Life is a Mystery

30 October 2011 . Comment

Tweets of the Week

23 October 2011 . Comment

Tweets of the Week

16 October 2011 . Comment

Tweets of the Week

13 October 2011 . Comment

Goodbye, World

As the luminaries of the computer world leave us, we will recognize more and more of those who live on in our machines. Dennis Ritchie created the C programming language. This was work first done with his partner Brian Kernighan from 1969 to 1973. Along with Ken Thompson and a number of others, Dennis also gets credit for creating Unix at Bell Labs during this same period. C and Unix lie at the heart of almost every electronic device you carry today. Whether it’s your iPhone with Apple’s iOS flavor of Unix or your Android phone based on a flavor of Linux. Most software on your computer or phone or pad is written in a derivative of C still today. Ritchie died this past weekend.

I learned to write code for my first Mac with the book he and Kernighan wrote: “The C Programming Language” often called K&R C. I still refer to it when writing iPad apps, the first edition, no less. It is still relevant. The first example code in the book is a charming model that virtually every programming language since has used since, the “hello, world” program. Here is my variation for Dennis today:

main()
{
	printf("goodbye, world\n");
}

Thank you, Dennis, for all you gave us.

2876612463 4f329cbfc1 b

11 October 2011 . Comment

Remembering Steve’s Visit

Last week I wrote about a visit by Steve Jobs to the Governor’s Residence. A couple people wondered about the source of the story, so I thought to search my email and I dug up the 2006 message that has a few more details. Here it is “for the grandkids.”

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 13:41:56 –0500
From: Eric Celeste
To: [various family members]
Subject: Remembering Steve’s Visit

I just got a call from an associate of a 15 years back, Deac Manross, who ran into Dick in New York this week. Deac had a story to tell about Steve Jobs’ visit to the Governor’s Residence that I thought you might appreciate.

Some of you may recall that Steve visited us for just one brief evening while Dick was Governor. I was a bit starstruck, so I don’t remember much more that Steve at dinner and Steve shooting hoops in the driveway, maybe some of you remember more. This was in the NeXT days before Steve’s return to Apple.

Anyway, Deac (who was a regional sales rep for NeXT) and Bob Longo (another NeXT muckity muck, though I don’t recall his title at the time) picked Steve up the morning after his stay. Steve apparently started talking about the “most incredible” experience he’d just had. He described how at dinner and then again at breakfast the family he’d just visited actually gathered around and talked with each other. Talked about what was going on in the world and in their lives in a way that was, I guess, novel for Steve. He then got quiet, and as Deac describes, got a bit of an “engineering” look on his face. Then he turned to Bob and said, “Bob, how did you find your wife?” Within six months Steve was married! (Note, he had a child earlier in his life, but not been married before.)

As Deac put it… “It would be a crime if your family wasn’t aware of how your ‘family values’ changed the heart of a Silicon Valley icon !! :-) Who knows, maybe that’s what got Steve to do such great family films with Pixar !!.….….….and almost become chairman of Disney!! All because of the Celeste family .….….gives you something to tell the grandkids, eh?” A bit overstated, but it does make you think, eh?

So, I just wanted to share that story. As warped and twisted as life gets sometimes, and as much as our family has journeyed since then, we may have had a butterfly wing of effect on at least one life back then. Kinda nice!

Love,
…Eric

Stevewalking

9 October 2011 . Comment

Tweets of the Week

5 October 2011 . Comment

Goodbye, Steve

I’ve followed Steve since 1977, maybe I’ll write about that soon. But right now I’m sad to see he’s left us. I’m trying to say goodbye. I was lucky enough to meet Steve a few times, but there is really only one time. One night Steve stayed at our house.

“House” is a bit of an understatement. At the time my dad was Governor of Ohio and we lived in the Governor’s Residence. It was probably 1989, though I’ve lost track of the actual date, and Steve was visiting Ohio for reasons of his own. I had been an Apple fan since there was an Apple, and at the time I was a Campus Consultant for NeXT, Steve’s new venture. I think that was part of why my dad found a way to invite Steve to spend the night while he was in town.

I have a terrible memory, even for things like this. But I do remember learning that Steve’s diet was quite different from mine, full of nuts and fruit, very specific. Yet he did sit at the table with us, and we were our usual fairly chaotic bunch. I have five brothers and sisters and our table could be somewhat unorthodox, full of politics, argument, and inside jokes. That night, though, I remember being in awe. I’d experience my share of celebrity and was pretty nonchalant around Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul, and Mary, or Jimmy Carter, but this was Steve Jobs. I suddenly felt starstruck, unable to think clearly, unable to speak. After dinner, I remember shooting hoops in the driveway with Steve. How odd, normal, and calm it all was. It was a precious moment for me.

What I didn’t learn until much later was that it was a moment that may have had an impact on Steve as well. A story eventually came back to me that Steve had once had this great evening with the Governor of Ohio and his family. Steve, who had been totally focussed on his businesses to that point, the story went, realized that evening that even a high pressure life of denting the universe could have room in it for family. He began to look for a way to let family into his life. A few years later he was married. Much more recently he watched his son graduate from high school.

I have no idea how close to the truth that story lies. God knows, our cauldron of a family on the fires of public life had severe flaws, but we did have fun too. Getting to have Steve over for the night was fun. If our joy helped nudge him toward opening his life to his own family, I am even more grateful for that night.

I expect his family was around him today. I pray, even though none could follow him where he went, that they gathered close to assure him that all was well, that he could let go, that we would all remember him. I am grateful that he had a chance to build more than a business.

Steve Jobs at NeXT

2 October 2011 . Comment

Tweets of the Week

Eric Celeste / Saint Paul, Minnesota / 651.323.2009 / efc@clst.org