Health Problems Of Apple's Jobs

Steve Jobs resigned as chief executive of Apple Inc on Wednesday, but will stay on at the company as chairman. The 56-year-old Apple co-founder and pancreatic cancer survivor had been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since January 17. The company said Tim Cook would replace Jobs as CEO.

Here is a chronology of his health issues:

August 2004: Jobs announces he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas. He said it was a rare form of pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, which often is not quite as deadly as the more common forms of pancreatic cancer. The tumors can cause hormone imbalances.

June 2005: Jobs mentions the cancer in a commencement address at Stanford University.

"This was the closest I have been to facing death, and I hope it is the closest I get for a few more decades," he says.

2008:

June 9: Jobs appears dramatically thinner at an Apple iPhone event, touching off speculation the cancer had returned. The company said he was fighting a "common bug" and taking antibiotics. Apple later called Jobs's health a private matter.

July 26: The New York Times journalist Joe Nocera said in a column he had spoken to Jobs about his health but because the conversation was off record, he could not disclose what was said. "While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than 'a common bug', they were not life-threatening and he does not have a recurrence of cancer," Nocera wrote.

September 9: At an iPod product launch, Jobs jokes about his health by walking on stage in front of a giant screen that flashed "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated" -- a quotation borrowed from Mark Twain.

October 3: A false internet report that Jobs had suffered a heart attack briefly pushes Apple shares down 2 percent to a 17-month low. Apple quickly denied the report on iReport.com, a citizen journalist site owned by CNN.

October 14: At a Mac product launch event, Jobs jokes again about his health. His blood pressure was 110 over 70 and he said, "And that is all we are going to be talking about Steve's health today."

December 16: Apple said Jobs would not deliver the keynote address at the Macworld trade show in January, reviving concerns about his health.

Asked to explain the decision, a spokesman said it would be the last time Apple takes part in Macworld so, "it does not make sense for us to make a major investment in a trade show we will no longer be attending."

December 30: Apple shares fall as much as 2 percent after Gizmodo said that Jobs's health was "rapidly declining" and that was the reason why he canceled the Macworld keynote.

2009:

January 5: Jobs says he has been losing weight throughout 2008 and his doctors think a hormone imbalance is "robbing" him of proteins. He says he has begun a "relatively simple and straightforward" treatment for his nutritional problem and that he will continue as CEO during recovery.

"I will be the first one to step up and tell our board of directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple's CEO," he says. Apple shares rise 5 percent.

January 14: Jobs announces medical leave until the end of June, saying his health issues are "more complex" than originally thought. He hands day-to-day operations to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook and says he plans to remain involved in major strategic decisions. Apple shares fall 10 percent in after-hours trading.

January 21: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is examining Apple's disclosures about Jobs to ensure investors were not mislead, Bloomberg says.

June 8: Apple unveils new iPhone 3GS at its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference, but Jobs does not make an appearance.

June 20: The Wall Street Journal reports that Jobs had a liver transplant in Memphis, Tennessee about two months before and that he is expected to return to work later in June.

June 22: Jobs is spotted at the Apple campus in Cupertino, California, underscoring expectations that he is either back at work or will return soon.

June 23: The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute confirms it performed a liver transplant on Jobs and says he is "recovering well and has an excellent prognosis." The hospital does not give more details, saying the confirmation had come with Jobs's permission.

Organ transplant recipients often have recurring health issues for life, in part because they must take immune-suppressing drugs to prevent organ rejection or graft versus host disease.

June 30: Jobs returns to work, an Apple spokesman says. adding that he will work from home part of the time.

2011:

Jan 17: Jobs says he will take medical leave from Apple. Cook will take responsibility for day-to-day operations but Jobs will continue to be chief executive and be involved in major strategic decisions.

"I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can," the 56-year-old says. Apple shares were down 8.3 percent in Frankfurt by 1503 GMT. Monday was a holiday in the United States and markets were closed there.

Feb 17: Jobs attends meeting of technology industry leaders with U.S. President Barack Obama. National Enquirer publishes pictures purported to show Jobs arriving at the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, California.

March 2 : A thin but energetic Jobs makes a surprise return to the spotlight, taking the stage to unveil Apple's new iPad and drawing a standing ovation.

June 6: Animated but again looking very thin, Jobs appears at Apple's Worldwide Developers' Conference and unveils services for people to store more of their photos, music and other data online, giving the iPad and iPhone maker the lead in a fast-expanding new consumer market.

Hacking Clip

A six-second clip on Chinese state television has provided a rare glimpse into purported cyber hacking attacks launched by the country's military, despite long-standing official denials that the government engages in such activity.

In an episode titled "The Internet storm is here," CCTV-7, China's official military channel, had experts discussing the different methods of cyberattacks and U.S. cyber operations.



About halfway through the 20-minute episode, a user is seen operating a cursor on a screen that displays two options, a "www denial-of-service attack" and "distributed denial-of-service attack." A denial-of-service attack is a basic hacking attack that brings down a website by spamming it with data.

The screen then changes, showing a box with the words "select attack target" and "input target IP address." A scrolling marquee at the top of the box reads "China's People's Liberation Army Electronic Engineering Academy."

The user then selects Minghui.org, a website of the banned spiritual sect Falun Gong, from a dropdown menu containing a list of other Falun Gong sites and clicks the "attack" button.

It is unclear if the program on the screen shown is a mock-up, or when the clip was filmed. But China has consistently -- sometimes angrily -- denied having anything to do with hacking attacks.

EVIDENCE?

The existence of the piece, which appears to have been shown in July, was reported on Wednesday by China SignPost website (www.chinasignpost.com) which noted it was "visual evidence" to undermine China's official denials of involvement in hacking.

As of midday on Thursday, the page with the clip on Chinese state television's website was no longer accessible. However, the clip was reposted on other video sharing websites and is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Wu1HlZbBk

The United States says that many hacking attacks appear to come from China, often targeting human rights groups as well as U.S. companies.

In its annual report to the U.S. Congress on China's military on Wednesday, the Pentagon warned that hacking attacks from China could one day be used for overt military means, rather than just trying to access data.

"The accesses and skills required for those intrusions are similar to those necessary to conduct computer network attacks," the report said. "Developing capabilities for cyberwarfare is consistent with authoritative PLA military writings."

Google, the world's largest search engine, partially pulled out of China last year after concerns of censorship and a serious hacking episode.

Google, who said the attacks originated from China, was one of the dozens of high profile companies targeted in an ultra-sophisticated cyberattack named "Operation Aurora" that took place in the second half of 2009. Yahoo, Adobe and Dow Chemical were also reportedly among the targets.

In June this year, Google said its Gmail product had suffered a cyberattack originating from China that was aimed at stealing passwords and information from high level U.S. government officials and Chinese activists.

China also says it is a victim of hacking.

The cyberattacks add to the long list of tensions between the United States and China that span trade issues, human rights, the value of the yuan and Taiwan.

US loses AAA credit rating, For first time

Aug 6 (IANS) For the first time in history, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has downgraded America's top notch credit rating, stripping the world's largest economy of its prized AAA status.

'We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to 'AA+' from 'AAA,'' S&P said Friday in a stunning blow to the country, that has enjoyed the top rating for 70 years, and its political leadership.
In July, S&P, one of the three major agencies that assign grades the credit of companies and governments, placed the US rating on 'CreditWatch with negative implications' as the debt ceiling debate devolved into partisan bickering.
To avoid a downgrade, S&P said the US needed to not only raise the debt ceiling, but also develop a 'credible' plan to reduce the federal debt by at least $4 trillion over the next decade.
Earlier this week, Congress instead passed a plan to reduce the debt by at least $2.1 trillion.
In its report Friday, S&P ruled that the US fell short: 'The downgrade reflects our opinion that the ... plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilise the government's medium-term debt dynamics.'
S&P also cited dysfunctional policymaking in Washington as a factor in the downgrade. 'The effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges.'
The other rating agencies, Moody's and Fitch, have said they have no immediate plan to downgrade the US credit rating, giving the government more time to make progress on debt reduction.
The split verdict limits the impact of the S&P downgrade as many consequences would be set off only by a reduction by two agencies, the New York Times said.
But the lowering of the country's rating could rattle confidence and raise borrowing costs for the government and consumers, impeding the already fragile recovery, it said.
The announcement by S& P came after a week of turmoil on Wall Street not seen since the days of the financial crisis. After plunging around 5 percent Thursday, stocks bounced up and down Friday and closed relatively flat.