I, Woz 247
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 (Score:5, Funny)
Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I disagree (Score:4, Insightful)
Jobs is like General MacArthur, "I" vs "We" ... (Score:5, Interesting)
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,
Jobs. (Score:2)
As for the comparisons to MacArthur; well, there are a lot worse peopl
Re:Jobs. (Score:2)
Re:Jobs is like General MacArthur, "I" vs "We" ... (Score:2)
Simple, ignore your customers, ignore your third party developers, produce things that your target market can't afford, and then get really really lucky and be able to salvage your assets through the sale of the firm. Pr
Re:Jobs is like General MacArthur, "I" vs "We" ... (Score:2)
MacArthur succeeded far more often than he failed. Chinese involvement in Korea was a relatively rare failing. MacArthur was able to go on the offensive when he was only tasked with more of a defensive strategy while Europe was dealt with, he was
Re:Jobs is like General MacArthur, "I" vs "We" ... (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, MacArthur was part of a system, and once the necessities of the system overcame the individual idosyncracies of the persons responsible for operating the system, he contributed something valuable to the final outcome.
The same is true of Steve Jobs: A business is a system. It requires certain talents and abilities in order to function. Sales without a good product will not survive, but an outstanding product without Sales will not survive either. In this case, the system provided both parties with what they wanted. They got to do what they wanted, they were rewarded for it, and (presumably) they both got satifaction and felt good about themselves from doing it. But without giving the system what it needed to function, neither would have been successful.
Mike
Re:I disagree (Score:4, Funny)
Of course, he has an autobiography to promote but the sad fact is that the story of his life has been circulating for years now via oral tradition. Here is a sneak preview!
Chapter One - Me and my friend Steve
Chapter Two - My friend Steve sucks
Chapter Three - My friend Steve is cool
Chapter Four - Did you hear about the really cool disk drive controller I invented?
Chapter Five - More on that drive controller...
Chapter Six - Chapter Five in diagram form
Chapter Seven - THE WOZ and THE FUTURE - my plans for disk drive controllers and free computers for children
Chapter Eight - Resume and references. Available for work on anything! Please! Just give me a chance!
Re:I disagree (Score:2)
The switch to power pc from the old motorola happened during that time, that's pretty major (they would have died w/o it). At that time slapping in a new proc and porting your os wasn't so trivial.. oh and the processor didn't exist yet, it was being co-developed with ibm. If I crack open a book I can find a nice list of things that were produced in that time.
There was plenty of developement that didn't see the light of day during that era
Re:I disagree (Score:4, Informative)
http://news.com.com/Pixar+goes+to+Hollywood/2009-
Smoke that!
Re:I disagree (Score:2)
LK
Re:I disagree (Score:2)
Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Um, we're being ironic here, right?
Woz and Jobs are definitely yin and yang, but they do have one thing in common: they know what's important to them. And that gives them a kind of power that verges on the spiritual. They don't, like most of us, blunder through the life taking the path of least resistance and rationizing their decisions after the fact. They have "purpose driven lives".
As to who is happiest of the two Steves, I'd have to say that while Jobs probably feels the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat more intensely, I'd much rather be Woz, because he seems to be the kind of person who can find find satisfaction in each day's work. The thing that makes Jobs a bit creepy is that if you ever had his attention, you'd always wonder if it was because he had a use for you in some agenda. Woz is the kind of guy who just wants to do what he's good at, like a Shaker furniture maker. Because his motivations are simpler, you'd naturally feel more comfortable with him.
Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:2)
I agree with a lot of what you say, but honestly, what is this: "I wanted to work on a computer at my company and they turned me down. When you think about it, every time they turned me down, it was fortunate for the world and it was fortunate for myself," if not rationalizing after the fact?
Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:2)
Originally at Apple he was delisional. Later at Next he was a royal f' up, or so they teach in business school with respect to failing to listen to customers. At Pixar he was in an industry where salesmanship and showmanship matter a whole hell of a lot. After decades of on-the-job training he finally got up to speed for Apple part 2, at least he learned to listen to customers, well more accura
Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:2)
Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:2)
Unlike this or the other GP, which is the point
Switch to narcissism (Score:3)
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
Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Jobs is extremely good at getting the right people to do the right thing, and getting them to do it as best as they can. Like many bosses he's by all accounts somewhat of an asshole, but I guess most people in his position are a bit like that.
Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Woz and Jobs (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:2)
Actually Woz has the god-like status ... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Actually Woz has the god-like status ... (Score:2)
We must fight the empore!
Won't work. He'll just toss some free bread, errr - I mean free iPods, into the crowd and they will turn and cheer and bow. You'll just get yourself crucified along the Infinite Loop.
Re:Actually Woz has the god-like status ... (Score:2)
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:4, Insightful)
1) Paul Allen doesn't hold a technical candle to Woz
2) Bill Gates doesn't hold a visionary candle to Jobs
Without Jobs there would be no Apple, Woz would have stuck at HP and written printer drivers.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Woz + Jobs, RMS + MIA? (Score:3, Funny)
The question for me isn't "has RMS done a lot for free as in freedom?" but rather, "how much more could RMS have done as the thinker behind someone charismatic?
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.
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:5, Funny)
So that explains why HP's printer drivers suck like a starving lamprey. But surely they could have found at least one other decent software engineer in the last 30 years...
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:3, Insightful)
That's like saying "without your left leg, you couldn't walk".
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think that's true really, they just had different visions. Bills vision from a while back has been "a computer on every desk and in every home" and that has certainly happened, and almost all of those computers are running Windows.
Jobs and Gates are different kinds of geniuses, but I agree that they are probably both much more rare than the Wozniak kind of genius. There are a lot of techies so skilled at something it feels like they can contr
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:2)
But I kid the richest man in the world.
Both had that rare combination of a certain amount of technical skill, a type A personality (A+ is more like it) and a whole lotta luck.
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:2)
Considering the quality of the driver for my HP 5652 Deskjet, this would not have been to HP's disadvantage..
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:2)
2) Bill Gates doesn't hold a visionary candle to Jobs
And it's because of these two reasons that Apple controls about 90% of the home computer market, and Microsoft, while profitable, remains little more than a niche player.
Or perhaps there's some other factors involved than raw technical and visionary prowess.
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:2)
The Apple 1 was a kit. Moving to a non-kit was a fairly conventional next step. The case was a fairly paltry design compared to what went inside, ill-positioned keyboard, poorly implemented removable lid (easily worn if open too much),
Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:3, Interesting)
It was the pure R&D outfit that Xerox funded which was ahead of its time, not Xerox itself.
"Steve was merely a good salesman that recognized something good when he saw it"
Which was more than Xerox did, hence the fact that more than one of the computer visionaries at PARC left to work for Apple.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Limitations of autobiographies (Score:5, Insightful)
That is the long standing rumour. As you say, it'll be interesting to see if this is actually the case. Hopefully he'll discuss whether his treatment (good or bad) was warranted in the context of trying to set up a big corporation. It is always advisable to treat people decently, but there are times when circumstance dictate ruthlessness.
I'm looking forward to reading Woz's take on it all.
Re:Limitations of autobiographies (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Limitations of autobiographies (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Limitations of autobiographies (Score:2)
Re:Limitations of autobiographies (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, I dunno. I think he Woz.
From the article (Score:5, Funny)
Man oh man, I'd love to know the criterion to get on that list.
-Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
Re:From the article (Score:2)
Step 1: Invent the Apple I (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Step 1: Invent the Apple I (Score:5, Funny)
-Eric
I thought that was step 4 (Score:2)
Re:From the article (Score:2)
Re:From the article (Score:2)
Funny how the man who can probably afford the £65 (100 USD) each one costs doesn't have to.
Re:From the article (Score:2)
The AlBook is nea
Re:From the article (Score:2)
Re:From the article (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:From the article (Score:4, Insightful)
"...cooler than when Howard Stern called for his friend who couldn't speak English. Both guys, BTW, were really really nice...!
Well, with Stern allegedly scoring highly for "antisocial personality disorder" on DSM-IV (ie. an old skool psychopath), it's not surprising that he can turn on the ol' superficial charm at the drop of a hat. Similarly, a lot of high-level executives score very highly on the same scale
Just don't get between either of 'em and their goals: Then, you won't be a fellow human being, just a puppet, a cipher, a disposable and infuriating obstacle...
Re:From the article (Score:3, Funny)
Re:From the article (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:From the article (Score:2)
That's self-deprecating humor, I hope...
Power Adapters (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Power Adapters (Score:2)
I have a while brick one, the one with the flip-out prongs that you can wind the cord around, and it's worked fine for several years.
I like the prase 'death hook' though. It has a certain ring to it. I don't know what it is, but I want one.
he woz different (Score:5, Funny)
I woz truly blown away by this statement.
Re:he woz different (Score:4, Interesting)
I woz truly blown away by this statement.
Most real entrepreneurs want to make a product or perfom a service first, make money second. Money is what makes it all possible.
friends (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:friends (Score:2)
He did say "makes sure I'm invited" not "makes sure he invites me", so it might be the job of some secretary
Re:friends (Score:2)
I guess that's the difference, they really care about what they're doing, when Apple started it was not about making money... it was about making computers and changing the world!
It's as near as you get from a geek-fairy-tale =D
Re:friends (Score:5, Informative)
Woz was a good guy, the real deal. Jobs was a shark, focused mostly on how he could exploit people like Woz to make money.
-Eric
Re:friends (Score:2)
I'm not rushing to Jobs's defense, but but I don't think we'd have Apple Computer today without the Yin and Yang of Jobs and Woz. They're both different and necessary talents.
Besides, Woz just lets Jobs think he exploited him - really Woz just wanted to do engnineering and exploited Jobs to do the business and marketing side.
Re:friends (Score:2)
So what if we wouldn't have had Apple Computer? Someone else would have bought WIMP to the masses, maybe a bit later, maybe a bit different. And if not it would centainly be interesting to see how the Emacs like interface RMS had in mind would have turned out.
Re:friends (Score:2)
He seems to have forgiven Steve Jobs for this one. Everybody does stupid selfish things when young, can you throw the first rock?
Hey Woz! (Score:2, Interesting)
I see that you have a nice list of your friends web pages [woz.org] on your site which is great, including the link to Kevin Mitnick's [freekevin.com] site which is nice because he was in jail and everything but now it redirects to Kevin's new business [mitnicksecurity.com] 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 [wikipedia.org] 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 point
Re:Hey Woz! (Score:3, Interesting)
FYI: The Minick story is about as tainted as any current discussion of Bush.
Not defending either, mind you. I usually like Wiki too. At this point, the Mitnick story is nothing but a 2600 PR stunt from the 90's, which is sad, becuase it really was a fascinating legal case, and a wonderful precursor to the PATRIOT ACT.
Read your history, kids.
Re:Hey Woz! (Score:2, Interesting)
Sorry for the false-start there, guys.
Let me say the following about our pal "free" Kevin:
a) As a hacker in recovery, I have a *very* tainted opinion here.
b) The suspension of Mr. Mitnick's Constitutional rights to due process were not justified.
c) The suspension of those rights, in the interest of protecting "national security", set a dangerous precedent.
The great thing about American law is that almost *everything* involved in the case is public record. If Google gives you grief, try Lexis Nexis.
Re:Hey Woz! (Score:2)
While I do not support criminal activity, I do sympathize with injustice and prosecution under unreasonable laws, and I assume Woz would agree.
Admitte
Re:Hey Woz! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Hey Woz! (Score:2)
Re:Hey Woz! (Score:2)
Re:Hey Woz! (Score:2)
Which can't exactly be the case otherwise you wouldn't have made your post.
Mitnick brings a level, knowledge and sophistication to the field of information security which is truly unparalleled, thanks to his social engineering deeds (which many in the security industry understand and may have played around with, but not to the advanced level Mitnick did.)
Whether he makes money on his knowledge as a free man or gives it to the state/chairty because he's consulting fr
Thanks (Score:2)
Ed Almos
Unquestionably, "I, Woz" is the best title ever! (Score:2, Offtopic)
I wonder if the Woz himself thought of it or someone else?
Re:Unquestionably, "I, Woz" is the best title ever (Score:3, Funny)
Not go gushing about Woz but..... (Score:5, Funny)
St. Woz!
Re:Not go gushing about Woz but..... (Score:2)
Re:Not go gushing about Woz but..... (Score:2)
There tend to be aerodynamic problems with nerds flying through the air, to say nothing of fitting them into the cannons in the first place.
Re:Not go gushing about Woz but..... (Score:2)
Re:Not go gushing about Woz but..... (Score:2)
Ohhh, the great-GP was referring to making someone a saint. That would be "canonize", with one 'N'. That makes a lot more sense, now that I think about it.
BTW, there are clinics for people with sarcasm deficit disorder (or "SDD") like yourself. It worked for me, and it can work for you too.
Re:Not go gushing about Woz but..... (Score:2, Interesting)
I have to admit I was disappointed to find out that he drove a %^&*ing Hummer, though.
Re:Not go gushing about Woz but..... (Score:3, Funny)
I wouldn't like to be shot out of a cannon, either.
Some Geeks might, but I'd imagine that only applies in smaller circuses, where there's few enough that the same guy who bites heads of chickens also has to perform as an acrobat...
It'd be cool to have his influence (Score:2)
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...
repeat (Score:2, Informative)
"Woz"ing with personality... (Score:2)
Live it up, Woz. Have a corona light on me.
Re:A not An (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A not An (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:A not An (Score:2)
Re:A not An (Score:3, Funny)
Couldn't we argue over something relevant - such as "WOHZ-nee-ak" vs. "WAHZ-nee-ak" - instead?
Re:A not An (Score:2)
Re:A not An (Score:2)
Re:A not An (Score:2)
Re:A not An (Score:2)
The h is silent!!
Re:An Homage to Woz (Score:2)