All of this analysis is certainly one way for sites like ours to get traffic, but frankly, we’ve resisted the temptation to talk about it every day for an “easy article.” Or three, as some sites seem to have elected to go.

We don’t mean to disrespect or disparage anyone for going that way, certainly not anyone in particular; as many readers know, this site has certainly had its own share of leadership illness dramas. It certainly impacted our work; one can hardly blame Steve Jobs for wanting to focus on that with the hope of returning for the long haul rather than running himself into the ground for good.

This certainly won’t be the last time we talk about this, but this site was always more about the technology and the potential of the platform — not about the personal dramas of the company.

Granted, we were the ones who — amidst scoffing and extreme skepticism from all quarters — originally broke the news that Steve was retaking the CEO position in an aggressive move against Gil Amelio with all kinds of historic board-room drama….almost nobody seemed to believe us for the 24 hours between our posting, based on sources we still have to this day, and the announcement of exactly that from Apple itself.

This was one of the first times something like this happened in such clear-cut, dramatic fashion….and it got a lot of attention, as many readers probably remember. Since then, we’ve had the rare opportunity to have two levels of insight into the role of Jobs at the Loop; one, from people we know in Cupertino.

The other was the terrifying illnesses that struck our founder and no less than three other key members of the site team between 2000 and 2008. One of those was a member of the infamous “Bothans,” our highest placed sources who on occasion have risked quite a bit to bring us the information that makes this all possible — a former source turned site contributor, known only to the public as ‘Tron.’

Tron still bears deep scars from his brush with death, something that he also is rather private about. He will most likely be in considerable pain for the rest of his life but has managed to achieve tremendous coping skills without any help from doctors. The other two site team members are no longer working with Xerces Media; one passed away in early 2008 and the other is still fighting for his life in a hospital in Israel as we speak. Ironically enough, Pancreatic cancers and pancreas-related illness have touched the life of that member as well as several others including the mother of our founder who underwent a pancreatic surgery not unlike Steve Jobs’ own.

Blessedly, Ryan Meader is back at Xerces and continues to be the person who does the bulk of our source-relations work as well as a lot of the editing workload though that is still a task we seek to divide amongst the team rather than make dependent on any one man or woman as it has been in times past.

We don’t want to delve too far into a site news post here…..we just wanted to point out that we understand Steve’s struggles on far too many levels, wish him well, and have a lot of things planned for the future — just as we know Apple does, too. Remarkable ones, to say the least!

I hope that soon the industry will judge Apple’s products based on the merits of those products and not on how well or poorly one man presents them to a crowd of people.

Here’s hoping that Apple can continue to lead and innovate with or without Steve at the helm in the future. Though I would like to see him make a full recovery and a glorious comeback – get well Steve.