Steve Jobs

dead at 56, cause not given.  it's a pretty safe bet it was cancer of the everything.

I didn't buy my Mac until around 2005, but I was an early user of the Mac128 at college, after going to a neighbor's to see how his Mac256 worked.  supported them, including cracking the case, from 87 on.  never had to do the "MECC repair" that was famous on the Apple][ on a Mac ;)

if you didn't pick up the reference... the Apple][ had tin-plated leaf sockets and chips.  heat/cooldown cycles made the chips shrug out of the sockets.  MECC came up with a repair system that took seconds... pick up the computer about 2 feet and slam it down flat-bottomed on the table.  reseated all the chips without spreading the sockets' leaves, as could happen if you took a static-loaded finger and pushed too hard.  don't try this at home with your laptop.  or at work with your Q system.

there is a reference on Slashdot that says he was found dead at home this morning, as Wail Street had adjusted to the fact that Tuesday's announcement of the latest iPhone, not all some of the leakers had said, was still going to sell.  the stock rose from the slight 2-3 buck loss yesterday.  can't find confirmation.  but it went all day unreported.

Godspeed, Steve Jobs.  I'd be using a greenscreen terminal program on CompuServe if you hadn't peeked around the corner at Xerox PARC and found a way to make WIMPy computers cost less that $50,000.