Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Steve Jobs Dead at 56

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Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., died earlier today at the age of 56. Often described as ‘mercurial,’ Jobs has long been known for his demanding creative leadership at Apple, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential technologists of the personal computing era.

Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer Inc. in 1976, which had early success with the Apple II personal computer. In 1984, under Jobs’s leadership, Apple introduced the groundbreaking Macintosh personal computer, the first computer for the consumer market with a graphical user interface, mouse, and 3.5″ floppy drive.

Forced out of the company he founded just one year after the release of the Macintosh, Jobs went on to found NeXT Computer—a niche manufacturer of workstation computers for the academic market. While NeXT was largely unknown in the consumer market, its products were very cutting-edge for the era. The NeXT workstation, a magnesium encased cube, is reminiscent of later Apple designs. The first ‘world wide web’ server on the Internet was hosted on a NeXT workstation, and many technical elements of the NeXTstep operating system are still present today in Apple Mac OS X and iOS.

While he was CEO of NeXT, Jobs purchased The Graphics Group—the computer animation division of Lucasfilm—and renamed it Pixar. For a period of time it sold high-end graphics hardware to other companies, but Pixar’s success came about after it produced Toy Story, its first animated feature film in partnership with Disney. Jobs was CEO of Pixar from 1985 until it was purchased by Disney in 2006, and he was still Disney’s largest individual shareholder at the time of his death.

NeXT was bought by Apple in 1996, bringing Jobs back to the company he had co-founded in 1976. He quickly returned to the CEO position and spearheaded the development of the iMac, Mac OS X (which was based on NeXTstep), the iPod, the Power Mac Cube, the iPhone, the Apple TV, the MacBook Air, and the iPad. Each of these products, even those that did not see broad success in the consumer market, had disruptive impact and wide influence across the tech world. Much of Apple’s success and influence stemmed directly from Jobs personally, who was known as a demanding, micromanaging leader who would agonize over the smallest details to ensure that the final products were both beautiful and easy to use.

Over the last several years Jobs has suffered serious health setbacks, including a bout with pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant. He has taken two medical leaves of absence from Apple, and stepped down permanently as Apple’s CEO in August. There has been no official statement regarding the cause of his death, but it is presumed that he succumbed to a recurrence of cancer. Jobs is survived by his wife and four children, and by an entire industry that is much better today than it would have been without his influence.

On a personal note, Jobs and I did not always see eye-to-eye on technology and I am no longer an ‘Apple guy’ (except for my aging iPod Classic). Even so, I am still the first to acknowledge Jobs’s and Apple’s influence across the whole tech industry. Windows 7 is as good as it is because Microsoft was forced to compete with Apple’s excellent Mac OS X. Android is as good as it is because the Apple iPhone forced the mobile phone industry to up its game. Every technology user, Apple-lover or Apple-hater, owes Steve Jobs a real debt of gratitude for his constant efforts to push the industry forward over the last thirty-five years.

I am praying for the repose of Jobs’s soul, and for his family, friends, and associates. Farewell, Steve. We techies will miss you.

Endorsement Statistics, 2004-2010

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Since I’ve spent a good hunk of my free time over the last week or two working on this year’s Off on a Tangent political endorsements, I thought it might be interesting to look back at my endorsement history and do some statistical analysis (yes, I am that nerdy). I thought it might give me (and you) a broader insight into my political views and produce some interesting tid-bits.

For this analysis, I looked at all political endorsements made on this site from 2004 (my first time making formal endorsements) to 2010. This year’s elections are excluded for now because they haven’t happened yet; part of what I’m looking at is how often my endorsed candidates won, and I won’t know that until November for this year’s endorsements.

Over the 2004-2010 period, I have written endorsements in races for 32 elective seats, and have reviewed the positions of 85 candidates for those seats—an average of 2.66 candidates per seat and 4.57 seats per year. In total, I have endorsed Democrats 16 percent of the time, Republicans 53 percent of the time, and third-parties or independents 6 percent of the time. The remaining 25 percent of the time I have either made no endorsement or endorsed abstention due to a lack of acceptable candidates, lack of differentiation between candidates, or utter pointlessness of the office.

Read more . . .

Virginia General Assembly, 2011

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The entire Virginia General Assembly stands for election this year, including all 40 seats in the Virginia Senate and all 100 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. The General Assembly was established by British colonists at Jamestown in 1619 as the House of Burgesses, which moved to Williamsburg in 1699. It became the General Assembly along with American independence in 1776 and then moved to Richmond in 1780, where it remains today. The Virginia General Assembly is the oldest extant legislative body in the western hemisphere. House members serve two-year terms and Senate members serve four-year terms, offset by two years with the gubernatorial elections.

Virginia Senate, 13th District

Note: since the 2007 Virginia Senate elections, I have moved from the 33rd Senate District to the 13th Senate District.

In the race to represent the 13th District in the Virginia Senate, Dick Black (R) and Shawn Mitchell (D) are vying for an open seat. The 13th District encompasses the bulk of Loudoun County (excluding Leesburg, Dulles Airport, and the south-western quadrant) as well as an area of northern Prince William County. This area includes Manassas Battlefield, South Riding, Gilbert’s Corner, Broadlands, Purcellville, Hamilton, Lovettsville, and part of Ashburn.

Black, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 32nd District for four terms (eight years), is campaigning primarily on his legislative record—and with good reason. As a member of the House, Black was consistently pro-business (good for the economy) and pro-liberty (good for the citizens). During his time there he never voted for any of the unnecessary tax increases proposed by our government, consistently supported economically beneficial ‘right to work’ laws, and was an ardent supporter of citizens’ basic civil liberties—including our right to life (the foundation all other rights are based on) and the right to keep and bear arms (the guarantor of all other rights). These two cornerstones of human liberty are often ignored by those who call themselves civil libertarians. Finally, Black fought hard to bring desperately-needed transportation funding to northern Virginia.

Read more . . .

Loudoun County Local Offices, 2011

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Note: Since the 2007 local government elections, I have moved from the Hunter Mill District of Fairfax County, Virginia, to the Dulles District of Loudoun County, Virginia.

Many, many, many local offices are up for election this year in Loudoun County. We will be voting for the Board of Supervisors (Chairman and District), the School Board (At-Large and District), the Commonwealth’s Attorney, the Sheriff, the Commissioner of Revenue, the Treasurer, and the Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Directors. While they lack the glamour of federal (or even state) offices, these elections are very important and have a significant impact on local quality of life.

Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Chairman (At-Large)

In the race for Chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors (at-large), incumbent Scott York (R) faces off against challenger Tom Bellanca (D). York has been Chairman since 2000 and is seeking a fourth four-year term.

Loudoun County is a unique place. The eastern half of the county is quickly developing into a bustling, vibrant suburb of Washington, DC, while the western half remains a picturesque rural area dotted with farms and wineries. Our Board of Supervisors is faced with the difficult task of balancing the needs of these disparate areas. They must support growth and investment, while also representing the needs of the county’s more rural areas and ensuring that urban sprawl does not out-pace infrastructure and road development.

Read more . . .

Loudoun County Bond Referendums, 2011

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Virginia county governments are required to put bond issuance to a voter referendum in order to borrow money on behalf of the county. Bond issuance is usually used by governments to raise money for large capital expenditures, and those bonds are repaid to their purchasers at a later date (plus interest). Bond referendums in Virginia almost always pass by a large margin, in large part because people think they are voting in favor of the agencies that will benefit (after all, who wants to vote ‘against’ schools, parks, or transportation?). Many voters do not realize that bond issuance contributes to government debt and should be used sparingly.

Acquisition of Fire and Rescue Apparatus

Citizens of Loudoun County, Virginia, will be asked through a bond referendum to authorize the Board of Supervisors to borrow up to 3 million dollars to finance, in whole or in part, new fire and rescue apparatus.

According to the United States Census, Loudoun County’s population grew faster than any other county in the United States over the last ten years. We are also an incredibly diverse county; our over-300,000 citizens live in everything from country villas to urban apartments to immigrant tenements to rural farm houses to planned communities. The eastern half of the county is rapidly developing into an extended suburb of Washington, DC, peppered with dense residential communities and imposing office buildings. The western half maintains a distinctly rural character, and is instead punctuated with farms and wineries. On our eastern border, only thirty minutes from downtown Washington (traffic permitting), is Washington Dulles International Airport. On our western border, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, you’ll find the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center—an emergency ‘continuity of government’ facility operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) where much of the U.S. Congress was evacuated during the 9/11/2001 attacks. On our northern border you’ll find the Potomac River. We have eight-lane freeways and one-lane bridges. We have huge forests and huge office parks.

Read more . . .

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.