Steven Paul Jobs-NYTimes

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October 6, 2011


Steven Paul Jobs

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL


When I heard the news that Steve Jobs had died, my mind flashed back to 1985, when I began my love affair with computers. I was stationed in Moscow for The Associated Press and I ordered an Apple IIc — by Telex — from a department store in Helsinki, Finland. They express shipped it to me, a month later, by train.

The IIc was Apple’s first crack at a “portable” computer, which it sort of was if you didn’t mind a 7.5 pound weight, plus monitor, external floppy drive and all the cables. But it was sleek for its time, about the size of a loose leaf binder.

The K.G.B. officers at the Soviet customs desk at Leningrad Station were annoyed. “Where is the computer,” one asked. “Right here,” I said. He gave me that contemptuous look that border guards all seemed to have: “That is the keyboard. Show me the computer!”

This went on while a clutch of guards conferred over what to charge me. The Soviet Union assessed customs fees on electronics based on size and weight, which seemed guaranteed to maximize their take. We had no clue how Mr. Jobs would change that, along with so many other conventions.

The Apple IIc with its 128KB of RAM, 125KB floppy drive, word processor and spreadsheet application, did everything I could imagine a computer doing, at the time.

But visionaries like Mr. Jobs had no intention of settling for “at the time.” I’ve had a stream of computers — mostly Macs — since, each more incredible than the last. I have sometimes thought the power of computers had exceeded our ability to use them, but Mr. Jobs and his team kept giving us devices that made indispensable things easier in ways you never thought of.

Other computer makers know how machines work and want humans to alter their behavior accordingly. Mr. Jobs and his team labored to understand how humans behave and think and built machines to suit us.

I only met Mr. Jobs once, but like so many others, I carry a piece of him around. When I heard of his death, I thought how delicious it would have been to show those K.G.B. border guards my iPhone.