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I, Woz
theodp writes "In a Q&A session, Steve Wozniak discusses his forthcoming autobiography, how HP not only passed on his Apple design but also nixed his pleas to work on an HP computer, and the perks of being an Apple co-founder - free 65W AC adapters!"
Perks like... being stinking rich?
1st
The combination of Woz and Jobs is exactly like Microsoft. You've got technical prowess underlying a massive bullshit machine. And beards and geeky glasses all around.
It'll be nice to get an autobiography from Woz, but the problem with many autobiographies is that they show you just one side of a person, and in the tech industry that can be dull. I think that gossipy histories like Apple Confidental 2.0 are superior, as they present a whole range of viewpoints and better show a person in context with other historical actors.
Still, I'm curious if Woz will write anything about the challenges he faced at early Apple from rude coworkers. He wasn't exactly treated fairly by Jobs and the company in its fledgling days, and a personal perspective would be interesting.
I was in Boston once. I needed two AC adapters. I ran into this new Apple store. I went up to the counter, "I'd like two 65-watt AC adapters." I didn't say anything about who I was. And they bring them out. I say, "How much?" They say, "We are expensing it." I said, "Yeah, but how do I pay for it?" They said, "No, no, no -- we are allowed to give gifts to special people."
Man oh man, I'd love to know the criterion to get on that list.
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
It's "A haitch-pee copmputer", not "An haitch-pee computer".
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Heh, kinda like Slashdot where you get modded away by morons but then later everything you said is proven true. Nobody even remembers what you said earlier, everyone is like "yeah, I had this idea all along".
Idiots.
Nobody says "copmputer" anymore...
UK, perhaps?
I'm not surprised free AC Adapters are a perk of founding Apple. Certainly my experience with my PowerBook has been that they need replacing every 12 months if not sooner.
Online & Feelin' Fine
Step 2: Be Woz.
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"My goal wasn't to make a ton of money. It was to build good computers. I only started the company when I realized I could be an engineer forever."
I woz truly blown away by this statement.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
That's actually one of the nicest things Steve does for me: He makes sure I am always invited to the VIP guest area for the product rollouts. I appreciate that more than I can ever say.
I can appreciate one who knows what's most important in life, and one of those things is not forgetting who your friends are, and sticking by them all along. Even if it's just small things, which is the job of some secretary.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
Step 3: Profit?!?!
antipaucity
I see that you have a nice list of your friends web pages on your site which is great, including the link to Kevin Mitnick's site which is nice because he was in jail and everything but now it redirects to Kevin's new business which I don't have any problem with either, except that Mitnick has actualy spent time in jail for doing bad things to people and their systems and now seems to make money advising people how to steer clear of people like himself.
I'm not making any suggestions or anything, just pointing that out.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Look at posting history, mod accordingly.
If you come here and found my multibillion dollar company that skyrockets me into uber fame on your coattails, I promise you...75W adapters...all you could ever want!
Think about it. It's a good offer.
Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/gnome.html
P.S. Act now, and I'll even wear those gay turtleneck sweater thingies you seem to like your partners to wear. I'm bending over backwards here, dude!
-Tom
Actually Woz was the more important Steve, the one people liked, the engineer rather than the salesman, the one who was not under the delusion that he could run a corporation, the one who decided not to make employees suffer under decades of on-the-job training while he developed the skills, the one who decided to do something more important, the one who was always welcome at Apple, the one person "at" Apple who doesn't need to care what Jobs thinks ...
Actually Woz has the god-like status, Jobs is more like the delusional emporer ...
It's a well known fact that Apple, since its inception, has been a haven for "free thinkers" and "progressive thought," heralded by none other than famous acid-tripping Steve Jobs and his hippy buddies from California. It was on one of the famous beach parties, notorious for getting out of hand, that Clarus was born.
It was a balmy night in August 1983 that Jobs held yet another beach party, this one with a special theme: who could come up with a mascot for the Mac development team? Of course, the Apple II team was there and tensions, as always, were high. That didn't deter the Mac team from bringing their "pet," Clara, a cow they'd been raising on the Apple campus since birth.
Clara was birthed by the Mac team when they'd held a party on the Apple campus and had hired a bull-breeder as entertainment. All night long, the bull-breeder studded Hercules, his prize bull, with an assortment of cows. As the festivities continued throughout the night, a strange moaning was coming from one of the trailers. One of the cows he'd brought with him was, unbeknownst to the bull-breeder, pregnant! The Mac development team, being the resourceful hackers they were, helped give birth to the calf, the mother losing its life in the process. The bull-breeder was so taken by the Mac dev team's efforts he let them keep the cow, which they named Clara.
Now, at the August 1983 beach party, the Mac team lobbied for Jobs to adopt Clara as the development mascot of the Macintosh. The Apple II team, spurned and bitter because of dwindling sales and neglect at the hand of Jobs, had brought their own mascot-- Cletus, a vicious Rotweiler they'd bought from a ruddy-faced street man in the ghetto of Cupertino for $25. Cletus was a frothing, flea-and-mange ridden terror that barked at the least provocation. The Apple II team fed it raw goat meat and corrupted 5.25 floppies to make it mean. They also kicked it and made sure its chain was too tight at all time. Here at the party was their chance for revenge at Jobs and his favorite Mac development team.
As the night wore on, both the Apple II and Mac teams got drunker and drunker before Jobs called for a company vote on the mascot. What met the company's faces was something none of them could have imagined, however.
In their drunken, stoned stupor, the embittered Apple II team had snuck into Clara's trailer and cut the rear end of off Clara! Drugging her with ether to staunch her cries, they had used an electric chainsaw, cut her back legs and rectum cleanly off, and taken them to the bonfire to cook and eat. They'd even fed some to the drunk Mac dev team! After they'd done this, they forced Cletus into the gaping hole in Clara's rear end. Gnawing away at his first real meal in months, Cletus lodged himself in Clara's colon and couldn't break free. So when the Mac dev team opened Clara's trailer and led their pet down the ramp, they were met with a bloody, gut-strewn mess and a weird, unnatural animal call of "moof!"
The entire company was sickened by this and soon the sand was dotted with puddles of vomit. Cries of "moof, moof!" filled the air as the joined dog-cow trundled terribly along the beach, seizuring with each step, vomiting an icky mass of hair and blood, with a glazed look in its cow eyes. With a final shudder, the dog-cow fell and died, and the partygoers surrounded the putrid mess of bovine/canine flesh. Of course, it didn't take long for the Mac dev team to discover the Apple II team's treachery and a bloody brawl ensued over the death of Clara. By the end of the night, the cow, the dog, and the Apple II team were simple piles of broken, bloody bones.
In light of the events that night, Jobs had no other choice to commemorate the tragic events that had unfurled and therefore made Apple's development mascot the dog-cow, "Clarus," a merging of the two animals names-- Cletus and Clara.
And that, for those who didn't know, is the origin of Clarus the dog-cow. Every time you click on a Mac OS Easter-egg that utters "moof," you can look back to the terrible events that August, 1983 night at the Apple beach party that brought you the Clarus, the Apple dog-cow.
Thanks, Woz.
Ed Almos
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.
You can find a pretty large community of guys who love Apple and the Mac over at MacBuds. Woz has been known to stop in once in a while.
I do wonder how many people see RMS like a train-wreck: sure, they can't help but to look, but it doesn't change their lives/opinions/etc.
If you think imaginary property and real property are the same, when does your house become public domain?
Woz, was and is a brilliant engineer. But there are hundreds like him. But there aren't many like Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs IS Apple. Look what they did without him. 12 years of absolutely nothing. Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh. Then he started NeXT which was a decade ahead of its time. Then he brought Apple back from near extinction. Can you think of another corporation that can yield such influence over an industry while having less than 10% market share? Oh, and somewhere in his spare time, he bought a little animation studio and turned it into a force.
on my Pentium Pro irc network. The out of bed in the abysmal sales and one common goal - of )HIV and other GNAA on slashdot, Supplies to private Coming a piss don't feel that GNAA and support the most. Look at
Step 3: Start The Us concert. No profit!!
I followed your link seeking to share my mac experiences with my prospective mac buddies over at MacBuds and was distressed to find myself not in receipt of said website. I feel like my faith in the Internet has been shaken and I am now consulting with my nearest local Apple reseller as to where I can find a website for special people such as myself.
Please refrain from playing with the tender sensitivities of us Macintosh owners as we are not like you. I will now commune with my brethren - without mere words - to warn them of this.
I've just finished reading Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star. This book (and the sequel) is set in an interstellar commonwealth founded by the inventor of the wormhole generator and his partner who turned it into a commercial venture. These two characters seem to have been based on the two Steves, with the Woz character (Ozzie) getting the more exciting story line.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Woz, was and is a brilliant engineer. But there are hundreds like him. But there aren't many like Steve Jobs.
... Also note in this is an industry where salesmanship has a pretty heavy influence.
... Of course Jobs differs from MacArthur in that Jobs is not a genius.
I'm sorry but you have that backwards. Exceptional engineers are far less common than exceptional saleman.
Steve Jobs IS Apple. Look what they did without him. 12 years of absolutely nothing. Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh.
Jobs is the PR face of Apple and the Mac. The brilliant innovation started at Xerox and continued with the very talented engineers at Apple. Jobs is merely a good saleman who recognized a good thing when he saw it at Xerox. Like Woz, the Xerox and Apple engineers who deserve the real credit are overshadows by the PR face.
Then he started NeXT which was a decade ahead of its time.
Actually in business school they study NeXT as an example of how to royally f' up.
Then he brought Apple back from near extinction. Can you think of another corporation that can yield such influence over an industry while having less than 10% market share?
Actually what saved Apple were the big developers say "NO" to Jobs and forcing Jobs to put backwards compatibility into Mac OS X. Jobs return and the surrounding PR machine was like the Microsoft cash investment, it was reassuring, it bought the Apple engineers some more time.
Oh, and somewhere in his spare time, he bought a little animation studio and turned it into a force.
Again salesmanship, again a PR face overshadowing the real talent,
Jobs is like World War II's General MacArthur. "I" rather than "We", camera crew filming his wading ashore and dominating the newsreels,
Without a doubt, "I, Woz" is the best title ever. Pure genius!!
I wonder if the Woz himself thought of it or someone else?
Mentifex was the original author of Mind.Forth, Mind.html and the AI4U ISBN 0595654371 textbook of artificial intelligence.
Mind.Forth was a primitive artificial mind written in Win32Forth for robots and based on a Theory of Cognitivity for artificial intelligence. AI functionality was developed by Mentifex first in Mind.Forth and ported subsequently into the Mind.html Seed AI for propagation throughout the installed user base.
Mind.html was an artificial intelligence coded by Mentifex initially in JavaScript for Web migration and in Forth for robots, evolving towards full civil rights on a par with human beings and towards superintelligence beyond any human IQ.
The AI4U textbook was reviewed falsely and viciously but found its way into libraries at such prestigious universities as the University of Hong Kong, North Carolina State University and Texas A&M University.
Technological Singularity was launched almost single-handedly by Mentifex against all odds and in the face of desperate opposition from the FAQ-writing AI Establishment and the Singularity wannabes whose revenue stream was threatened by the free Open-Source AI software released into the Web Wilds by Mentifex.
What can anybody say? He's like the Mother Teresa of Geekdom. The man does not seem to have an evil bone in his body. Although woz would probably not like it, there should be some sort of Nerd/Geek cannonization....
St. Woz!
Would they have made him pay for a Nano?
It's not a totally uncommon condition in people that achieve great things after striving for many more years than a more rational person might, but not everyone thus afflicted has the necessary talent to accompany them in that struggle.
Clearly, people seem to attribute most of Jobs success to Jobs well publisized/marketed degree of talent for design and foresight. These are the two skills that seem to have the most cacher when persuing "god of the industry" status.
However the skill that benefitted him the most by far, the skill he has always had right from the beginning, is the ability to deeply excite other people about his ideas. Enough that he could convince some of the absolutely best people in their various fields to leave the pleasant, comfortable jobs and work for him.
These people were time and again totally crucial the success of his business ventures. The ventures were not always successful in their own right, but always ended up with at least some great IP that could be mated to another idea.
I don't get your point. You deride Jobs for being only a "salesman," however his success proves that he is a salesman of rather exceptional caliber. If he was just average, then there would not be any way for him to have succeeded as well (and as regularly) as he has been able. Apple, NeXT, Pixar, Apple again -- that's a pretty remarkable track record. Salesman, engineer, guru, call him whatever you want, his results speak for themselves.
As for the comparisons to MacArthur; well, there are a lot worse people to be compared to. I'm not sure if you meant that to be derisive or not, but if you did, I take it you've never been to Japan.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I watched a great speech by Woz on Google Video that he did at the Computer History Museum. He mentions that he had just finished writing his book. In an hour and a half, he takes us from boyhood to about the time of the first Mac. very interseting, even if I'm not a macaddict. I've always respected Woz from my time spent with the Apple II+ and II GS back in grade school.
--Somewhere there is a village missing an idiot.
It'd be cool to drop some hints like "I'm not too fond of Finder..." or "Wouldn't it be great if Safari had really good ad-blocking features?!" and have them implemented in the next OS revision! It'd also be cool to have loads of money...
I prefer the title of an article I read about him when I was in high school (he was still at Apple then, to give you some idea): Wozardry.
If Jobs had co-written it, it would have been "iWoz".
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
But it's a different meme anyway.
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Perhaps he is paying homage to another science guy.
Isaac Asimov, who wrote a book intitled "I, Robot" and then later wrote an autobiography "I, Asimov"
And Asimov's titles were surely influenced by I, Claudius.
Now now... everyone knows that... There's no step 3.
"by that I mean people who don't sit on slashdot all day wondering why everyone else isn't building robots" DECS
Step 3: Hook up with a meglomaniacal business shark with enough charisma to attract a cult following.
If Woz got over it, you can too.
John Draper (aka Captian Crunch) is notorious, amongst people who've been San Francisco's rave scene for long enough to have encountered and remember him, for creeping himself about and hitting on underage boys. Some grepping through the SFRaves mailing list archives would net you some disturbing personal accounts. Though in recent times, he seems to have disappeared from the scene, and is simply mocked more than anything else.
If anyone deserves to be booted off of Woz' list and locked up, it's Draper, not Mitnick.
Well said.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
That's a reprint of an interview done by the San Jose Mercury News over 14 days ago.
Woz was on Digital Village Radio last Saturday.
3
Here's a link to the interview:
http://www.digitalvillage.org/audio/dv06040802.mp
Hmm.. the "Woz" i've read about since I was kid was extremely quite and shy guy at Apple. Lately (give or take 4 - 5 years), it seems, Woz was holding back a lot back in the days.
Live it up, Woz. Have a corona light on me.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Dont forget to put the frickin lasers on their heads.
Join the TWIT army now!
"Behind a desk pointing an angry finger"
"Yelling" No one get's over Jobs!!!! No one!!!!!
Now get back to work before i hit you with my IMallot!!!
Coward? Coward! Thems fighten words!!
As much as I admire Woz's contributions, he left the scene a quarter century ago while Jobs continues to pull new (megahit) rabbits out of the hat. Woz would be a more pleasant neighbor and guy to hang out with, but Jobs still fires the imagination.
Woz and Azimov both copied Claudius but it only makes a wordplay for woz ("I was").
93/93
You people are crackin' me up with all this "aitch pee" computer stuff. Every time I read "aitch" I keep thinking Snoop is gonna come in screamin' "beatch!"
All this of course while HR is standing right behind me. Thanks guys...
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Wouldn't it be great if Safari had really good ad-blocking features?!
Have you tried out Pith Helmet? It's not Apple official, and it asks for a $10 registration fee now and then if you haven't registred (but doesn't cripple itself if you don't ever pay), but it does a really good job.
Why doesn't anyone talk about woz and jobs taking drugs? jobs on acid, that's what changed the world!
I did it to Rob, and there is no geographic distance even California from stopping me from turning Woz into a Nano.
-Kathleen Malda
oh common, -1 for this? it was a joke. And true.
It's "An aitch pee" computer