The King Is Dead, Long Live The King

When I was taking a series of graduate courses in instructional technology at USF several years ago, I had occasion to use variant of the quote, "the king is dead, long live the king", in a project. My professor asked me what it meant. I was a little surprised that he asked but I told him that it was traditional in England to use that phrase upon the death of one king and the rise of his successor to the throne.
Now we have the passing of a king of sorts, Steve Jobs. His importance is demonstrated by the extensive coverage the media has given to his passing. The entire world was affected by him. A whole generation grew up with the technology he inspired. His legacy is the culture of creativity, innovation, and invention. That is the new "king". The king is dead, long live the king.

My first Apple wasn't really mine. Back in 1982, my wife and I decided to get an Apple IIc for our then five year-old daughter. We bought it at an Apple store. Yes, they had them back then. As primitive as we may consider it now, the Apple IIc was so very cool. It made other personal computers look like they were made by the company that designs Russian dumpsters. So my daughter, and the rest of my family got a jump start into the world of computers because of that early birthday gift.

But that taste of the digital age was to sustain me until 1991 when the agency I worked at converted the art department to computers. We all got Mac Quadra 700s. Oh, how I loved that Quadra. It is the Mac I learned on. 25 mhz processor speed. 4 mb of ram. 160 mb hard drive. Wow! It is amazing we were able to do anything on it. When I left the agency in 1996 I coveted that computer. I wanted to take it with me, however hopelessly outdated it was. At the agency my monitor was a 19" black and white, that's right, monochrome, CRT display. I was able to make a deal it for some freelance work. Happy was I.

Though I wanted a "tower", I settled for a desktop Mac PowerPC 7500. Never had a problem with it. Nice thing about it was it could run two monitors, so I got a Sony 15" color. So, with the big BW monitor and the beautiful Sony, I was in heaven.

Then, hardware became secondary to system software and graphic software upgrades. I was eventually forced to move to a bigger, better computer. I made the mistake of buying a refurbished Mac 9500 tower. Finally I had that really big computer that had all that room inside for extra cards and stuff. Yes, I did put extras inside. Installed them myself. I even upgraded the processor chip at one point. It was everything I always wanted until it broke. One day the hard drive crashed and needed to be replaced. I backed up files on Zip disks. I still have a box full of them. So all was not lost, but everything on the hard drive had to be recreated. That was probably my biggest disaster with a Mac. Don't get me wrong. That computer served me well for a number of years. It was a workhorse until it broke and served me well after the repair.

When I began teaching at the Academy, I once again coveted a newer Mac. The sleek, silver and clear plexiglass PowerMac G4s were in all the classrooms. I wanted one so bad. I struggled along with my old "beige" tower for a while. Eventually I bought a new G4 and a cinema display. Got it on MacMall with a payment plan. As always, the technology changes over time and I was forced to upgrade once again about three years ago. For some reason I always had this idea that I had to have a "tower" because I was a professional and I needed a really large computer. Not so I realized. I bought an iMac G5. It is so simple, so elegant. It has a giant screen and is very fast. One of the nicest things is that I can do multiple tasks. I can have a dozen powerful programs all running at the same time. And listen to iTunes.

So I am an Apple and Mac aficionado through and through. To say that they have always been a step ahead of PCs is an understatement. Most people out there know Apple through their iPods and iPhones. I know the system software and the computers. I'm forced to work on a PC and with Window OS from time to time. I know my way around. Windows has always copied the Mac OS, so it's no big deal. Macs are beautifully designed, refined, and most importantly, innovative. I hope that Apple will never stop making computers. The wild popularity of their other products have overshadowed the computer side of the business, at least in the press.

Steve Jobs influence can be seen in the Apple products from the very beginning with the IIc I bought, to the iPod that changed the music industry. The king is dead. But his legacy lives on. Long live the king.