Damn.

My parents got one of the very first computers in our town, an Apple ][+ right around Christmas 1980.  That really set the path of my life and career.  (It wasn't an Apple, but I remember first seeing my first computer in middle school math class.  We were supposed to be doing homework, but I just stared and watched the teacher using the TRS-80.  I did the homework at home.)

I bought my own Apple ][gs before leaving for college and that was the last Apple computer for a long time.  After nearly 20 years on the Windows side, I'm mostly back to the Apple side.

It's sad enough when someone who did so many amazing things passes away, but it's far sadder when it's way too soon, right in the middle of some of their best work ever.   There are few I can think of to compare, and they're all known as much as artists as CEOs too: Walt Disney, Jim Henson, John Lennon.  You might not be a fan of their particular work, but you can't deny they changed the world around them.

I wasn't the only one who left flowers outside the local Apple store.  The one close to my house at University Village was closed for some remodeling, leaving a flat black canvas where people wrote with chalk or left flowers.  My picture, taken with an iPhone of course, turned out pretty striking.