Steve Jobs FBI File Released
The first President Bush was considering appointing Steve Jobs to the President’s Export Council, so the FBI investigated Steve’s background. There’s nothing in the file that needs to be protected for national security so the FBI file was made public February 9, 2012 following a Freedom of Information Act request.
It doesn’t take long to read the 192 page Steve Jobs FBI File. Download the PDF here.
The coolest little tidbit to me is that it mentions Steve’s “Reality Distortion Field.” It also covers his drug use, his daughter born out of wedlock and what associates had to say about his integrity.
Read MoreSteve Jobs Impressed by Lytro
On the first episode of GadgetReport.TV, I said Lytro’s light-field camera was my favorite innovation of 2011. A new book called Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky tells a story that suggest Steve Jobs may have thought the same thing.
The company’s CEO, Ren Ng, a brilliant computer scientist with a PhD from Stanford, immediately called Jobs, who picked up the phone and quickly said, “if you’re free this afternoon maybe we would could get together.” Ng, who is thirty-two, hurried to Palo Alto, showed Jobs a demo of Lytro’s technology, discussed cameras and product design with him, and, at Jobs’s request, agreed to send him an email outlining three things he’d like Lytro to do with Apple.
Who knows if Apple and Lytro reached a deal, but a Lytro can take an immediate photo without the need to focus so it makes sense that Apple would want that tech in future iPhones.
Adam Lashinsky’s new book about Apple is based on interviews with Apple insiders. In 2008 Fortune cover story, Lashinsky predicted Tim Cook would succeed Steve Jobs as Apple CEO. The book is available for pre-order from Amazon.com.
Read MoreThe First Steve Jobs Sculpture
The first bronze statue of Steve Jobs has been unveiled in my favorite country, Hungary. It was commissioned by a company called GRAPHISOFT. The sculptor is Erno Toth. According to the company’s press release, Steve Jobs was a supporter of the company’s architectural software starting in 1984 after he saw it in action at CeBIT in Germany.
If you’d like to visit the statue, you can find it in front of Graphisoft Park, the first science/technology park in Budapest. If you can’t make it to Budapest soon, my recipe for authentic Hungarian Goulash is on OMGyum.TV. 
Blogging from a Genius Bar
I’m sitting at the Genius Bar waiting for Time Machine to restore the Mac Pro from a Drobo. I’m not sure it’s going to happen before the Apple Store closes. My backup is on a first generation USB Drobo which doesn’t exactly do snappy data transfers.
My Genius has been fun. He’s done some work with Leo Laporte during South by Southwest and makes appearances on the NSFW Show.
Over the last week, Apple ran a battery of tests on the Mac Pro and can’t find a problem with the hardware. They wiped the boot drive and the new goal is to start from scratch. I fear this isn’t going to fix the problems I’ve experienced with this Mac since the very beginning. It has (4) 15,000 rpm SAS drives I’ve never been able to write to. I always end up working around the drives that should be AWESOME by writing to Drobo Pro.
Since getting this Mac, which we paid over $10,000 for, it’s been a constant source of frustration. I made Genius Bar appointments, took it in and I’ve been told to change some configuration or another. I believe they replaced the RAID card twice. I get the very heavy and hard to carry Mac Pro back and try to produce a video on it. It fails and I go back to the Drobo Pro work around. Then I’m focused on a project and live with the work around until the frustration becomes too much. I make another Genius Bar appointment and the circle of frustration continues. I even tried emailing Steve Jobs about it, but it was after he was so sick.
My gut says this Mac has a bus problem. Data doesn’t make its way through the machine like it should, but the tests don’t reveal a problem so I’m discouraged. It’s kind of like those stories you hear about a person going to doctors over and over again because they have a problem. They know something is wrong with them, but it isn’t something doctors are able to diagnose.
My goal was to restore the software and attempt to edit video here to try and replicate the problem after they’ve attempted to fix it, but I doubt the restore from Time Machine will finish today. I’ve been here three hours and it’s still Preparing to copy.
This Mac Pro should sing when processing video, but instead it makes me cry. I think it’s a lemon, but I’m not pushy enough to convince the Genius Bar to replace it.
Read MoreApple Founding Contract Up for Sale (update: sold for $1,350,000)
Not every Apple fan knows Apple Computer Co. was founded by three people. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were equal partners. Ronald Wayne got 10 percent of the company for helping to convince Woz to join Jobs in the new venture.
The agreement was signed by all three on April Fools Day, 1976. Ronald Wayne backed out several days later on April 12. According to Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Wayne didn’t want to be a part of another startup. He received a total of $2300 for his 10% stake.
The historic agreement was purchased from Ronald Wayne in the mid-1990s and is now going to be offered at a Sotheby’s auction December 13.
UPDATE: Apple founding documents were valued at $150,000, but the market valued them at $1,350,000 ($1.6 million after tax).
Read MoreSteve Jobs Reading List
Monday, October 24, 2011, Walter Isaacson’s authorized Biography called Steve Jobs
The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
“Secrets of the Little Blue Box”
King Lear (Penguin Shakespeare)
Moby Dick (Oxford World’s Classics)
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
Diet for a Small Planet (20th Anniversary Edition)
