Steve Jobs Has Passed Away

Steve Jobs:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Apple's website announces the sad news that Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs has passed away. Jobs was 56 years old, and had been struggling with complications related to pancreatic cancer over the past several years. Apple leaves the following message on their website in tribute to Jobs:

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences, please email rememberingsteve@apple.com

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/10/05/steve-jobs-has-passed-away/

Here's a great photo and caption from an Instagram by johnniem.

“Remember walking out once and holding the door for Steve. Said good-bye and took this picture of him walking quietly to his car as he checked his email on his iPhone.”

Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech, where he addresses his mortality. An inspiring speech, excerpt from Observer.com.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Microsoft Cofounder Bill Gates:

I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives.

The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.

From Larry Magid's article Steve Jobs changed my life even before I met him nearly 30 years ago:

To me, Jobs wasn’t an icon – he was a flesh and blood human being who I admired and liked but didn’t always agree with. Still, as I’ve said many times during his life,- he was a national treasure. Like the icons featured in Apple’s Think Different commercials – Gandhi, Einstein, Buckminster Fuller, and Martin Luther King – Steve Jobs was bigger than life. He looked at the world not as it was, but how it could become – and he did everything in his power to reshape the world we live in.

Rare video of an Apple Think Different Ad narrated by Jobs himself:

SSL Support for Tweet Button and Follow Button

"Today we are pleased to announce SSL support for our Tweet and Follow Button widgets. That means that now you can add these widgets to your secure https pages, enabling users to easily share your content and follow your accounts without leaving your site."

https://dev.twitter.com/blog/ssl-support-tweet-button-and-follow-button

reCAPTCHA ASP.NET library

I recently had a requirement to implement a CAPTCHA for one of our contact forms to minimize spam.

After much research and consideration I decided to use reCAPTCHA and the reCAPTCHA ASP.NET library.

Step 1 - Create a free account
http://www.google.com/recaptcha

Step 2 - Download the reCAPTCHA ASP.NET library
http://code.google.com/apis/recaptcha/docs/aspnet.html

I'm using the .Net control but as you'll see it has plugins for several platforms.

To get it working was just a matter of referencing the library in my project, dropping the control on my page and referencing the public/private keys generated in step 1.

jCarousel jQuery plugin

"jCarousel is a jQuery plugin for controlling a list of items in horizontal or vertical order. The items, which can be static HTML content or loaded with (or without) AJAX, can be scrolled back and forth (with or without animation)."

http://sorgalla.com/jcarousel/

Pictaculous - A Color Palette Generator

Generate a color palette from PNG, JPG or GIF image/photo. Receive color suggestions, download Photoshop swatches (.ACO)

http://www.pictaculous.com/

Pictaculous phone instructions:

1. Step 1: Take a photo with your camera.
2. Step 2: Email that photo to colors@mailchimp.com
3. Step 3: Wait a few minutes for a reply.

Pictaculous - A Color Palette Generator (courtesy of MailChimp)

RetainSameConnection interferes with expressions on connection managers

I have ran into this issue a few times and was planning to document it for others but John Welch summed it up nicely.

"If you have RetainSameConnection set to TRUE, and you are also trying to update the connection string through an expression, be aware the connection will not change to reflect the new connection string. Basically, the connection will retain the original value (as RetainSameConnection would indicate)."

http://agilebi.com/jwelch/2008/03/28/retainsameconnection-and-expressions/

http://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/334933/retainsameconnection-interfers-with-expressions-on-connection-managers

jQuery remove disabled attribute

I recently upgraded from jQuery 1.5.1 to 1.6.2. This upgrade affected code I have been using to enable or disable an element (such as a button).

Original Code

// disable

$("#btnSubmit").attr('disabled', 'disabled');

// enable

$("#btnSubmit").attr('disabled', '');

The above code worked in all major browsers until I upgraded to jQuery 1.6.2; however, after upgrading the element would not re-enable again by simply setting the disabled attribute to an empty string.

Solution

// disable

$("#btnSubmit").attr('disabled', 'disabled');

// enable

$("#btnSubmit").removeAttr('disabled');

Alternate Solution

// disable

$("#btnSubmit").attr('disabled', true);

// enable

$("#btnSubmit").attr('disabled', false);

I chose to go with the removeAttr solution since that seems more likely to eliminate differences from one browser to the next.