The Wizard of Woz



Steve Wozinak is a co-founder of the Apple computer, who along with Steve Jobs started the personal computer revolution in 1976. Stephen “Woz” Wozinak was born in California in 1950. When “Woz” (as he was called) was 13 he won a science contest for building a computer-like machine, which could add and subtract. “Even in grammar school Wozinak would get so engrossed in mathematical ponderings that his mother had to rap on his head to bring him back to the real world”. (Hackers, levy)
In high school Woz would draw diagrams and when his friends would ask what he was drawing, he said he was designing a computer. Woz and his friend Alan Baum would get computer manuals read them and then redesign the computer to work better and easier.
Woz and another high school friend, Steven Jobs, were the masterminds for beating the telephone system by making their own “Blue box”, an illegal pocket-sized attachment that would allow the user to make free long-distance phone calls. He even sold them door-to-door at Berkley.
Wozniak was working at HP (Hewlett Packard) and did some side work for Atari when he re-met Jobs at Atari. Working at Atari provided side

benefits, Woz went to a bowling alley where they offered a free pizza to any one who scored over a certain level on a coin operated video game. “After a number of pizzas, his amazed companion asked him how he had beaten the game so easily. ‘I designed it’ said Wozniak between spasms of laughter”. (Hackers, levy)
Woz and Jobs designed what would be the Apple I in Jobs garage, then came Apple II and PC’s boomed. In a quote from Steve Paul Jobs he said “Woz [niak] was the first person I met who know more about electronics than I did.” http://ie.cs.vt.edu/~history/Jobs.html Woz received the National Medal of Technology in 1985.
After leaving Apple with $45 million in 1985, people would always ask him for money. Woz had donated about 7 million to charities. Then he developed a company called Cloud 9, making remote controlled devices. He brought the first universal remote control device to market in 1987.
Today, Wozniak is 55 years old and lives in Los Gatos California. It is 15 miles south of Apple headquarters. His kids attend Los Gatos schools where Woz taught 5th grade students and was involved in more charitable activities in the field of education. His goals were to be an engineer and teach 5th grade, and that is what he did.
Wozniak has written an autobiography titled “iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.” It was released this fall and is now available.
Back in 1976 Wozniak was asked how he thought a personal computer would change people’s lives. He responded by saying that they did believe that computers would fit into every home because of the price and would be used for normal home things, like recipes and checkbook balancing. He didn’t expect the magnitude of the revolution. Millions of lives were affected all over the world. He didn’t set out to change the world, he was just doing what he loved. He made the best product he could. But he did change the world, his creations have exploded.
Woz was also asked about Apple and he said Apple was not the company he hoped it would be. He worked at HP and Apple, but it was HP that was “composed of top engineers and multiple labs full of scientists developing new devices out of physics and chemistry”. http://ei.csvt.edu
Woz still maintains some of the hacker ethics. Since the Viet Nam war and the draft lottery, Woz has never trusted authority even though he has met lots of good people in the government. While Wozniak made the blue box, he was an ethical phone phreak who paid for his own calls. The blue box was used for the real mission of phone phreaking: not to steal or mess up the system, but to find flaws, curious things and secrets the phone company never told anyone about.
It was really interesting studying Steve Wozniak. Not only was he an extremely intelligent person, but he also has a good sense of humor. I wonder what computer technology would be like today if it wasn’t for Steve Wozniak.














Bibliography
Levy, Steven. Hackers. 1984. Delta Publishing
Wozniak, Steve, with Smith Gina. iWoz. 2006. W.W. Norton & Company
The Seattle Times, Business & Technology. Q&A with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. By John Boudreau. April 10, 2006
Srivastava, Manish. Steven Wozniak. http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/WOZNIAK.HTM
Wikipedia. Steve Wozniak. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wozniak