Absolutely agree.

However, that's kinda not the point. Steve Jobs is two entities - he is a private individual, one of 6.8 billion on the planet, in which capacity it's sad that he's ill, but I'm not going to pretend he deserves any more of my time or emotions than any one of the other 6.8 billion people who I have never met, and never will meet, when they get sick and, eventually, die.

In his other persona, he is the boss of a company in the industry I've worked in for thirty years. And as such, my immediate response is *always* going to be "How does this impact my industry, my working practices, my finances."

Sorry if anyone finds that offensive, it's just the way of the world. If you want to fly out to Cupertino and lay a bunch of flowers on his grave, be my guest, although personally I'd rather you didn't unless you actually know him personally and are grieving for him, rather than the horribly mawkish way we have developed since St. Diana died of projecting our un-expressed grief from people we do know onto celebrities who we don't know.

GJC