Steve Jobs dies of cancer at the age of 56

It's rare that a subject truly logically spans both of my blogs (Cancer Geek, about cancer, and Derek Erb about me and tech and jazz and wine and everything else that turns me on). But this is one of those rare topics.

I wasn't going to write anything. But a post by Robert Llewellyn over on Google + pushed me to express myself...

Although I'm a bit younger I know that 56 is way too young. There's not enough I can say about how much cancer sucks. I was diagnosed with throat cancer 6 years ago, at 42, and went through all of the treatment which is why I'm still here and writing this now.

Jobs was an idol of mine. The Da Vinci of the tech world: both an artist and a scientist. Able to see technology as something beautiful and look at it differently. Able to envision tech in the future in such a way that it was a pleasure and not just something amazingly practical. Plus, let's admit it, that man had 2 of the biggest balls in the tech world. He knew what he wanted and he did what it took to make it happen. Knowing better than your clients what they will want is not fascism. It's a megalomaniacal understanding that you actually know and understand some things that they don't. If car designers built cars as they thought they should be instead of how they think we want them to be and how the petrol companies ask them to be we would all be flying around (literally) in electric cars which pilot themselves. Just an example.

Steve Jobs may not have been the inventor of everything he brought to us. But he knew how to improve upon just about anything and take something which we often found little interest in and make it beautiful and wonderful. Hell, he could even take 3 quotes from 3 other people and create 1 simplified and powerful quote so beautiful that we forget the other 3 "originals". In the tech world he made it so we no longer remember the Walkman, the original Windows Mobile smart phones which were around for years and the Windows tablets which were around for a decade. He wasn't the first with any of those. He simply made them so much better that we actually wanted them. He knew what we would want because he knew what he would want and what would make him happy. Steve was one of the few remaining tech CEOs who literally giggled with pleasure over technological advances, products and achievements. He loved this stuff and we, who love the same stuff, loved him.

In the end though Steve Jobs was a man. An amazing man. Who really lived. He leaves behind a wife and children. The world lost, yet another, valuable man.

FUCK CANCER!

About Me ... and Moo

I recently found a really interesting service called About Me. I'm sure it was either by following Veronica Belmont or Ryan Block. But I can't remember which.

The first thing that struck me, aside from the amazing simplicity of the site, was just how beautiful everyone's pages looked. The idea itself is awesome: a one-stop location, single page. where people can find you, see you, and with links to all of your various identies and locations throughout the Internet. Simple and perfect.

I signed up and started setting up my page. After creating my account they threw me an offer which I found almost as beautiful as the site itself: Moo.com business cards. For free, yes free, they create a pack of 50 business cards for you with your About Me page image on one side and your About Me and contact info on the other side. I thought this looked too good to be true.

When my Moo cards arrived I was blown away. They are gorgeous (I had to use a word other than beautiful which I am obviously overusing in this post). The colours are excellent, the photo is perfect, and the overall effect is both impressive and different.

I was hooked. I went on to the site and ordered another 2 packs of cards. I ordered 1 pack of 100 cards for personal use and another pack of 100 cards for business use. With a pack of 100 cards you can use up to 50 different images! I just wanted to test things out so I used 3 different images for my personal cards and 3 different images for my business cards. I ordered the fully recycled version where the cards are printed on recycled paper and all of the packaging is recycled as well. And I waited...

My cards arrived a couple of weeks later and I was even more amazed than when my first pack arrived. The paper quality is amazing. But, more importantly, the images are just perfect. One business card was simply my business logo: it never looked so good! A couple of others were my (very) old Mephisto PC photos from over 10 years ago and which came out beautiful. For my personal cards I used one of my photos from our recent family photo session about a year ago and 2 of my (very) old Mephisto photos of me tasting wine. They all look great!

I've decided to go through a whole new photo session in September (computer photos, wine photos, me photos, ...) just to do new Moo cards and use on my new personal web site (whenever I finish it).

Check me out on About Me at http://www.about.me/derekerb

Day 19: Back in Facebook!!!

Yesterday afternoon a Facebook friend, of my old account, sent me a message saying she had seen me back on Facebook in her list of friends. I couldn't believe it. Facebook had not replied to any of my messages aside from the obviously computer-generated automatic responses.

I logged in to my temporary account and looked for my old account. There it was.

I tried to log in to my old account but it wouldn't let me. I had to go through the whole password reset procedure and I could not reuse the password I had before. I can live with that.

But I now have my whole account back: photos, friends, group memberships, photo tags on others' photos, messages magically re-appearing in wall-to-walls and group comments.

Unfortunately Facebook never communicated with me at all. I therefore still have no idea what I did, or did not, do wrong in the first place. I would obviously like to avoid this happening ever again. But I still have no idea whatsoever what happened.

Many will say that the important fact is that everything works as it should now. Yet I will always feel a bit worried while I use Facebook from now on.

Locked out of Facebook: Day 18 - I am not alone

I went Googling around to try and find out if there were any concrete reasons given anywhere for Facebook disabling accounts. I also, obviously, wanted to see if anyone successfully managed to get their account re-enabled.

I was amazed to find how many others have been through this very same experience. There's an entire Forum o the open part of Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=35590940472&topic=5379

There's a page with the 13 reasons why your Facebook account will be disabled:

http://www.clappingtrees.com/archives/2009/06/13-reasons-your-facebook-account-will-be-disabled/

Then there's a good page with a list of reasons why your Facebook account will be disabled:

http://contactdubai.com/tips/why-your-facebook-account-will-be-disabled

Does it feel any better knowing I am not alone and that others have been similarly affected? I must apologise: not really. It's like when my kids tell me that the other kids in class didn't do well in a class either. My classic reply is "I don't care about the other kids in your class... I care about you."  Here I must selfishly admit I feel the same.

More later... when I have time...

PS: Luckily I use Backupify to back up all of my social networking sites. I therefore have a copy of all of my friends' names and nicknames as well as all of the photos I uploaded. But I do not have copies of any items where I was tagged by someone else or where I may have been mentioned or linked to by someone else or any statements I may have made in the Groups and Forums.

Locked out of Facebook: Day 14 - A response?!?!?!

I actually received a reply e-mail from The Facebook Team this afternoon:

Hi,

We apologize for our delayed response to your inquiry. If you have resolved this issue on your own, please ignore this email. If you are still experiencing security issues, let us know and we’ll investigate further. We appreciate your patience in this matter.

Thanks,

The Facebook Team

Of course this doesn't solve or explain the problem in any way. I therefore replied:

Thank you very much for your response.

This issue has still not been resolved and I do not have access to my account. I do not know how I can resolve this issue myself as I cannot log in with my account to change or correct anything.

Please investigate further and re-activate my account, or provide me with an explanation as to what the problem is, as soon as possible.

Thanks,

Derek ERB
Asnières-sur-Seine • FRANCE

Now I suppose I am to be patient? In the mean time I stroll around Facebook, using the account I have created temporarily, and it is like showing up at my own funeral. I can see traces of where I once was and sometimes obvious markings that I have been eliminated. I keep lurking around conversations hoping somone may notice that I am gone. It doesn't seem to have affected any of my contacts on Facebook. I am starting to feel like the guy who disappeared and no one noticed enough to look for him.