ve been an Apple true believer since Steve cam back then ousted Gil Ameilo. Sad to think about.

  • Adrian

    He was an incredible visionary — a modern day Edison. He may not have designed the details, but he had the dream firmly in place and knew when it was ready to go. I’m sure a lot of his advanced dreams had to wait until technology caught up.

    What a loss.
    RIP, Steve.

    • robotribe

      I can’t deny the direct correlation of my livelihood that feeds and shelters my family, with the fruit (no pun intended) of this man’s vision; the amazing products born of the risks taken on his behalf. I can’t imagine where my professional career would be today without that weirdly cool Mac-thing my dad brought home in 1984.

      Thanks, Mr. Jobs.

  • Thom

    Wife and I have been AppleHeads since the second commercially available Mac . Myself because back in the day Apple was the ONLY computer company supporting Music Recording and especially in my case Music for Film software

    For the Wife because Apple came in from day one in support of teachers , especially in Higher Ed , which was the wife’s career for some 23 years .

    This is being written on a MacBook Pro . There’s an iPhone in my pocket and if it weren’t for Mr Jobs none of this would be happening because in truth I’ve never been a big fan of the Computer Age .

    But thanks to Mr Jobs and his company , regardless of my disdain for High Tec I’m bouncing around , negotiating all aspect of the Web and made a pretty penny while being able to live pretty much where I chose .

    So thanks Mr Jobs . You’ll be missed but your legacy will live on . You’ve left Apple in very good hands and your legions won’t let them undo what you’ve done.

    RIP Steve , Its been a hard last few years for you I know .

    @ Wes Siler

    Sometime if you have the time and space I’d like to hear more about Steve Jobs involvement in Motorcycles . Thats not an aspect of the man I’m familiar with and I’m sure many others here would like to see that as well

  • HammSammich

    Sad to see him go so young, but it’s a testament to his legacy that he did so much during his time.

  • NitroPye

    Kinda hard to believe. He was larger than life in many ways.

  • Thomas

    Really HFL, i have to deal with this crap everywhere else, cant you just stick to motorcycle stuff. Great he died, sad, can we all move on with our day now?

    • Thom

      Get a grip or a clue , take your pick , but either way have a bit of respect . As an alternative , read something else for the moment

    • Trevor

      thomas you’re a cunt

      • Thomas

        Why, because i don’t feel any sorrow for this man because he died young. Steve job’s one of the richest people on the face of the earth, with an est. worth over over 8 Billion (yes with a B). There is no public record of him ever donating .01 (one cent) to charity. Look it up, not one act of philanthropy.

        I’m sorry but that makes him an asshole in my book. But what do i know, I’m just a cunt.

        • Trevor

          correction, an ignorant cunt.

        • Maxwell

          ^true…the thing about you being a cunt, I mean.

        • David

          Yeah, what an asshole for transforming the world, for dreaming and making real changes to our whole civilization.

        • Thom

          Calling you a cunt , bad thomas , would in fact be an insult to all the legitimate cunts in the World .

          Douche Bag is still too kind for the likes of you

          Asshole doesn’t even come close

          Ignorant , Xenophobic , Insular Self Righteous , Brain Dead , Alcohol/Drug Addled , Pretentious Shit for Brains Idiotic Fool with little or no respect for anything or anyone almost comes close . Almost .

          And do tell , just how much have you ever donated to anything , never mind charity ? I’ll bet not a thin dime .

          Here’s a little advice for a very little person for the future

          Stay silent and some may assume you’re an idiot

          Bang out anymore crap like this and everyone will KNOW you’re an idiot .

          Bob Dylan’s ” Idiot Wind ” fitting you to a tee

          • The other Joe

            Funny, very similar to the saying that I’ve known my whole life, “It is better to be silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt”.

        • Gene

          I am not an Apple fan myself, considering how “control freak” and “closed garden” it is, but I still have to respect Steve for 1. building the first all-in-one computer you didn’t have to solder together yourself, 2. Pixar, rescuing a lot of special effects jobs and knowledge, 3. Renderman, 4. NeXT, 5. OpenStep, which eventually became a lot of the ideas in OSX, 6. Being a competitor to MSFT and giving them a push. 7. Smacking down the RIAA mafia and bringing music I can legitimately buy and PLAY ON MY LINUX BOX W/O DRM. 8. Bringing out the iPhone and showing what a smartphone could be, which pushed Google to build my Android phone, 9. Rescuing the mouse & window idea from oblivion at Xerox PARC. And that’s just things that have affected me personally.

          That’s a hell of a lot more benefit to mankind than contributing a couple times to charity, which any dickhead with money can do.

          So yes, you’re rather ignorant and limited. But hey, there’s got to be some people below average intelligence.

          • ike6116

            Settle a bet, do you ride a KLR?

            • Gene

              Oh heck no.

        • HammSammich

          I’m not going to wade too far into the battle over whether or not this should be on HFL, although it’s a cool picture of a classic BMW, no matter how you slice it.

          But As far as donating to charity, since charitable donations can be made anonymously, and private tax returns are not public record, the fact that there is no documentary evidence of his donations, doesnt mean they weren’t made. Seems like a far stretch to call someone who you don’t know personally (I’m assuming) an @sshole because they don’t provide you with documentation of their philanthropy.

          That having been said, he may have been an @sshole, I didn’t know him personally. But from what I do know, he fostered an environment that has seen the wild dreams of engineers and technology enthusiasts just 10 years ago, become standard technology today. I watched a linked youtube video on another Obit, showing his 1997 WDC Keynote, and he was talking broadly about Cloud computing at a time when 28k dial up was the gold standard, and Apple was on a deathwatch. That kind of vision and leadership earns him some respect from me.

          • The other Joe

            Good point.

            An undocumented philanthropist is the best kind, as opposed to those who do so publicly just to boost their image.

          • contender

            It’s fair to note that on his return to Apple he ended all corporate donations in an effort to get the company profitable again. They were never reinstituted. I am not sure, but I doubt a publicly traded corporation would be able to anonymously donate anything.

            • austin_2ride

              I think I remember hearing companies are now somehow “people” and can anonymously donate any amount of money to anyone, whether it’s for a truly good cause or some right “wing-nut” politician.

              • HammSammich

                No, Contender right. the court decision to strike down a portion of Sarbanes-Oxley that limits campaign contributions doesn’t really have any bearing on this situation. While a privately owned corporation could donate money to charity anonymously, it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for a publicly traded company to comply with GAAP and obscure such expenses from shareholders.

                That having been said, Apple continues to provide discounted pricing to teachers, students, and educational institutions. They’ve also worked with Bono’s RED Campaign, and as with most large employers, they have a donation matching program for employee giving, so it’s inaccurate to say they have “ended all corporate donations…[and] they were never reinstituted.”

                Regardless, I was specifically addressing Thomas’ statement that Mr. Jobs is/was an @sshole because of his personal involvement with philanthropy (or apparent lack thereof). As I said before, Steve Jobs may have been an @sshole, but since I didn’t know him personally, I’ve got to base my opinion of the man on his accomplishments.

                • austin_2ride

                  well said.

        • 85gripen

          Jobs traveled to India & became a Buddhist. One of the tenets of Buddhism is selfless giving, meaning you make charitable donations anonymously. I have no knowledge that he did & I imagine the few who might know would respect his wish to remain anonymous.

    • Thomas

      Hey, I take it that HFL allows multiple users to have the same user name? For the record, this Thomas is not that Thomas. I’m a fan of Steve Jobs and I support HFL paying respects to him!

      • The other Joe

        Yeah, that’s why I changed to “The other Joe”.

    • Ax

      Guess I’m a cunt, too, since I don’t particularly care to read non-motorcycle-related stuff on a site I pay to read. I “get” that a lot of people have boners for Apple products — doesn’t make it relevant to HFL. And while I don’t actually have a problem with a little “RIP” blurb, attacking someone for expecting moto content on a paid moto site is a bit out of line. In the opinion of this cunt.

      • Dumptruckfoxtrot

        Some of these fan boys seem to think that Wes, Sean and Grant are in constant need of blowjobs. This doesn’t have anything to do with motorcycles. Oh well, this site becomes alot better when I don’t expect much.

      • FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

        The subscription is really cheap, and the content is better than most. Let them have a non sequitur.

      • Thom

        @ Ax

        My guess is you are the type that doesn’t particularly care to read about much of anything that doesn’t serve your own self interests .

        Just guessing mind you , but I’ll bet I’m right .

        FYI the reason for ” attacking ” bad thomas is the little shites total and complete lack of respect . Yeah I know amongst you ” Hipsters ” respect is ‘ just so totally , like dude , passe ‘ , but then again so will you ” Hipsters” be in another year or two when the Trend dies out .

        So in the mean type , to quote Steven Colbert ;

        ” Guess what finger I’m hiding behind my hand “

        • Dumptruckfoxtrot

          Why are we assuming that Ax is a hipster?

        • Ax

          You’re so far off base on all your assumptions, my guess would be the finger you’re hiding represents your IQ — and is probably up your butt.

      • Gene

        Well, if you’re using Windows to pay to read HFL, then you still owe a debt to Steve. If it hadn’t been for Macs having windows, then Microsoft wouldn’t have written Windows to compete. We’d all still be typing commands into 80×25 greenscreen terminals.

        Plus Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first browser on a NeXT because of all the tools it had.

        Why is it that the people that didn’t finish high-school think they know any better than anybody else?

        • aristurtle

          “We’d all still be typing commands into 80×25 greenscreen terminals.”

          Well, I doubt that; computer science labs at Stanford and MIT ripped off Xerox Parc’s windowing system around the same time Apple did; the results became “W” and its successor, “X”, which you’ve probably heard of.

          Still, Jobs was certainly a captain of the industry, and the world today would be a very different place without him. Also, pancreatic cancer sucks.

          Not sure why this had to turn into a flame war.

          • Gene

            And I am using X11 right now, being one of the very few people to actually use a Linux desktop all the time, because it’s not something easy enough for the average Joe to use. Sun also made NeWS which tanked.

            There was other window systems (like GEM) at the time, but it was Apple that made a windowing system that was easy enough to use that it became a selling point and a threat in the marketplace.

            It became a flame war because Thomas invoked GIFT.
            http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/

            • Ax

              Mandriva Linux here for the past 10+ years.

    • Thomas

      This piece on Steve Jobs is entirely appropriate for a motorcycle blog. Apple products have contributed greatly to riding culture, obviously in ways that may not be so obvious, and this piece clearly sets out a few of those contributions.

      The HFL guys can be a bunch of snarky and narrow-minded douchebags. Some of the stuff they put out on HFL are very mediocre, and some outright sucks. And you’re right that there is no shortage of HFL nuthuggers. But this article shows that HFL can also produce perceptive stuff on not-so-obvious things that directly affect motorcycles and riding.

      • Noah

        Bad form dude.

      • Thom

        To the Good Thomas . Spot On . Why a ” bad form ” from Noah is beyond me . What , we’re all supposed to think anyone , including the HFL bunch is perfect 100% of the time ?

        • Good Thomas

          Thanks for the idea!

      • Gene

        HFL nuthuggers… it’s getting cold outside these days… I see a great need…

    • austin_2ride

      You read the headline, you opened the article, and you commented on the article. Do you also complain about content on the radio, television, movies and websites? When all you have to do is “turn the channel”.

      Grow up and “turn the channel”!

    • http://hellforleathermagazine.com Wes Siler

      Guys, let’s try to keep our community respectful and valuable. We haven’t had to delete a comment in six months or more, but we will start moderating and, if necessary, removing comment privileges if this becomes a problem.

  • Trevor

    raise a glass, twist a throttle, swipe, click, hit enter.

    shine down Steve

    • boxofbits

      +1. Couldn’t have put it better.

  • Gene

    Apple’s stuff never turned me on, but I wanted a NeXT SSSOOOOOOOOO BAD. As bad as I wanted a GTS-1000 or a Tesi. And just as different and unobtainable. That magnesium cube was so beautiful.

    He brought the mouse and window GUIs to the masses. Xerox would have deep-sixed it.

    I’ve been in computers since ’79, but I’ve heard almost nothing about Steve & bikes. If you can dig up more, I’d love to hear it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/beastincarnate Ben Incarnate

    Brian Lam’s article is excellent. Read it from the Facebook link earlier. Their behavior around iPhone 4 is why I stopped reading Gizmodo. I’m not an Apple acolyte, but that fiasco was childish and poorly handled. His article added a lot of perspective.

    Last night, when the “Special Report” came on the TV, I got a familiar feeling. When I laid on a gurney in an ambulance the other weekend, thinking that I might be facing death, there was a profound sense of focus and purpose. I knew exactly what mattered to me and what I wanted to do if I had the chance. It’s sad, then, how easily that can fade as I slip back into daily life. There’s no shortage of excuses available or minefield of little dramas throughout the day.

    Most people hate being reminded of their own mortality and all of it’s implications. Steve encouraged clinging to that reality as a guiding light through what time we do have. I strive to do the same thing.

    • John

      Well said.

  • Justyn

    +2

  • Chris

    It amazes me how sad I am about Steve’s passing. He was 56. 5 6. Thats so very young, and he leaves behind relatively young children. He definitely wasn’t done with creating, but his candle was extinguished.

    Steve will be remembered for a long time, and has left behind a technological legacy that will impact many more people. He brought computers to the masses 30 years ago, and did it again via iPad/iPhone. His vision made it all accessible from the young to the old, and it has had ripple effects at other companies across the globe.

    Very sad time.

  • dan
  • http://www.tripleclamp.net Sasha Pave

    Godspeed Mr. Jobs. Thanks for taking chances and making my tech world a better place.

  • WhoDey

    thanks for linking to that obit. well done and R.I.P. Steve Jobs

  • http://www.twowheelsplus.com/ Anders

    As I said of C. Castiglioni but even more fitting for Steve Jobs: The world will be a less interesting place without him.

  • DoctorNine

    Come the frost, the leaves still, and one by one, fall.
    We remark upon the more spectacular; their color and flight to ground.
    Not every one is so celebrated, but each makes the same journey.
    Heft the wrench in your hand, what do you feel?
    The weight of our common mortality.
    Forget? Or remember?
    Get on the bike. Squeeze the grips. Open the throttle, and ride.

    • Gregory

      +1

  • http://www.smartcycleshopper.com/author/doug-dalsing/ DougD

    Many fond memories of my old Apple IIgs.

  • zato1414

    My IMAC is sleek and slick, thanks to Apple I don’t have Microshit and viruses. Thank you Steve, you did your job right!

  • Gregory

    Go Linux. Pinguy here and Knoppix on the Pentium4 in the back room.

    Steve Jobs was cool. Nice products. Never owned a one of them. Very nice taste. Particularly in motorcycles.

    Also, go KLR!

  • Keith

    Everyone here is allowed their opinion and when that opinion is not in line with another persons point of view, is it necessary to resort name calling?
    REALLY?
    Calling someone a “cunt” or “douchebag” for suggesting an homage to Steve Jobs may be a bit off topic on a motorcycle site seems a bit drastic.
    But,hey, everyone is allowed to post their opinion, even though they can’t express it all that well.