Thanks Steve.

The past month has shaken the tech world with a number of major events but probably the most significant has been the passing of Steve Jobs. Everyone has an opinion on the man, good or bad, but I don’t want to focus on any of that. I really just want to say thanks. I’ve been a Mac user and fan for a long time, yes, but it really wasn’t until the last few years that the contributions or enrichment of my life have been multiplied by Apple’s products.

For starters, my band and I released an album last year, that was recorded not in a Recording Studio but on a Mac, using Garageband. Garageband is an extremely powerful recording tool and it comes free with your Mac. It’s easy, intuitive and lots of fun. We saved ourselves thousands of dollars doing it ourselves. Additionally, our album is available worldwide by being in the iTunes catalog. No longer is a band bound by physical distribution. Anyone, anywhere with a connection can get our album. We are global. Without having left California.

We are also able to create music videos that can rival those on the music channels. Final Cut Pro puts video editing and effects in your hands and like Garageband, it is easy to learn and intuitive enough for most novices to be able to pick up. This used to be restricted to big bands with big budgets. Now anyone can do it and the limit is your imagination.

I am also able to manage my photo collection and am able to easily organize and assemble them into different types of projects. I use iPhoto to make calendars, cards and coffee table books every year of my daughter and her growth for our own keepsake purposes and also for our families. Doing this 15 years ago would have been time consuming and costly. Now I do it all online and at my leisure.

These are just a few examples of how the work of Steve Jobs has affected my life directly, and I think many of you have similar stories. Heck I didn’t even mention how the iPhone has changed my life. But ultimately, I think the lasting legacy of Steve Jobs is going to be that he has given the power to all of us to be more creative, to pursue that creativity in as many ways possible and to be empowered to do it yourself. All you need is your Mac and your imagination.

Thank you Steve. You will be missed.