The Next Steve Jobs

Checking my messages.

We’re Silicon Valley people. We announced the impending arrival of the muppets via a popular social channel of today. At birth, the muppets immediately embraced the tiniest technology available to them.

Their love of electronics has not diminished.

If you reside anywhere near the vicinity of our metalloid valley, you are aware that Steve Jobs recently announced his resignation as CEO of Apple. Jobs, an initial founder (and creator of my very first computer – the Apple IIgs, which my 7-year-old self affectionately called the Apple Igloo) is the iconic, enigmatic stereotype of all the (truly) innovative technology the Silicon Valley has become known for.

Disclaimer: I am a self-proclaimed Mac geek. I <3 Apple products. Preeeetty…shiny… The day after Steve stepped down, the tech media all posted the same story – with a couple different slants – “Who is the next Steve Jobs?” [caption id="attachment_1688" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="Having a video chat with GrammaJ and GrampaStavo"][/caption]

I certainly don’t deem to have enough technical or business expertise (I just write stuff, people) to know who will take over Steve Jobs’s coveted company golden boy status. But I can certainly put forth a wager on a future innovator.

Search is utterly fascinated by anything electronic. Last Friday, he fell, giving himself a black eye. As mentioned, the crocodile tears were saved for the loss of the actual television remote. (Note: Toy reasonable replicas are of no interest. Real remotes with batteries removed? Nothankyou.) Destroy recently attempted the high rise scaling of our entertainment center as he quested for the Xbox.

I won’t lie. Jon and I colluded to get Search to crawl (and later walk) by holding a glowing iPhone just out of his reach. Worked every time.

Running toward the wires

Technology changes fast. Just think – the muppets generation will never know such mind-numbing wonders as the whiney scream of a dial-up modem (the computer I write this on doesn’t have a modem or even an Ethernet cable port) or the finely tuned art of having to blow into the connector end of a Nintendo game.

(Factoid: We still own an original Nintendo console. And the best game ever will always be Micro Machines. Or maybe that was the only game where I was better than Uncle Paul. But I digress…) Wired.com has the full list of “Nerdy Technologies the Muppets Will Never Know.” (I may have paraphrased the title slightly.)

When I was a kid we wrote things. By hand. (I am actually old enough to remember having to get up to change the channel and rotary dial phones.) There was one computer lab on campus – it’s where the GATE (gifted and talented education) kids got to go for an hour on Thursday afternoon’s to play Word Munchers. Al Gore had not yet invented the Internet; instead, Prodigy was a mythical “connection” evil students could use to change grades.

Hand me the remote and a beer, will ya Dad?

Today’s kids grow up with the comfort of technology expectations. My girlfriend’s daughter, age 2, can grab an iPhone, select the game of her choice and play. She also sends (unintelligible) texts. Another friend was presented with a classic children’s book. With his thumb and index finger he desperately tried to enlarge the image of Harold and his purple crayon.

Yes Virginia, there was a time when 200 megabytes was more than the most memory you’d ever need. And Spam was a meat byproduct known as “stuff posing at meat.” (Sorry Spam folks. I jest.) Once upon a time, there was privacy. In those days, you wouldn’t be able to get an instant muppet fix – the horror, I know.

I will now step back from my “kids these days” rant. (Get off my lawn!)

But know this: In my world geek has always been chic and nerds rule the herds. (We’re cool I tell you!) And the tech nerds will change your life.