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Woz to Speak at MacWorld SF
EccentricAnomaly writes "Steve Wozniak (co-founder of the Wheels of Zeus start-up) is coming back to MacWorld after a six-year absence, and will be speaking as part of a panel discussion of Mac OS X. This is Woz's first speaking engagement at MacWorld in 10 years."
I hope this is an indication that Woz supports OS X. He was the thrust that made Apple what it is today. I know, I know, you could agrue that what Apple is today is what NeXT Step was 10 years ago ( Steve Jobs started). But Woz was really the forces that brought Mac's to elementary schools nation wide. Maybe now we can start to bring that back
--
Evan "famous for this post"
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
I found his new company far more interesting than the fact he's going to drop a few live lines somewhere.
1. "Being clear-headed about money, how do you view open approach to technology? Do you think that making Macintosh parts open (as in clonable hw and free sw) would have leveraged information tools better than what happened back in 80's and what's still happening today? If, how? Now that you are free to try again, are you considering taking care that APIs and HW specs are available for others to build on, reverse engineer and share?"
2. "I found to my surprise that you took part in forming EFF. What was your role there then and how do you view its current behavior? In which issues/attitudes would you separate your personal views from EFF's? Are you still active there?"
Those are my 0.2 wishes.
(Oh, am I happy that my gf's out? I'll have the whole evening for our 'puters!-)
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
"Dig deeper, Whaz'on"
:P
It wouldn't. At the time, IBM was The Really Big Blue. As in the wallpaper in The Big Blue Room. Apple was just some upstart with a great commercial.
In other words: IBM held the corporate world by its accounts. Apple held a possibility for unnerdy people to become nerdy. It's image was all it had, and it kept it. Miraculous, thinks me. What W0z would have thought... better hear the horse when it's still alive.
Sorry, it's friday night and I'm terrrribly dwunk. Leaving you with your thoughts and going to pub to meet an old irc friend to kill the rest of mine
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
Back when I worked at Apple (late 90's) I had the pleasure of meeting Woz a couple of times. I would not describe him as strange - he's a smart, funny guy who knows more about computer hardware than 99% of people on Slashdot (myself included). The stories he tells about the early days, phone phreaking, building the first Apple machines: great to hear them from "the horses mouth".
His work post-Apple in education is admirable. Most people with his level of wealth could restire to a fancy multi-million dollar house and play golf. Woz decided to give something back to the community he grew up in and became a high school teacher - and by all accounts a brilliant one. Now that's a mature and responsible person who has more than "grown up".
But with a name like the Woz, what can you do? He also symbolized the counterculture aspect of Apple Computer the startup, as opposed to Apple Computer the multibillion-dollar Jobs corporation.
Hah, Jobs was and to some extent still is every bit the embodiment of the counter-culture. In many ways Jobs is much more the arrested adolescent than Woz is. Go read this book which tells the tales of the early days of Apple Computer. You'll find a very different Mr. Jobs there. Those who knew him in those days tell me its a pretty accurate account.
Sailing over the event horizon
Thanks for the first-hand account. :)
My memory of is not not personal, but from growing up in L.A. during the Apple phenomenon. I certainly got the impression that Woz was very bright and a nice guy, but you see that kind of computer god was a novelty back then, maybe it is the strength of first impressions. IBM only let them out late at night.
Notice I didn't say there was anything wrong with being strange! Why would I make fun of myself? By counter-culture I did not mean juvenile -- one has to outgrow juvenile, too many outgrow eccentricities.
I'm glad to hear Woz has been so productivite, and will look up so more information. I had hoped the US Festival would not be the zenith of his post-Apple activities (ohmigod that was 20 years ago).
As for Jobs, I am grateful for his vision and business acumen, but more dubious of his soul (to be melodramatic about it). He is clearly a very self-absorbed person, causing the predictable collateral damage, though he seems to have "grown up" as well.