RIP
After witnessing the media fervor and outpouring of praise on social networks by tens of millions for Jobs, and nothing close to that for Ritchie, one name came to my mind: Nikola Tesla.
In case you didn't know, Tesla perfected the alternating current system (AC) that allows you to flip a switch and get light in your house. He also created a motor that could be run on AC, and that became the basis for all the other motors that are in the appliances in your house. Oh yeah, he also filed the first radio patent, not Marconi.
Tesla's inventions have been kind of a big deal for the past century or so, but they're things you just don't think about. It's kind of like a programming language on which most computers were built and an operating system that is used on servers and workstations to power worldwide commerce and the Internet. They're things we just take for granted, but we shouldn't.
Tesla worked as an assistant to Thomas Edison. Edison died rich and famous. Tesla died poor and mostly unknown. Jobs died a famous multi-billionaire. I can't say for sure how wealthy Ritchie was, but it's an easy assumption that he wasn't as wealthy as Jobs and he didn't garner a smidgen of the notoriety.
Here's a very apt meditation on the Jobs vs. Ritchie dichotomy.
After witnessing the media fervor and outpouring of praise on social networks by tens of millions for Jobs, and nothing close to that for Ritchie, one name came to my mind: Nikola Tesla.
In case you didn't know, Tesla perfected the alternating current system (AC) that allows you to flip a switch and get light in your house. He also created a motor that could be run on AC, and that became the basis for all the other motors that are in the appliances in your house. Oh yeah, he also filed the first radio patent, not Marconi.
Tesla's inventions have been kind of a big deal for the past century or so, but they're things you just don't think about. It's kind of like a programming language on which most computers were built and an operating system that is used on servers and workstations to power worldwide commerce and the Internet. They're things we just take for granted, but we shouldn't.
Tesla worked as an assistant to Thomas Edison. Edison died rich and famous. Tesla died poor and mostly unknown. Jobs died a famous multi-billionaire. I can't say for sure how wealthy Ritchie was, but it's an easy assumption that he wasn't as wealthy as Jobs and he didn't garner a smidgen of the notoriety.
Here's a very apt meditation on the Jobs vs. Ritchie dichotomy.
After witnessing the media fervor and outpouring of praise on social networks by tens of millions for Jobs, and nothing close to that for Ritchie, one name came to my mind: Nikola Tesla.
In case you didn't know, Tesla perfected the alternating current system (AC) that allows you to flip a switch and get light in your house. He also created a motor that could be run on AC, and that became the basis for all the other motors that are in the appliances in your house. Oh yeah, he also filed the first radio patent, not Marconi.
Tesla's inventions have been kind of a big deal for the past century or so, but they're things you just don't think about. It's kind of like a programming language on which most computers were built and an operating system that is used on servers and workstations to power worldwide commerce and the Internet. They're things we just take for granted, but we shouldn't.
Tesla worked as an assistant to Thomas Edison. Edison died rich and famous. Tesla died poor and mostly unknown. Jobs died a famous multi-billionaire. I can't say for sure how wealthy Ritchie was, but it's an easy assumption that he wasn't as wealthy as Jobs and he didn't garner a smidgen of the notoriety.
RIP.
RIP