Steve Jobs DEAD at 56

This is very sad news indeed. RIP Steve. You are one person who simply cannot be replaced.

You know, I happened to have been watching Wheel last night when an ABC-7 Special Report came up, and I was a bit irritated, but when I saw it was about Mr. Jobs's death, I just gasped. I'll tell you, I never even knew he had pancreatic cancer.

Even so, I remember a story about Jobs and how he came to be one of the most recognized people in computers. If you'd like me to share it with you, I will do so. May I please?

Thanks, Mystery. Now some of the stuff may not be true. I got some of this info from the documentary, Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession. Some of you may have seen it on GSN back in 2004. I have this documentary on DVD, so I may make changes.

This was back in Atari's glory days. Back in the 1970's Atari's headquarters was just one big party. Atari's founder Nolan Bushnell, co-founder Al Alcorn, and employees were trying to find people who were living on the streets yet could still help make video games.

Steve Jobs, who heard about the gig, came to Atari, and he looked like someone who never took a bath. Alcorn had the decision to hire Jobs or call to cops. He decided to hire Jobs who soon brought his best friend, Steve Wozniak.

According to Bushnell, the two Steves weren't really weren't official Atari employees, but they made Breakout, which still inspires clones of the game of breaking bricks with a ball and paddle, a vertical version of Atari's Pong.

The two Steves asked Bushnell about making the Apple Computer. Bushnell said no. Atari was apparently "too busy" selling home versions of Pong to consider, especially when the next big thing was coming about - the Atari 2600 Video Computer system.

The 2600 initially didn't do too well, especially since it didn't come out in time for the holiday season. Bushnell lost the CEO position of his own company, but would make even more money with his next business - Chuck E. Cheese's.

As for the two Steves, they eventually left Atari and founded the Apple Computer company with Ronald Wayne. The Apple I and Apple II were huge successes and made an impact on the microcomputing industry.

The rest is pretty much history thanks to Mr. Jobs' revolutionary ideas. I'm sure any new product designed by Apple will be made in Mr. Jobs's honor, but I doubt that Apple and those products will ever be the same without him, even with Mr. Wozniak and Mr. Wayne.

And without him, we wouldn't have the Apple II computer, which most of us grew up with (I still remember it!).

Backseat modding much? This news has been on for 6 days, it isn't old, and it has plenty of purpose left. We'll be watching you.

Wow. He just deleted his account.
Just wow.

Even weirder, he finally reacted 12 days after Kori was talking about him backseat moderating.