Masters of the Universe chow down with the Prez

You can go here for a picture big enough to fill your computer screen that was taken yesterday when the president met with a whole passel of high-tech mucky-mucks at a private home near San Francisco . (Click the link under the photo.) President Obama is flanked by Apple’s Steve Jobs to his left, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to his right. Straight across the table is Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who is looking forward to devastating any competition in the upcoming America’s Cup race to be held in San Francisco Bay. Absent is Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Intel’s Paul Otellini. Otellini will be meeting the president in Oregon today and giving him a tour of Intel’s new factory there. Why did Intel put an expensive new facility in Oregon instead of Silicon Valley? Simple. California is no longer a good place to do business, says Paul. The president aims to correct that. Good luck.

Photo credit: The White House

Gambling with others’ money

A few years back, we decided to invest some of Hilary’s money she gets for letting us use her ranch in the High Sierra to run the resort. (Her grandmother left the ranch to her in a generation-skipping trust, so legally we had to rent it back from her.) Instead of paying her directly, we bought her some stock in Apple since we liked and used their products and I had a belief that newly-returned co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs could do no wrong, or at least very little wrong.

At the time, Apple Computer was struggling. Pundits predicted its imminent demise, and Michael Dell, the CEO of Dell Computer, a high-flyer at the time, suggested that Apple be broken up and the cash reserves divvied up among its shareholders. Today Apple, Inc. is the world’s second-largest company by market valuation, trailing only ExxonMobil. Bigger than Microsoft, bigger than Walmart, and way bigger than Dell.

We paid $14.50 per share. Soon the stock split two for one, doubling her shares and making the investment cost $7.25 per share. Today it closed at $320.15 per share.

Karla and I also bought stock for ourselves. Dang! If only we had known how it would perform, we would have bought ourselves two shares!

The amazingness of immediacy

Yesterday I was reading an article on the computer that mentioned a book, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success. The article had a link to Amazon.com where the book was described. One click and I got to Amazon. I read the description and decided I wanted the Kindle edition. One more click, a pause, and I had it on both my computer and my Kindle Reader. I’ve been reading (and re-reading) it to myself and to Karla and to anyone who will listen, including the cats. Tomorrow if it isn’t raining, I’ll read it to any horse who happens to be bored and will listen to my chatter.

It is an awfully well-written book, outlining the seven secrets to success in any endeavor, with the first secret being “Do what you love.” I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to follow in the footsteps of a brilliant innovator.