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You know nothing of the man, read a biography of his. Start with iCon, which was pulled from the Apple stores, just so you know you're not reading an "approved version." The guy was an electronics geek, good but good enough to recognize he was no Wozniak. The whole reason he and Woz hung out is because he was into electronics. He's a good business man too but that's not all he is.

Read how Woz describes the birth of the blue box :

"I read an article in Esquire Magazine [...] entitled "Secrets of the Blue Box--fiction" by Ron Rosenblum. Halfway through the article I had to call my best friend, Steve Jobs, and read parts of this long article to him.
[...]
The next day was Sunday. Steve and I drove to SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the same place the Homebrew Computer Club would meet 4 years later) because they always left a door or two unlocked and nobody thought anything about a couple of strangers reading books and magazines in their technical library. Finally we found a book that had the exact same frequencies that had been mentioned in the Esquire article. Now we had the complete list.
We went back to Steve's house and built two, somewhat unstable, multivabrator oscillators. We could see the instability on a frequency counter, but we were in a hurry. We would set one oscillator to 700 Hz and the other to 900 Hz (for a "1") and record it on a tape recorder. "

Steve Wozniak's old company is, of course, Apple.

Steve Wozniak's old company is, of course, Apple.

You need to calm down. Maybe take a few of those pills you were prescribed.

RFID tags don't allow remote tracking and location, any more than I can tell where your car is right now because you have a EasyPass toll card on the windshield, or a Mobil SpeedPass on your keychain. Sure, if I had access to the requisite databases perhaps I could find out what interstate you last travelled on, or what gas station you last filled up at, but there's no way to tell where an RFID tag is when it's not near a scanner.

I'm not sure where people get the idea that RFID tags are like little homing beacons, somehow reporting their position back to Ground Control constantly. As neat as that would be (and people are actively working on it, check out http://www.woz.com/ it's not here yet. And RFID certainly isn't it.

It's unfortunate Slashdot wasn't around when barcodes were introduced. I'd like to be able to link back to posts where people would have claimed that barcodes are going to allow the Man to track your every move, find out if you're a Red sympathizer, reveal if you're gay.

Whenever a new technology comes out, first legitimate issues are raised, and then the technology is exaggerated beyond all recognition, as are the concerns. And the sad part about it all is that the original -- and valid -- privacy concerns are almost completely overrun by half-baked claims.

Hm, over at Wheels of Zeus (Woz; Steve W.'s site) I see they're marketing the kind of GPS/RFID system built to track people, just as the one in an earlier (/.) story, except that was in Japan, AFAIK.. ..Do you guys think they got the idea/product from Steve Wozniak?

http://woz.com/2005/index.html

OT, -I know-, but still a thought.

Woz's Wheels of Zeus is for tracking local objects and pets.

It's still vapor, though - you can't buy any products.

I recall reading about some controversy about Steve Wozniac's company's tracking product as it might potentially be applied to children, but it claims to be low cost.

just two weeks ago at the 2600 hope conference in NY, Steve Wozniak was using the proper form of the word hacker and highly suggested that people should hack often and use it as a tool for learning.
what real did was to try and bypass something to profit off of it because apple wouldn't let them in on a market that apple is basically controlling right now. real is trying to steal something they don't have any rights to. this is not hacking!

Indeed, I was thinking of the Marauder's Map as being like a PDA with a map and everyone's tagged with WozNet.

I also thought there should be more magic that emulates Muggle technology so I was pleased when I came to the Extendible Ears as a magical substitute for various forms of bugging (I was disappointed by Rita in the previous book).

I don't know if there is anyone out there with more info, but isn't this exactly what Steve Wozniak is currently working on? That is the impression that I have received from his web-site. Does anyone out there have more info? I am far more interested in what Wozniak has cooking than all of the cell networks put together.

I went to the Wheels of Zeus inquiries page and clicked on the Job Inquiries link the email address was "jobs@woz.com".

I checked the ground temperature and looked for airborne swine, and then figured it all out.

I think we are all tired of hearing this. How many times must we set the story straight:

"Apple worked with Xerox openly to bring their developments to a mass audience. That's what Steve portrayed Apple as being good at."

"Steve Jobs made the case to Xerox PARC execs directly that they had great technology but that Apple knew how to make it affordable enough to change the world. This was very open. In the end, Xerox got a large block of Apple stock for sharing the technology. That's not stealing outright.

Apple didn't get any stock from Microsoft. Nor was Apple dealt with openly in this area by Microsoft."

There is a big difference between something not being your idea and stealing it; this was perhaps the most glaring example of Microsoft ethics. You also have to look at which of those three companies implemented it best.

I can think of at least one!

This is so typical of Mr. Jobs, whenever something doesn't go his way, he has to destroy something/someone else. He has publicly humilated many people, including our good friend Woz, who for some reason, still believes Jobs is a good friend of his. Here's a quote from http://www.woz.com/letters/general/04.ht ml: "But he eventually fell into disfavor with the LISA group. Naturally, the Macintosh became a bit of striking back for him." He hurt a lot of people at Apple. (sigh)

It would really be cool to meet him one day, just to have a conversation and thank him.

Send him an email at Woz.org. He answers all received emails.

According to Steve Wozniak's website comments area, "Xerox got a large block of Apple stock for sharing the technology". They may have "given away" their GUI concept, but they did so willingly and got something in return ...

YS

At this location (bottom of age), you say that you designed computers just to show people that it could be done and to help people. You also say that it was hard for you to start the company when you heard that money could be made from the formation of it. Has this changed since? Do you ever consider working with the open source community in some respect, whether it be programming or just endorsing?

Wait a little bit, then visit Woz.com for the answers -- I'm waiting, myself.

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