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Woz Still Misses Homebrew Computer Club and Apple
UtahSaint writes "The Electronic Design site has nabbed a short interview with the Woz, where he waxes poetically about his time growing up as an Engineer and founding Apple. Even to this day, he says, he still misses the Homebrew Computer Club and his days running around Apple leading the technical teams. 'I miss the technical camaraderie ... The whole feeling of being on a revolution, on the edge. I miss the intuitive philosophies.'"
No matter what Apple appears to be on the surface, they are a much different company than they were back then. They do still have a lot of creativity in their designs, but they have slowly turned into a personal electronics company, no matter how much they say that the Mac is still their number one priority. I'm not sure how much of an impact Woz could make at Apple these days. Apple has the hardware up to snuff now, but I would argue that they could do a lot more fine-tuning on their operating system. Some of the design choices they are making with OSX seem kind of odd to me.
SuperHappyDevHouse is an event in the Bay Area that is trying to "resurrect the spirit of the Homebrew Computer Club". I think that we are doing a decent job at that.
I've talked to someone who used to attend Homebrew Computer Club. He says that SuperHappyDevHouse has a similar feel. Among differences: There was only one electrical outlet in the space used for Homebrew Computer Club - Woz supposedly monopolized that outlet. And people couldn't bring computers to Homebrew like they can (and are encouraged to) at SuperHappyDevHouse.
Is that really the case? Like Woz is a high profile technical multimillionaire, an inspiration to an entire generation of geeks, and he misses the thrill of being on a revolution and can't figure out how to recreate it?
If that's really the case. I mean, if he really and truly misses it, why not just contact pretty much anyone over the age of 30 in any field he wants:
"Hi, my name is Steve Wozniak" //e! How's it going?!?"
"Holy shit! I know you! I learned assembly language on an Apple
"Not bad, I really like the stuff you do. Do you mind if I come to work and hang out and be a technical comrade?"
"Shit no! Christ, it would be an honor."
"You don't have to pay me, I mean, I'm a multimillionaire."
"No, that's cool, come on over."
Maybe I'm oversimplifying. But I personally am not a multimillionaire, and I know a lot of people, and I have literally done jobs for $0 just to hang out at places and work with cool people.
Make the world what you want. It seems that this is especially easy advice to give to someone who is financially independent.
Well, it might have been insightful, but it certainly wasn't right. Surf through eBay's electronic components and equipment categories sometime, and if you don't come away with more cool ideas for stuff to build than you will ever live to try, you're not much of a hacker.
Sure, the barriers to entry are high if you want to mess with FPGAs or do microwave engineering in your garage, but at least it's possible for you to do that kind of thing if you want. There are probably a hundred times more opportunities open to the hardcore amateur electronics buff nowadays than there were in Woz's day. You can bitch and moan all you want about how "hard" it is, but I can remember when a 6502 was a pretty intimidating thing to deal with, too.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
One hit wonder, my ass. He did what he did because he understood electrons and logic at a level that one in a hundred-thousand people could not match. He did not just "co-invent the Apple" - he is a shining example of what a true HP engineer could do. He basically invented modern input/output routines. The degree of raw brainpower required to design the graphics card and RF modulation on the original Apple is astounding. He did not just assemble off-the-shelf parts in a new way; he invented totally new ways of doing anything, and he created things that both worked and were cost effective.
There are engineers, mechanics, designers, inventors and scientists. And then there are those who have such a deep understanding of how the world around us works, who combine multiple disciplines in such a way that they can see things that normal people can't. Richard Feynmann was one of these people. So is Steve Wozniak.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak changed the world. The computer revolution would have taken much, much longer without those two. Steve Jobs, in addition to his marketing skills, was truly a technician and scientist in his own right. Not nearly in the same league as Woz, but he knew enough to help do what had to be done from a physical design and assembly standpoint. Woz couldn't sell ideas very well, back then. The teamup of Wozniak and Jobs created something unique, a whole that was far greater than the sum of its parts, but that shouldn't take away from the brilliance of both of these men.
Wozniak has also been a teacher, a concert promoter (!) and Lord knows what else since leaving Apple. He prefers to work a lot with children now, trying to teach them how to solve logical problems. There's no way to know now, but I would not be surprised a bit if in the distant future some great inventor / engineer / scientist or even politician is going to say that once upon a time they started to learn how to truly think logically because they had the gift of listening to Woz lecture at his school.
Saying that Woz is a "one-hit wonder" does nothing but display total ignorance of what the man has truly accomplished. Creating Apple the way he did was great, and would not have happened nearly as soon if he hadn't existed, but perhaps the this brillian yet simple man's ultimate legacy has yet to be written, for we may never know the true benefits of the work he has done with children.
This was marked "Troll" because it was an oversimplification and an exaggeration. The story I heard goes as follows:
Someone at Atari told Jobs that he would get a $5000 bonus if they could get optimize the breakout machine to use fewer than X parts. He then went to Wozniak and told him that they would get a $2000 bonus that they could split 50:50. Wozniak did most of the work and took his $1000. 10 years and a company founding later, Wozniak finally found out that Jobs both lied to him and shortchanged him. As he and Jobs hadn't exactly seen eye to eye recently, this finally pushed him over the edge and this is why he left Apple.
See no arbitrary 7%, no rubbish about reneging on an agreement, less "Troll"y.
Insert self-referential sig here.
Ha. Modded funny, I love it. Here it goes anyway:
I was hoping this was true the last time I needed to buy a new laptop.
I compared top of the line offerings from Apple and IBM/Lenovo. Note that I'm not comparing Apples to cheap ass PCs, that would be all too easy. Thinkpads are the gold standard for x86 laptops.
Here's what I got:
Thinkpad T61
15.4" LCD, 1680x1050
2.2gHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 gigs of ram
100gb 7200rpm drive
dvd recorder
integrated wireless and bluetooth
That comes to.... $1458.
(Seriously, check it out on lenovo.com)
Now let's go to Apple. Surely this machine is at the level of the MacBook Pro. MBPro STARTS at 2 grand, same processor/ram, though 20GB extra hard drive (at a blazing 5400rpm). And I'm stuck at 1440x900 on the screen, not to mention stuck with a crappy ass keyboard that can't hold a candle to the venerated thinkpad keyboard.
Now, it's true that I could add a 20" LCD with a lightning fast 16ms response time for.. SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS?! What the.. I just picked up this Samsung 20 incher, 2ms response, for under two hundred.
The dream that Macs can be price comparable to PCs will probably never come true.
"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness." --Eric Blair
I'll feed the troll. You're full of shit.
I went to Lenovo.com and priced out a ThinkPad T61p 15 inch widescreen with the following specs:
Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)
Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate (discuss: an uncrippled Windows comparable to OS X 10.5)
15.4 WSXGA+ TFT
NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB Open GL)
2 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory
160GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim (MBP has this standard)
PC Card Slot & Smart Card Slot
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
Integrated Bluetooth PAN
9 cell Li-Ion Battery (standard on MBP)
Microsoft Office Small Business 2007
Total cost: $2,252.00
Macbook Pro specs:
Same RAM.
Same HD.
Standard display is slightly lower rez, but comes in glossy coat optionally.
iWork preinstalled. (equivalent to Office Pro suite more or less... discuss)
Better power connector (MagSafe) standard.
Wireless and bluetooth 2.0+EDR standard.
DVDR drive standard.
ADMITTEDLY- Standard graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 128MB SDRAM) has half the RAM of standard graphics card on Lenovo (NVIDIA Quadro FX 570M (256MB Open GL)).
Total cost: $2,303.00
Competitive advantages of each machine:
Lenovo: Slightly better standard graphics. UltraNav pointing device (if that's your style... I hate the pencil eraser). Slightly higher-rez screen. Spill-resistant keyboard. Media card reader standard. Swappable drive/battery bays. Can easily configure as a crippled machine in order to justify anti-Macbook Pro pricing policy trolling.
MBP: MagSafe power adapter. Battery indicator on battery. Backlit keyboard standard. Integrated iSight and mic for videoconferencing (!). Firewire, Firewire2, DVI ports standard. Digital audio out standard. And countless intangibles that I cannot list here- here's one- connecting to wireless networks on Windows is always annoying, on OS X never is.
Either machine runs Linux. With the Lenovo, you are stuck with the old, crusty, annoying, virus and spyware infested, administration-time-consuming Windows. With the Apple, you get the hip and fresh OS X that is a joy to use, has low maintenance, is secure, and will go out of its way to not annoy you. And is prettier. Plus, you get to run Windows at full speed... if you must.
With a 50 dollar price difference and some comparable individual features, I challenge anyone to say this isn't a wash. Finally, for the ability to run any operating system it damn well pleases you to run, I think only stubborn idiots won't pick a Macbook Pro.
So STFU and go back in your hole. I'm tired of your type.