The status of Steve Jobs?

Fear not.

It's politics, not health.

As for health, Steve Jobs' tumor in his pancreas was operable and removed. As recently as July, his checkup with a doctor declared him cancer-free. There have been several online rumors circulated about Steve Jobs having a heart attack, Steve Jobs' blood pressure being too high, and even his obituary accidentally being published by a newspaper--leading him to open a subsequent keynote with a slide captioned "The Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated." Don't worry, Jobs is in fine health.

It seems Apple is completely withdrawing from Macworld in the future--this year being its last, wishing to phase out its participation in third-party trade events and instead focus on introducing products with its own "special events" such as the iPhone and new laptop events recently.

Apple has been planning this for a while, and its official announcement has sent ripples throughout the Mac community. In a way, it's the end of an era, which is sad, but at the same time, I don't think it's anything major to worry about.

kuwisdelu said:

Fear not.

It's politics, not health.

Click to expand...

You never know. "They" kept it a damn good secret that Michael Crichton had cancer until he died.

benbradley said:

You never know. "They" kept it a damn good secret that Michael Crichton had cancer until he died.

Click to expand...

blacbird said:

I hope you are correct, Kuwi, I truly do.

caw

Click to expand...

Me too.

Jobs' cancer was also kept secret, which stirred up a controversy about whether or not investors have a right to know about the health of CEOs. When Jobs was diagnosed, being the crazy, outside-the-box, guy that he is, first tried alternative medicine for almost a year before those closest to him managed to convince him to have the surgery.

blacbird said:

I hope you are correct, Kuwi, I truly do.

caw

Click to expand...

He really is.

There have been tensions between Apple and MacWorld for years now--and MacWorld is not as well attended as it once was.

While WWDC had to turn away people last time.

I suspect we may see more cooperation between Apple and O'Reilly.

kuwisdelu said:

...When Jobs was diagnosed, being the crazy, outside-the-box, guy that he is, first tried alternative medicine for almost a year before those closest to him managed to convince him to have the surgery.

Click to expand...

If that's true, that's an amazing fact on its own. Once pancreatic cancer has been diagnosed, the one year survival rate is around 20%. And by the time it's diagnosed, less than 20% of people who have it are even eligible for the surgery at all. And that's immediately, not after a year of trying other treatments.

Medievalist said:

He really is.

There have been tensions between Apple and MacWorld for years now--and MacWorld is not as well attended as it once was.

While WWDC had to turn away people last time.

I suspect we may see more cooperation between Apple and O'Reilly.

Click to expand...

Somehow Apple has always had contentious or love-hate relationships with several other companies and entities, especially Microsoft (the earliest event was Applesoft Basic, on disk with the Apple ][ and in ROM on the ][+ that Apple paid Microsoft about $20,000 to buy a Microsoft floating-point Basic port to the Apple, but Apple sold an unexpectedly large number of ]['s, like a million or so. I understand this led to Apple not (officially) releasing its own Basic interpreter for the Macintosh). and also the similarly-named Beatles' Apple Records, especially as Apple Computer's products became more and more 'musical'.

So what's the Apple-O'Reilly connection? I haven't been watching Apple Computer as closely in recent years/decades (my last Apple was a Mac II) and I'm only familiar with O'Reilly as a computer book publisher.

Grrarrgh said:

If that's true, that's an amazing fact on its own. Once pancreatic cancer has been diagnosed, the one year survival rate is around 20%. And by the time it's diagnosed, less than 20% of people who have it are even eligible for the surgery at all. And that's immediately, not after a year of trying other treatments.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was a bit astounded at that as well. My uncle died from pancreatic cancer a few weeks ago, and he was only diagnosed this spring. It's a very rapid killer.

Then again, AFAIK, Patrick Swayze is still doing quite well. Outcomes vary wildly. From what I can tell, both Swayze and Jobs had their cancers caught early enough to increase their chances of recovery.

benbradley said:

S
So what's the Apple-O'Reilly connection? I haven't been watching Apple Computer as closely in recent years/decades (my last Apple was a Mac II) and I'm only familiar with O'Reilly as a computer book publisher.

Click to expand...

O'Reilly runs some of the best tech conferences around--including one on OS X, and a number on developing for Unix.

Apple has been a fairly prominent participant.

blacbird said:

Well, not exactly "somehow". Steve Jobs has a decades-long reputation, well-earned, as both brilliant, and as one of the most unlikeable sonsabitches on the planet. I'd like to see him and Steve Ballmer locked in a room with two baseball bats and one key, left in the middle of the floor, and see who eventually would emerge.

caw

Click to expand...

Ten bucks on Jobs. And I've worked for both.

Cranky said:

Patrick Swayze is still doing quite well. Outcomes vary wildly. From what I can tell, both Swayze and Jobs had their cancers caught early enough to increase their chances of recovery.

Click to expand...

My friend had pancreatic cancer about 10 years ago, and he's still doing well. He did lose a lot of weight in the last few years but according to him, he's doing just fine.

maestrowork said:

My friend had pancreatic cancer about 10 years ago, and he's still doing well. He did lose a lot of weight in the last few years but according to him, he's doing just fine.

Click to expand...

Yep. It's just a crapshoot. As I recall, Randy Pausch was in really great shape and everything, but he still succumbed to it after, what, a year, I think?

*shakes head* And I think that's true of a lot of forms of cancer, not just pancreatic. But honestly, I've not heard many stories about long-term recovery with it.