My first computer wasn't an Apple. It was a TI-99, and that was the machine on which I first learned BASIC. But I remember when my grandpa bought my brother and me an Apple IIe a few years later. I remember him -- an eighth grade drop-out himself -- marveling as my brother and I un-boxed and assembled it. My grandpa turned down our offer to explain to him what we were doing, insisting he was too old but muttering that this machine he'd brought into our house was magical, crazy, dangerous -- and it was "the future."

That's the thing about Apple products, and the thing about Steve Jobs too. Magical, crazy, dangerous, different.

Apple isn't merely technology as science and engineering; it's technology as art. It isn't simply technology as a productivity tool. It's technology as pleasure. It isn't simply about technology as information; it's about technology and learning. It isn't about technology as being the purview of boys in the basement (or in the garage); it's about technology that anyone -- grandparents and toddlers -- can use.

The only other time when I've cried like this over the death of someone who I've never met was was when Jim Henson died in 1990. Jim Henson helped shape my mind as a child; Steve Jobs, my mind as an adult. Once upon a time, I would've said that everything I needed to know, I learned on Sesame Street (or maybe the Muppet Show). And now I have to admit that everything I need to know, I find via my iPhone.

So "here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Thank you for everything, Steve Jobs. You certainly changed my world.