Blog

  • Return of the Jedi

    Greetings

    Twelve years. Five weeks. Fourteen exams. And now it’s finally over. It’s quite surreal, really, this feeling of completing an entire era in one’s life. But alas, time moves on, and I have been yearning to write on the blog once again. So firstly, it’s great to be back!

    I didn’t realize how great the reaction to my previous post on Steve Jobs would be. Thank you for all the wonderful comments on that post, and on the subsequent re-publishing of the post in other media. It’s been a real honour for a fledgling writer such as myself.

    This holiday, I’ve decided to immerse myself in a plethora of good books. Books that I’ve been wanting to read for a long time now, but haven’t managed to due to my commitments to studies.

    My December/January Reading List

    1. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
    2. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
    3. House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
    4. Plugged by Eoin Colfer
    5. The Adventures of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
    6. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

    Of the books listed above, I’m currently completing Steve Jobs. It’s the authorized biography of the visionary genius, and so far, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It paints a very deep picture of the Apple co-founder, and it’s brutally honest – Jobs didn’t even want to look at the book before it was published. He desired a true account of his life. I highly recommend it for holiday reading; it’s a whirlwind ride of not just Jobs’s life, but the birth of the most revolutionary industry in modern times.

    Inheritance by Christopher Paolini is another book I’ve been dying to read. It’s the final volume in the Inheritance Cycle, and I’ve had a hard time trying to avert my eyes from the fan sites in the wake of the book’s release, as fragments of information trickle down about the book’s events. So I can’t wait to begin it – I just took delivery of my copy last week. I’ll post my thoughts on the novel as soon as I complete it.

    As for the rest of the books on the list, I am quite excited to read Dickens. My good friend Saché got my this amazing hardcover tome containing four of the great scrivener’s work – Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. I’ll read-through the book in the order of the novels published in the book, thus beginning with Oliver Twist and then A Christmas Carol. I look forward to delve into Dickens’s work, as I haven’t previously read one of his tales in its entirety (I did perform a small segment for Drama waaaay back last year).

    Writing

    As well as reading, I’ll be losing myself in writing over the next two months. I’ve been planning my longer work, and am getting ready to put it into action in Scrivener (the Mac app that is). I hope things work out with the project this time.

    I’ll also be blogging more frequently, and will soon return to writing about technology (both here, and possibly at Blogote). Look out for that soon.

    As always, you can follow me on Twitter (@RahulDowlath), and subscribe to my RSS feed to get the latest posts.

    Live Long and Prosper.

  • What Steve Jobs Meant to Me

    The first time the Apple caught my eye, I must’ve been just starting out in high school. I was just a kid, excited about the possibilities of a new experience at a new school, standing at the precipice of a new journey in my life. Kind of like where Apple Inc was pre-iPhone, in their path to forging a new epoch of digital technology.

    After becoming infatuated with the elegance and sleek design sense of One Infinite Loop, I soon learnt of a man called Steven P. Jobs. I read that he was a college dropout, that he’d started his fledgling business with two friends in his garage, and had gone on to become quite a success story. In other words, your usual Silicon Valley startup fairytale.

    The closer I began following the happenings of this Cupertino behemoth, the more I began learning not about their technological products, their prowess or increasing market consumption, but about the man at the fore of all this: Steve.

    To most of you, Steve Jobs was just “that iPod guy”. But to me he was something more: an inspiration. A role-model. As I journeyed through my years at high school, Steve transformed, in my eyes, from an obscure techno guy “living the dream” in Silicon Valley, to an icon for me: a blazing light that guided me, inspired me, taught me to strive for perfection and have a keen sense of detail. To live humbly, and be bold: to never settle for second best in anything I attempted to undertake. He taught me to think different.

    He certainly was a visionary for me. An exciting person, someone who I’d relish in the opportunity to have a conversation with, even for a mere few minutes: I’d cherish those for an eternity. Alas, this was of course not meant to be, seeing as I live half-way across the world from the “mothership” – Apple HQ.

    It may sound childish, perhaps a little strange to some of you, but I actually relished in the opportunity to prepare an English presentation, particularly because it provided me with an opportunity to emulate Steve. I would spend hours scrutinising his presentation skills, his design sense, his style. He left an indelible mark on me. I soon realised that no-one could ever attain his stature of public speaking and presentation, and his words at the 2005 Stanford Commencement Ceremony remain etched in my mind: we’re on this Earth for a short time only. Don’t try to be someone else; be yourself, and in so doing, innovate. Push the world forward as much as you can whilst you walk its surface, for you never know when your end may arrive.

    When I woke up on the morning of October 6th, I realised how sudden life could be. Whilst the world mourned the loss of a great visionary, to me it felt like I had lost a dear friend. It’s still a little difficult for me to comprehend. Sure, this may sound a little weird – I’ve never met the legend in person. But every time I pick up my iPod to listen to a song or watch a film, or fire up my MacBook to write or work, I feel Steve’s presence exuded through the frugal industrial design. Steve didn’t create machines for us, he created vessels through which we may see the world in a different light, and through this, try to improve it in our own small way.

    He lived his life with grace, honour and humility. He was certainly a supernova amongst the stars of our civilisation; a unique man who echoed his work ethos in his personal life, and vice versa. I feel a void created in the wake of his loss; the world has certainly lost a remarkable individual.

    Steve Jobs was a beacon for me. And he will remain etched in my mind forever. A true innovator; a pioneer. My deepest condolences go forth to his family, and to the men and women of Apple Inc. I wish the team all the best as they continue to push the human race forward in the shadow of this titan, and have faith that Apple will continue to rise to even greater heights, whilst honouring the vision that Steve had – of a connected future where technology helps to shape and connect lives. His legacy lives on.

  • Words from Steve Jobs

    This is what Steve had to say about mortality in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech:

    No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

    Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

    Here’s the speech in its entirety:

  • The World Has Lost a Visionary

    Here’s to the crazy ones.

    The misfits.

    The rebels.

    The troublemakers.

    The round pegs in the square holes.

    The ones who see things differently.

    They’re not fond of rules.

    And they have no respect for the status quo.

    You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,

    disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

    About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

    Because they change things.

    They invent.    They imagine.    They heal.

    They explore.    They create.    They inspire.

    They push the human race forward.

    Maybe they have to be crazy.

    How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
    Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
    Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

    We make tools for these kinds of people.

    While some see them as the crazy ones,
    we see genius.

    Because the people who are crazy enough to think
    they can change the world, are the ones who do.

    – Think Different. Apple.

    Today is a dark day for our future. We have lost a visionary. Steven P. Jobs, the pioneer of breakthrough technology, the man who captivated the world with incredible ideas, and showed us that technology is not just about the the hardware or software, but about the experiences between people and their creations, has passed on.

    Steve Jobs is one of my ultimate heroes. He has inspired me, through his work at Apple and his tenacity to think different, to push the boundaries, to innovate, to go beyond and to reach new frontiers. He was a shining beacon in our ever-evolving civilisation. His vision of a connected digital future, the vision that Apple espouses and propagates through their highly successful and industry-changing products, led us into an age where we have come to take the devices we use for granted. He set an incredible standard for perfection in his design, that many competitors have tried so hard to compete with.

    Jobs shook the very fabric of our modern world. He innovated four different industries – personal computing, music, film and post-PC. There are not many human beings on this planet that can attest to a similar record. I don’t have to quote him – his legacy speaks for itself. From its fledgling beginnings in California, Apple has captured the world. Jobs, once fired from the company he co-founded, took Apple to become one of the three most powerful companies in the world – amongst the oil companies and conglomerates.

    His contributions toward the future of our civilisation are immense. He is, and will always remain, a true pioneer of our modern world. A titan who walked amongst us. He pushed the human race forward; he was crazy enough to think that he could change the world, all those years ago in a dusty garage in a Californian suburb. And today, we need not look far to realise that he achieved that. As we are swept once again along the ever-flowing digital river of technology, I believe it imperative that we remember this man’s vision, his contributions to our advancement, and his legacy through his work at Apple and in his personal ethos.

    Farewell Mr Jobs. Your have inspired a new generation of innovators to continue where you left, and in turn carry-out your vision of a bright, stylish and innovative future.

  • Desmond Tutu on SA Government’s Myopia

    This video is a must-watch for any South African citizen out there, and any citizen of this world, for that matter.