General
Thank You, Steve Jobs!
07 months ago
Steve Jobs Founder of Apple, Inc.
Today was just another day. I was finishing up dinner when I got a text and a phone call from my brother in quick succession. “Did you hear Steve Jobs died?” I read from the text as my brother’s voice was saying the same thing to me through the white earbuds of my iPhone.
My first thought was that he must be mistaken. Then my fingers were flying over the keyboard of my MacBook Pro to see if it was a false rumor started by some horrible twitter prank or by some hackers. No such luck. Right there on the front page of cnn.com was the confirmation that I realized I was dreading. I had never met Steve Jobs, but regardless I felt like something had been taken from me. Maybe it’s that Steve’s products have become such a part of my life that I feel like I almost knew him by extension. It seemed like he put so much of himself into all those products. Within reach of my arms I had an iPhone 4, an iPad 2, a late 2008 MacBook Pro and a 2009 MacBook. If I had walked into the other room I could have put my hands on a 3rd gen iPod, a second gen iPod Nano, an iPhone 3G, a 12” Powerbook and a G5 Mac Pro.
It’s not just that I own a lot of Apple products, I’ve been using Apple products since I was in elementary school. Even when Steve was gone from Apple I held the faith. Towards the end of his exile though things weren’t looking too good and I went a lot of years between Mac purchases. Once Steve came back to Apple, things started getting better. Looking back we can see that Mr. Jobs (have to be formal here because of all the respect I have for his Herculean feat) was embarking on the biggest corporate turnaround in history. Apple Computer was on the brink of bankruptcy. Now Apple, Inc. is either the 1st or 2nd largest company by market cap depending on the day. I have tremendous respect for the hard work and dedication it took to make that a reality.
Now, Steve didn’t turn Apple around by being a great finance guy or a great manager. He turned it around by being a highly driven visionary. He saw where Apple needed to go. Then he made sure that it got there no matter what. It didn’t matter if people said a product was stupid or wouldn’t succeed. If he believed in something, he followed through on his vision and in most cases and when it really counted, he was right. We have him to thank for Macs, OS X, iPods, iPhones, iPads and the iTunes store. We have him to thank for a lot more than that though. We have to thank him for all the products that compete with Apple. Many were inspired by Apple and even where they werern’t other companies were driven to do more, better and cheaper because of Steve Jobs and Apple. Steve might not be singlehandedly responsible for driving innovation (I would never suggest that), but his efforts definitely gave innovation a boost.
I can’t say what type of a person Steve was because I never met him (and unfortunately now never will), but a lot can be forgiven for someone that leaves as large an impact as he did. Even though I never met him, I did shed a few tears for him because of the impact that he had on me. I felt the loss of his passing and I’m not ashamed to admit that. Thank you Steve for the impact you have had on technology, the world and my life in particular. You were a large part in inspiring me towards a career in technology. I only wish that I could do something for you in return. I know that I can’t, but in your memory I will follow your advice and do my best to live the life I believe I am meant to lead. I will also do my best to make an impact on others and the world. I can’t hope to do as much as you have, but I will put my all into doing the most that I am able to do to bring my dreams to completion.
More Education, Less Ad Clicking
12 years ago
More education means being less click happy.
A few days ago, Chitika Research put out some interesting data comparing the relation between online advertising CTR (click through rates) in comparison to college education. According to their findings, the higher the percentage of college graduates, the lower the CTR for the population. Their conclusion from that finding was that advertisers who target more educated demographics should do a better job of making their ads “worthwhile.” They also recommended that “…this is an opportunity to push the industry towards the idea of content first, sales pitch second, even among advertisements.” (more…)
Tool/Gadget Convergence In My Life
62 years ago
by David van Sunder
in General
Why I don't have full pockets. Photo by Terry Johnston via Flickr
Over the years I’ve listened to so many tech pundits talking about how people don’t want converged devices. Then more and more devices converged. Once again tech pundits said that only tech enthusiasts would be interested in converged devices. These days mainstream consumers are embracing converged devices and it only looks like that trend is going to continue.
So, today I decided to list the progression of tools that I have used for different tasks during my work career. I’m going to leave out computers and be purposely vague about mobile phones though because honestly I can’t remember all the different models of each I have used over the years. My lists run from 1998 through today. (more…)
Obligatory 2010 Trend Predictions
72 years ago
by David van Sunder
in General
Happy 2010!
It is that time again. The time for lists. It always happens at the end of one year and the beginning of the next. People list the best of this and the worst of that for the previous year and make their predictions for the next. I’m bucking that trend slightly, but not by much. I’m not too interested in what has passed, except in what it says about where we are headed, so I’m taking a pass on doing a year end list and moving right towards the future. Instead of predicting events though, I’m going to talk about some important trends I see continuing in 2010.
Economy: The economy will be on a slow burn as the year progresses with a very slow uptick in jobs towards the second half of the year. Banking as an industry will continue to be on shaky ground throughout the year as the ramifications of 10%+ unemployment for a prolonged period of time takes its toll with additional foreclosures and bankruptcies, in addition to customers locking in less profitable (for banks), lower fixed rate loans.
Social Media: Social media will occupy more and more of the mindshare of businesses as the year progresses. Fortunately, unlike Second Life, enough people participate in social media to keep the interest of businesses. Unfortunately, most businesses will use social media improperly or employ “experts” who act more like email spammers than the client liaison style public relations people that social media requires to be effective. That mistake will result in a low ROI (Return on Investment) and many businesses dropping their social media initiatives prematurely, allowing competitors that know what they are doing in the social media space to gain a competitive advantage. (more…)
Inaugural Post
32 years ago
by David van Sunder
in General
Hello, everyone! I'm David van Sunder. Nice to meet you all.
I was going to jump right in and start posting articles, but I decided that it would be better to put together a post welcoming anyone that decides to stop in and read the blog. This post is not just to thank anyone that stops in for spending some time with me. It is also an opportunity for me to define what this blog will be about. That way I can crystallize the blog’s purpose, which helps to focus future articles and lets you know what to expect. All too often, bloggers fail to do that and their blogs wander aimlessly because of it. Sometimes, that journey is enjoyable. Other times it is annoying or, worse yet, wastes the reader’s time. That is one thing I don’t want to do. Everyone’s time is valuable. If you aren’t reading this blog, you can be doing any of a number of things. So, I want to make sure that whenever you stop by, that you leave feeling like it was time well spent.
So, what’s the purpose of this blog already?
The purpose of this blog is to share knowledge that I have acquired, either through research or experience. I will often cover topics that you have seen covered elsewhere, but my goal is to cover those topics a little differently than you have seen in the past. That way you should take something away that you had not known before. That might be a fact, a different point of view, or an insight into how I or someone else thinks that sheds some light on a situation in your own life. Now that’s the point of the blog, but what is its focus?
What topics will I cover?
I will focus on my passions, which are technology, business and people. I can’t say which of those areas I’m most passionate about, but I do feel that technology and people often intersect in business, which is why I listed those topics in that order. I find it interesting to talk about all of those areas separately, but I don’t feel that doing that does justice to any of them. Those topics are enriched by exploring how they interact with each other and that is something I am deeply interested in: How people, businesses and technology interact. I pride myself on investigating how things fit. That’s probably the result of the combination of my curiosity, my education at Santa Clara University and my time as a Big 5 consultant when I worked at Accenture. (more…)