I’m posting my notes from Steve Wozniak’s talk at North Carolina State University on Saturday. Depending on your knowledge of Apple and Woz, you may find some interesting attitudes and ideas. I heard some news, some insight, and a great deal about him personally. All in all, very worthwhile and interesting – be sure to check out the Q&A at the end, as that’s where most of the meat is to be found. Notes on these notes:
These were taken as speaking occurred using 12” AlBook. I’ve made very little effort to edit these,
only correcting glaring misspellings. A few times when I felt it was necessary and had not been
able to type fast enough, I’ve added comments for context in parentheses.
Woz spoke mainly about his personal experience and views on where tech has been, then
cut off rather abruptly to take questions. The Q&A was the more spirited aspect of the talk.
NCSU PackMUG event 4.26.03, McKimmon center, Raleigh, NC
Steve Wozniak speaking
1pm registration
2pm opening remarks, Arman Assa, Pres PackMUG
2:15 intro – Dr. Marye Anne Fox, Chancellor of NC State
2:40 Keynote, Woz, CEO of Wheels of Zeus
3:45 questions & answers Ben McNeely, sec of PackMUG
4:00 closing, Arman
WOZ, Wheels of Zeus – see http://www.woz.com/press/012302.html for press release /
description of company
Attendance appears to be around the 600 expected.
Only one iChat person available via Rendezvous, no Hydra participants available to
share in my notetaking, two wireless basestations visible in Airport., one secured one
not.
Arman Assa:
Assa is graduating senior in comp science
Excited to be welcoming chancellor, Woz
intro to…
Marye Anne Fox:
Chancellor – NCSU, a leader in science and tech
Woz contributions to world, technology;
transition to tech related to personal computer, empowerment in career and
collaborations, gov’t and univ – changed way university education conducted
all the way down to elementary level
Thanks to PackMUG for organizing presentation
Required persistence to get Woz – he has chosen to come to ncsu b/c dedicated to
tranformation of education, dedication to spirit of students
visionary
Homebrew computer club to now, shown innovation and revolutionary spirit
Because colleges come together and are early adopters, place for innovation and new
technology – using tech to improve quality of learning
Technology based education = NCSU
Entrepeneurial spirit transforms what we do in education
Thanks, Steve for being here…
Arman:
thanks to chancellor, intro to Steve
bit of history, this is first visit to NCSU hosted by student technology groups is
appropriate
He is engineer, entrepreneur – designed and built Apple’s early models
Transition from private development to philanthropist, dedication to education
Founded EFF
2002 founded WOZ — consumer wireless products with goal of appealing to everyone
Thanks for coming
Steve Wozniak:
“There are 3 things certain in life: death taxes and spam.”
time when no computers
old tech – TV’s and radios on tubes, chips unheard of
Silicon Valley was just an orchard
trees came down, buildings went up
spent childhood playing with circuits and popular electronics – TV’s came with
schematics – you could go to grocery store to buy repair tubes
Tech has become less familiar.
Tom Swift Jr – developed what was needed to solve problems of world
books give direction forever – “SOS at Midnight”, “Toms Swift”, inspired
In 6th grade took up ham radio – Morse code – like early internet – communication
using technology over distance
build it yourself kits
early science fairs building electronics for science fair
learning logic through electronics to do science fair
Woz can beat most people at tic tac toe using psychological tactics. Played all
permutations of tic tac toe when learning it.
no idea at that time what computer was, that this would lead to what has passed
brought up to believe that world could be better and that teachers are important to that
goals – first to be engineer like father, second to be teacher
always disliked that best tech was mainly for military and others, exclusive, not for
people
discovered article by father about early computers – boolean logic and monitors
easy math and logic key
next learned binary logic
decided to build adder/subtractor in 8th grade
very personal stories so far, leading toward divergence of tech from privately held to
reach people more broadly
detailing early learning experiences available to everyone – school, real world
mechanics
very attentive crowd – a few digital cameras, a few laptops – some digital video – is
being streamed real-time onto web
in high school learning electronics
teacher helping him find his first computer, learning fortran etc – knights tour of chess,
first program: did what it was supposed to , but would take longer than universe would
be around to complete task he wanted
involving approaches, thinking, problem solving
started designing computer before regular people could afford the parts – started
collecting tech parts from everywhere
wherever bright people are there are doors open – would sneak into stanford on
Sundays to use machines
pulled out cards from library copies of manuals and ordered manuals not available to
normal people
received no reward, no grades – rewards inside – never thought he could be designing
computers then, too good to be true
racing against self to build better each week
then goal changed to how small could he get it
next discovered instructions and began to work on smaller instruction sets
if designing own product, can develop for fewer parts (theme of not knowing what can’t
be done is prevalent)
picked college for snow – go where you fell, you will achieve as much not matter what
school you end up at
in college writing programs on comp, ended up running his class 5 times over budget
for all the paper and punch cards he printed – so left school rather than have to pay.
Comm college in Ca.
designed first comp on first job – called it the cream soda computer
soon after intro to Steve jobs – same interests – electronics and pranks
bomb scare – put metronome in locker = principal ran out to football field and tried to
dismantle it – when door to box opens, ticking sped up, just for extra punch
pong designed around home TV use – have to have pc at home he thought
had to be company to buy a chip then, too expensive, hard to get
bought first chips
thought “had start of apple in my hands”
homebrew club grew to about this size (pointing to audience gathered, about 600)
originally hoped people could use computer for organizing protests – other socially
conscious causes
first chats with terminals at homebrew
closest thing to hacking he ever did – dumping polish jokes into bb chat for terminal /
homebrew club
nasty letter from Bill Gates re coping books etc from club library
all of his stories seem geared toward the idea of user friendliness and moving forward
– always better than whatever was available – using what is available – ie, better
engineering
“talk about open source” – we used to pass out schematics of what we built
more stories about Apple genesis, from homebrew to first comp
Steve jobs “more ethereal”, Woz “more normal”.
had fun doing free phone stuff – ran into Capt. Crunch – FBI hadn’t caught him yet
Story: car broke down, used blue box to dial out at pay phone, cops arrive – both very
nervous – what is it they ask, Woz says music synthesizer
They look at it, say “sorry, guy named moog beat you to it”
dial a joke seemed like first chat room – only way for him to meet people – met first wife
that way, she dialed in and he insulted her
capt curnch stories – friends at that time
– crunch introed him to playing computers over phone at chess
more stories, then abrupt end; very little of Apple era, mostly his genesis as an
engineer, what brought him up to invent Apple II.
Open up for questions
q – tell us about origin of apple logo
it was multi-colored apple – we have color and they don’t …
q – views on open source
motivation same as mine , getting more done , academics contribute more – get
bogged down in corporations delays innovation
q – are you happy with where pc is today
could have gone further – feature-itis, business considerations caused
problems, ui guidelines gone or less important than ever
q – could there be a third platform company outside of Apple and Microsoft
yes, there could be more, Apple & MS different enough to scare people from
switching too much – but third one could always arise
q – Wheels of Zeus, what is?
can’t talk about it yet, well known names will be selling them, consumer devices
(implied Nokia or other European wireless company involvement)
q – Is Woz an engineer at WOZ
not spending time engineering, but evaluating – does scripts, test programs a bit
– guiding technologies mainly
q – convergence – where is it going, share with crowd neat things he’s seen
i’m a gadgeteer, love all the devices, pdas, – none have equaled the newton;
desciption of newton – seems sad that it went away, still waiting for non
complication – uses the Sony-Ericsson clicker and loves it to control his Mac
q – where do you see computers aiding aerospace industry
not current on subject, but has always involved computers, but don’t know
where it is going
q – Leo Schwartz?
tech tv – met him, nice guy … (pointless question?)
q – when should kids star learn to program – (kid asking question)
7th grade is best, 5th and 6th don’t get it , but 7th do – programming – cognitive
development symbolic reasoning helps by 7th that isn’t there in 5th, 6th
q – Apple and Universal, how to deal with mp3 phenom
Apple is going to part of the commercial world there – sad, can’t tape tv shows
etc (seems sympathetic to mp3s) – apple is going to fit into doing online music
the right way – Woz says not good sources – says “we’ll do it for a buck a
song” (don’t think he was supposed to reveal that before the official
announcement… )
q – comment on brushed metal theme running amok
doesn’t bother me – changing look is a good thing, some decisions don’t make
sense, but it’s progress – (why don’t you just change it to something you like is
his attitude)
q – where do you see future of computing in education
class of kids with teacher with personality – computer teacher – (AI thoughts?)
don’t see it happening yet – schools much more efficient, with problem solving
teacher instead of leading teacher (he seems to imply a teacher to facilitate, but
computer to do actual instruction – teacher helps individuals as computer leads
class as whole…)
q – eff –founding
civil rights was a reason, freedom, not appropriate to talk about here, but very
personal, wanted to get off board when political motivations took over, but still
believes in cause (he seemed a bit wary of wading into political discussion or
comments)
q – programming ages – when should it be taught was thought, not one child – does it
have more to do with predispositin, or cognitive devel (questioner says started
programming at 8yrs old, is challenging Woz’s earlier statement – he missed the point
of earlier statement IMHO)
both, depends a great deal on person, but as a group its a problem for some
younger kids, on an individual basis can happen young
q – is hardware mattering less, software more
Macintosh ushered software changes, now we’re moving to software being
main difference between platforms and programming requirements – hardware
converging
q – impact of computer on society – how should we shape society with tech
don’t think about it much, can’t stop computers, video games etc, – can’t stop
tech from evolving (Woz alludes to video game violence, piracy online –
suggests these things will always take place, but can be guided – can’t be
stomped out)
q – music apple will follow laws – diminish fair use rights, copying from devices – where
does sympathy lie – experimenter or copywriter
good values are important – some rights confuses issue with music, teaching
values is important piece – wrong to have machine that can do it, but disable it
though – again, technology finds a way
q – disabilities and ease of use – born with cerebral palsy, want to say appreciate
everything Apply has done to make able to use technology – thank you
Woz you’re welcome, wish I’d been more involved in those efforts (looks slightly
uncertain how to respond)
q – apple 2gs – did you design, what was it
designed in 82-83, outsold IBM etc, ads sold apple 3, but wasn’t apple 3 in
picture (?) 2gs got designed, was around, took ideas from 2gx, was given
credit, but wasn’t one of engineers (didn’t follow this exchange very well, as the
questioner and Woz spoke at same time)
q – what is best intro language (programming)
tough to comment, I’m more of a hardware guy – but Basic is good to start,
makes more sense at first
q – apple market share – issue of that – tech, ease of use – why is everyone afraid of
Mac
changes don’t happen overnight , slow change, people learn one platform and
then don’t want to switch fast – sometimes important to be different – and “our
computers work better”
didn’t thinks ads (Switch) would be effective but they have been more than
expected
q – Apple elitist?
a little true, but part of it is appearances – have to be more passionate due to
differences and struggle – Mac users know we have a specialness – “does
every pc owner have a great pc?”
q – laptops and classroom learning, how are they best to approach that
research is spotty, support is poor -but computer is most important tool in
educational life – but we don’t teach it, real deep knowledge of it.
expectation is higher with computers, so work is better at times vs. work done by
hand (i.e., a teacher will grade easier on work done in handwriting because of
implied flaws)
q – design , biggest challenge to making design important (follow up question re:
changing the world of design)
ah! (seems unsure how to answer, amiably exasperated) “I did what I do , why is
everyone shaking my hand” … changing world, just an idea – but hard to see
early on – hard to predict where it will go, “but we did what we could”
q — ham radio?
“no, my license is expired”, not the same anymore, you don’t buy and build
anything anymore, not what i want
q – have you voided warranty on your Tivo yet –
“ I’ve voided warranty on several Tivo’s” – “I like it and watch it, i have one in my
hummer” with broadband and XM for road trip.
q – favorite polish joke –
pc is everywhere these days, stereotype comments get you in trouble – “what
do you call call four Mexicans in quicksand – Quattro Cinco”… “I took a lot of
heat for that one” –
“when did the pollack die drinkng milk? when the cow sat down. – it’s a blond
joke now”
q – classic vs quantum computing – how long before reality, is Apple pursuing
not up on it, one of those offshoot that will never happen.. haven’t seen anything
to suggest that it will become reality, some things possible (mentions cold
fusion), but not happen on usable scale
q – manuals for apple 2e
ebay
q – personal life
email, basketball – season tickets again this year, concerts – “I own an
amphitheatre” – listen to xm, road trips, summer in kansas – play Tetris really
well
q – describe typical day
wake at 6, only one kid in school now, email at home = work at nine, or go to
work at 730, then mostly email: lots of mac email, company business, deal with
requests for appearances – moving into new home, so packing boxes, movies
late at night, sleep all day one day on weekend, go to movie and restaurant on
other day
q – true called pope?
said was Henry Kissinger, used accent with bishop – while on hold, he checked
it out, called him on it , said they’d just been speaking to Kissinger.
q – went back to school?
yes got degree in name of rocky raccoon clark… wanted to tell kids he went to
college… “seems to be the only famous computer guy who went to college”
q – iBox? comments – good or bad to have clones
looks safer to have simple Mac, not confusion – not a great thing – we (Apple)
were ripped off by licensing – discovered that the way to make money was tight
control – better world with a little more cost as result
Thanks!!!
evanz 