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!"
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Re:Woz and Jobs (Score:1, Interesting)
I'd better disclaim myself: I am not an Apple or Microsoft share holder, and I've never owned a Mac or any other Apple product.
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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 pointing that out.
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:4, Interesting)
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.
Rather than spout my own inane opinions, I'll just suggest anyone looking for a solid term paper topic try "Kevin Mitnick: a precursor to the PATRIOT ACT?".
Only Kevin knows the "real" story, and like most hackers, he is far too egotistical to tell us the truth either. My interest in the case is not "w00t teh planet", but rather, the actions of our OWN judicial system, and their justification of those actions. Read the story. Find those facts. Then you tell me:
Who was the bad guy in this case?
P.S. Pro or con, agree or disagree, I'd love to read it if anyone takes me up on this.
P.P.S. As other posters have pointed out: Gates stole DOS, Woz was a "hacker", and the definition of that term has been totally destroyed by politics and media.
P.P.P.S. Seriously. You guys bitching about the misuse of "gay" have got NOTHING on the guys (like me) bitching about the misuse of "hacker".
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 control it with their minds, but who - like Woz apparently - think about getting a job in a small room in a corporate concrete bunker rather than changing the world.
Re:From the article (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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: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.
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,
Re:Actually Woz was the more important Steve ... (Score:2, Interesting)
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: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.