Shocker of the year

Rico says that The New York Times has the story, but the headline is hard enough to read: Steven P. Jobs, Co-Founder of Apple, Dies. Here's the rest:

Steven P. Jobs (at left in photo), the visionary co-founder and former chief executive of Apple, has died at 56.
Apple said in a press release that it was “deeply saddened” to announce that Jobs had passed away. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,” the company said. “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.
Jobs stepped down from the chief executive role in late August, saying he could no longer fulfill his duties, and became chairman. He underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, and received a liver transplant in 2009.
Rarely has a major company and industry been so dominated by a single individual, and so successful. His influence went far beyond the iconic personal computers that were Apple’s principal product for its first twenty years. In the last decade, Apple has redefined the music business through the iPod, the cellphone business through the iPhone, and the entertainment and media world through the iPad. Again and again, Jobs gambled that he knew what the customer would want, and again and again he was right.
The early years of Apple long ago passed into legend: the two young hippie-ish founders, Jobs and Steve Wozniak (at right in photo); the introduction of the first Macintosh computer in 1984, which stretched the boundaries of what these devices could do; Jobs’s abrupt exit the next year in a power struggle. But it was his return to Apple in 1996 that started a winning streak that raised the company from the near dead to its current position. This summer, Apple briefly exceeded Exxon Mobil as the most valuable United States company.
Bill Gates, the former chief executive of Microsoft, said in a statement that he was “truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death.” He added: “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”

Rico says he knew it would happen eventually, but it's still a shock... (That asshole in the middle of the photo? John Sculley, who was Steve's worst-ever acquisition.)