Ahh, civilization.

I’ve just returned from a week in Nauru, the world’s smallest independent republic. At one time, the export of phosphate mined on the “topside” of the island made it the world’s richest nation per capita. Now primary mining has all but stopped, and the money has run out. After political corruption and some bad investing, Nauru now rates among the world’s poorest nations.

Topside

I was sent to Nauru to cover the efforts of a U.S. Pacific Command medical team, which provided training and assistance to the island’s caregivers. It was a great group of people and we all had a lot of fun. You can see some of the work I did here, here, and here.

Nauru beach

There was no Diet Pepsi on Nauru. However, there was Solo, an Australian lemon soda. That ended up being my drink of choice. That and VB.

This ended up being a haphazard and relatively worthless blog entry. There. Now it’s out in the open.

Steve Jobs has been known to say Apple is a software company that also makes hardware. We laugh at that, because Apple happens to make software that ONLY runs on the hardware they make.

iPhone running Parallels

But only after having an iPhone do I really understand what Steve Jobs means by that software thing.

The iPhone is a phone, a music player, and a mini computer. Big deal. So is a Palm Treo, a Blackberry, and numerous other lesser-known devices. What makes the iPhone different?

It’s the software. We’re drawn to this particular product, and most of us who have used it like using this product more–because of the software. Yeah, it’s in a beautiful package, no doubt, but what it can do–the way it simplifies tasks and beautifully executes them–that’s what sets it apart form other phones. That and brilliant marketing.

Look at the iPod: it’s a music player. A beautiful music player, but still just a music player. Big deal, right?

The big deal is the software (both iTunes and the iPod’s internal software) made it the easiest, most fun, most efficient and seamless experience available. “It just works” is a great slogan because it really does sum up the experience. It just works, and you enjoy using the appliance. Are there other music players? Sure. Do they do the same stuff? Pretty much. Do they make it as fun, elegant, and easy? I say no. I think on some level we all understand this.

I didn’t buy an iPhone because of the way it looks, (although that didn’t hurt). I bought it–and I think many more people will buy it–because of the way it works, because of the software inside of it.

Some might argue that it’s too expensive. You can get a phone for very cheap or free (with a provider’s activation fee). Similarly, you can get Paint Shop Pro cheap and MS Paint for free, but Photoshop CS3 is going to cost you some money.

I used to think Jobs was full of crap when he said Apple was a software company. Now I get it. He just loves making software so much that he’s also compelled to create the perfect hardware environment for it.

My, how time flies.

Lil’ Kim’s been out of jail for a year now.

Just look at those bubbles.

And I have again been negligent in my posting. But this time it was for very good reason, my friends. I was intently focused on studying for my promotion test, which I took today.

I can’t say any more because the Air Force has a super strict test compromise policy.

But now my test is over and I can dump all the info I was holding in. I can focus attention on things like this again:

Total distraction.

Now that my test is over I have dug out my old SP-808 4-track recorder and dusted off some 100MB Zip disks (remember those?) and I’m finding unpolished treasures, the likes of which you may have never heard.

And now that I am going to have some free time, I’m going to buy a guitar–one of those electric ones–and learn to play with a steel tube on one of my fingers.

YES! And I’m going to get a huge amplifier and crank that shit up and sing about how badly I have the blues.

I’ll sing loud enough make my neighbors wish we had the friendly type of relationship that would allow them to ask me to turn it down without seeming like dicks (we do not have that type of relationship).

And I’m going to play really terribly, even though I’ll quickly become a really good guitarist. I’ll just be holding out, pretending to suck at it so it’s more annoying. (My neighbor is such a jerk.)

My neighbor.

And in ten days I’ll be the new Jack White.

That’s the ten-day plan, anyway.