' Steve Jobs

If you want to attract a geek, here's a fun fact to drop at parties: The ASCII code for an apostrophe is '  In truth, it probably works better at detecting geeks than attracting them. A true geek would be so aware of ' that he/she would likely stroll away from you as "not geek enough" to merit communicating with. A nongeek would mistake your fun-fact for a misheard, not understood, joke, then laugh and drink another beer with you. Last night, a news flash on the internet alerted me to the death of Steve Jobs, undoubtably the coolest genius to have walked the Earth in my lifetime. Like a lot of keyboard tappers, I work off a PC. But I've never loved it like I love my daughter Daisy's Mac. It is reliable, intuitive and downright touchable, just like the IPods, phones and other gizmos Jobs had a hand in creating. The man had a gift and he used it well. I like to imagine a young and impatient Steve Jobs at a party. An awkward, young woman drops some sort of near totally ignorant comment about computer punchcards. In my imagination, I see Jobs mentally dismiss her as unimportant. He turns and walks away. Then he does what made Jobs so good at being Jobs. He comes back, listens to her and figures out to communicate. I don't know that Jobs ever experienced this exact moment. Now that you've read this far, perhaps you have figured out I have no clue if ASCII has anything to do with Apples, but I still admire Steve Jobs.