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Wozniak Inducted Into Inventors Hall Of Fame
piggy writes: "Seven inventors, including Steve Wozniak, the inventor of the Apple I and Apple II, were added to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Yahoo has the article." This is great to hear -- Woz has always been one of my heroes, and it's great to see him recognized for the incredible work he has done for the industry. According to the article, the Hall of Fame was created in 1973 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the National Council of Intellectual Property Attorneys.
You write that he has much better things to do... why? He's not in the business for the money. As I recall, he's teaching computers in a school... here is a real hacker, someone who cares about teaching people... and that's exactly why he deserves to be honored.
Yeah, without Jobs the Apple's would never had been what they are today. But so what? We're not honoring businessmen... it's about innovators, and (hopefully) true devotees to technology... long live the Woz!
-- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?
Oh, "inducted", not "indicted".... never mind.
Not quite. They did sell blue boxes to their college buddies, mostly to show off thier phreaking skills for fun, but they got the money to start Apple Computer from a venture capitalist.
(BTW: If you missed Cringly's "Triumph of the Nerds" special on PBS, go rent it. The interview with Woz contains a very funny story about using a blue box to call the Pope.)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Most of us will never be able to put on our job resume "created the first home computer", but there are lessons we can learn from Steve Wozniak.
I think one of the things he has done in recent years that sets the best example for the rest of us is to pass on the knowledge. It's easy to get frustrated at inexperienced computer users, but I have a hard time imagining Woz looking someone in the eye and saying "RTFM". There really isn't much excuse for us to either. If Linux is going to continue it's growth, we have to lighten up a bit.
I see more gifted people involved with Linux than anywhere else presently, but I also see the most abrasive. Slashdot forums are the electronic equivalent of a "tough classroom". There are good questions, usually good answers, and then there are hecklers.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not condeming everyone who has a sense of humor. Write all you want about N*talie P*rtman, Gr*ts, and hyku. But when I see people ask a legitimate question and the response is flame from an AC, that sucks.
It's not what Woz would do.
Alan Turing did not kill himself simply "because he was gay". he was never ashamed of his homosexuality. he kiled himself for several reasons. after his security clearance in the U.S. was revoked because homosexuals were considered 'security threats' and he was arrested for having a relationship with another male, he was then forced to undergo humilliating "treatment" for his homosexuality which included hormone injections to reduce his libido. in addition to that the hormone injections that he was forced to take(under threat of arrest and imprisonment) made him loose control of his weight and physical fitness. he died on june 8, 1954 after eating an apple soaked in cyanide.
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
Check the Ask Slashdot archives, he did an interview a few months ago.
I don't know about the pinball machine but if IIRC, Woz was held the highest score in Gameboy Tetris as listed in several issues of Nintendo Power. When the magazine asked him to stop submitting his scores (it was unfair, no one could come close to beating his score)he continued to submit scores under an alias.
(To the script of Apple's Think Different ad)
Here's to the crazy one... the misfit... the rebel... the troublemaker.
The round peg in the square hole.
The one who saw things differently. He isn't fond of rules, and has no respect for the status quo.
You can quote him, disagree with him, glorify, or villify him. About the only thing you can't do, is ignore him, because he changed things. He pushed the human race forward.
And while some may see him as the crazy one, we see genius. Because the person who is crazy enough to think he can change the world is the one who does.
Think Different. Woz.
There definitely should have been a shot of Woz in that commercial... he was one of the people that brought about this revolution. Congrats.
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
I tell ya, the guy has some wonderful company in his induction class. It just makes me respect him that much more.
Something that really got me about him was last year when that Pirates of Silicon Valley show was on (or whatever it was called), I sent him an email asking some off the wall question about the Apple I. I figured he would answer it in his FAQ thingy, or one of his assistants would answer it. But no.
To my surprise, within a few hours Woz himself emailed me with a personal answer. That just blew me away. I mean, here is a guy who has a lot better things to do with his time than answer the email of some stupid guy in Missouri, and he spent the five minutes or so to type in a reply. That was cool.
The only other person who has done that was Stephen Fry (of Fry and Laurie).
Some people are just really cool.
I love that guy, and I've never met him personally. He's just so incredibly likable and nice in everything he's ever said in public. Plus, despite the fact that Apple moved away from openness pretty quickly, I'm sure it wasn't Woz's idea. He originally wanted to give all the specs away for free. He was an open-source hardware guru saddled with Steve "Reality Distortion Field" Jobs. Not that that's bad, because if Woz hadn't had Jobs by his side to handle the business end, Apple wouldn't exist today. Unfortunately, businesses need the suits to make money...
But anway, it couldn't have gone to a nicer person. Take RMS for example--love the philosophy, but I'd hate to have a drink with the man. He'd intimidate the hello out of me, correct my use of the term "open source", and not be much fun. But Woz, you just get the feeling, would be a great guy to socialize with and not be intimidating despite his legendary status.
Oops, I'm blubbering. Time to go before I embarass myself and offer him a blow job or something... [kidding...]
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."--Tacitus, *The Annals*
A while ago I asked him about the DVD flap. He said the following:
"I truly hope that copyrights be weakened and that we be able to copy freely if not for gain. I've felt this way ever since I had a tape recorder in high school. All this time, every court case has backed the copyright holders, regardless of the media. So some much higher level thinking than the current lawsuits might be needed to have any impact. It's especially complicated by the fact that most of the civilized world treats such things the same way, and we have trade agreements.
In the case of DVD's I have mixed feelings. I sort of feel that 'we' made an agreement, a contract, with the entertainment industry to accept an encryption scheme in order to have movies released in this form. We truly won. Perhaps we have to pay for it. I'll keep my word even if I think that the deal is not fair or right."
Full Text at:http://www.scc.net/~ytrah/woz.html
The Inventor's Hall of Fame.
You mean they didn't honor Al Gore for inventing the internet?
Click here for the WozCam
Hail Steve Wozniak
Father of the home PC
Resourceful and wise
Alan Turing is not in the Inventors Hall of Fame, and yes, the Hall of Fame houses international inventors of repute--not just Americans. The web page is at http://www.invent.org. The front page has a link that allows you to nominate people. Why don't you go nominate Alan Turing? :)
The entire list of inventors at Inventure Place is at http://www.invent.org/book/bo ok-text/indexbyname.html. If you ever happen to pass through Akron, Ohio, I suggest you stop in there. It's got a load of cool hands-on exhibits, mainly aimed at kids but still fun for geeks.