Oh hai.

urlesque:

slacktory:

I am the 2%.

nvr4get

pantslessprogressive:

Who Are the 1 Percent?

Keeping in mind that the top 1% are millionaires:

1) How many millionaire coders are there? Is that 4.6% just Zuckerburg?

2) There are actually millionaire farmers?!

(via ilovecharts)

The city of Boston was a gigantic iPod ad in September of 2005. Apple must have had struck a major deal with the MBTA that season because everywhere you went, you saw those iconic silhouette over bright color ads posted. Hell, South Station was practically wallpapered in those ads.

I was visiting my girlfriend at the time with hopes in trying to mend our failing relationship in its waining hours. As we were walking around the city, I couldn’t help but to joke about the excessive advertisements making me feel like I was walking around “Boston - Brought to you by iPod”.

“You know,” I said in a serious tone, “I think I kinda want an iPod.” 

“Yeah,” she said looking at a gigantic ad, “I do too.” 

By the end of that day, we were in a Best Buy. I had just started working for Colgate at the time so I had no money yet, but she had quite a bit saved up from a good paying summer job. So she bought herself a fourth-generation iPod… and she bought one for me too. 

Yes, in our final weekend as a couple, I let her buy me a very large and expensive gift. In hindsight, this was probably the reason why I was failing as a boyfriend. But while that event signaled the end of one relationship, it also started another.

Starting from that bus ride home from Boston, I was forever attached to an iPod.

I commuted to all my classed around the Rutgers campus wearing those little earbuds. I commuted to work with the iPod connected to my car stereo via a tape deck adapter. Whenever I had to eat a meal in the dining hall by myself, I had the iPod there to keep me company.

And in order to keep that iPod filled with fresh content, I got into podcasts, mostly tech related ones. Those podcasts highly focused on new Apple products, particularly the launch of the iPod nano and 5th generation iPod (now with video!) in November of that year. 

When I came home for Christmas that year, I had accidentally dropped the iPod in a parking lot of a drug store, only to come out to find it crushed from being ran over by a car. On the one hand, I felt really bad that I had accidentally destroyed this expensive gift from an ex-girlfriend. On the other hand, I saw this as an opportunity to get the newest fifth generation iPod. I had money now, so why not spend it on a device I would carry with me everywhere I go?

That January, Apple introduced the intel-based Macbook Pro laptops, and of course, the tech podcasts were buzzing about it. So a few months later, I ditched my Windows desktop computer and bought one of these laptops. 

From that point on, I was purely a Mac user. In fact, since I left my job at Colgate that summer of 2006, I have only a Windows PC only a handful of times. My main home machine went from that Macbook Pro to an iMac desktop in 2007 back to a simple white Macbook again a year ago. I also bought an additional Macbook Air and a Mac Mini to play around with during that time. 

When I started working my first full time job after graduation, I asked to for large Macbook Pro as my work machine, making me the first (but not the last) person in the office to have a Mac. And when I started my new job earlier this year, I also asked for a Mac, making me the only person in the office right now with a Mac. This is how I managed to go without Windows these past five years.

The reason why I downgraded my home machine to a basic laptop now is because something else came that replaced my desktop for me. I carried around that 5th gen iPod with me for the rest of my college years, but in January of 2007, Apple announced the dream machine that was the iPhone. I longed for that phone for those last six months of senior year, working out all the scenarios and ways that I would have it when it comes out. But I had to wait until I had job to get it.

Fortunately, I received a job offer just two days after the iPhone was released. As soon as I saw what my starting salary would be, I drove to the Apple store and bought my first iPhone. Since then, I have gotten every single iteration of the iPhone either on or near launch date. And I’m planning on getting the new iPhone 4s in the next month or two.

Like the iPod, the iPhone became a part of me. I carry it with me everywhere I go. It is my primary link to the internet and web browsing, thus replacing the need for a home desktop. I use it to listen to podcasts and music while I work every day. I listen to audiobooks on it to lull me to sleep most nights, and I wake up to its alarm every morning. This one little device controls most of my life, and I love it for that reason.

This is why I cried tonight over the death of Steve Jobs. His style and products have shaped the way I’ve lived my life since that trip to Boston six years ago.

I don’t know what his death will mean for the future of the company, but even if my Apple fanboyism ends next week, one thing is for sure:

I will forever look at him for inspiration as I strive to create a product that means as much to my users and his products have meant to me.

My response to the whole Occupy Wall Street nonsense. 

(via ilovecharts)